purlsandmurmers

Blue Socks

I've been making better progress with knitting than I have with photographing or blogging.

 The blue socks were finished about 10 days ago, and then, because Moisés thinks that hand knit socks are toys to be chased around the house and tackled, they were neatly put in a drawer.

I wore them over the weekend with my boots while I was out working in the garden and they were quite comfortable.

Blue Socks:

No pattern was used.  Picot hem at tops.  For the heel shaping I used Luni's boomerang heel technique, described here.  These variations on short row heels, boomerange and yo-yo as Luni describes them, tend to be my preferred versions, depending on the yarn I am using.  I knitted the heel on 60% of the stitches, to a fairly narrow point as I have narrow heels.

The toe shaping was done primarily on one side creating left and right socks.  I find this works better for me; the socks fit more snugly and they don't twist or creep around when I put on boots, or while I am wearing them, making the sock and the boot far more comfortable.  

All in all, these are successful socks and I will wear them, even if they were a fairly boring knit.  I prefer a striping or patterned yarn if I am knitting a stockinette sock just because watching the colors change is endlessly entertaining.   Apparently I am rather simply entertained.

Full Steam Ahead

There has been regular knitting.

The chair situation has been at least temporarily resolved; permanent resolution will require the acquisition of a new chair, which,  although necessary, ranks behind a new front walk and some front yard landscaping.

I have finished the body of ruby bubbles and hope to have it on the blocking board in the next day or two.  I need to wind another skein of yarn into a ball so I can start the sleeves, but I should be able to manage that, either today or tonight at knitting.  You should be getting pictures of the blocking sweater shortly.

 The second of the blue socks is nearly complete and will be finished today or tomorrow.   I had a minor setback in that I somehow messed up the short-row sequencing on the heel and had to rip it out and do it again.  I did the first half of the heel without a hitch, the short rows in toward the point of the heel, and had knit a normal row, picking up the wraps, following the technique for the boomerang heel and was ready to start knitting short rows back out toward the foot.  

The plan was to go to bed at that point, but a piece of furniture had fallen on my big toe earlier in the day and it was throbbing rather uncomfortably, rendering me unable to fall asleep, so I stayed up to knit some morel.  I ended up falling asleep in my chair just as I finished the heel, or so I thought.

Actually, rather than knitting short rows in and then back out again, forming a heel, I had knit short rows in, knit my even rows and then knit short rows in a second time, creating an interesting structure that had nothing to do with the shape of a human foot.   Luckily it was rather easily ripped and reknit.

I am happy the socks are nearly done as I have had my issues with this yarn and these socks.  Even though I am satisfied with how they are turning out, I would rather knit something a bit more interesting, either with a pretty yarn or an interesting pattern.  And I might even want to play with structural knitting using short rows to create interesting textures, but not until I get a little more caught up with the various WIPs and UFOs.

I made a mistake

I made a mistake and now I am paying the price.

When we were in negotiations for the current rearrangement of the house, the biggest arguments were over furniture.  I'm in "less is more" category in terms of furniture; my spouse is in the "never let it go" camp.  When we needed something, or something didn't work, we would buy another something, but the old one would stay behind too, "just in case".  I felt like I was living in a furniture warehouse.  It really wasn't that bad, but it felt that way to me.

So when we were creating our little 'tv nook" and picked our chairs, I had planned two chairs, a his and hers kind of scenario.  G wanted his chair.  But he also wanted his other chair, the one he never sat in to watch tv but sometime sat in.  He wasn't willing to choose even though the springs are shot on the old chair, the arms are falling off, and it is held together by bolts and rubber bands, yes rubber bands.  I wanted my own chair, but I also wanted fewer chairs. And I didn't want to discuss it anymore.  So I caved.

But although I can sit in these chairs for a short time.  I am not comfortable sitting and knitting.  So I haven't been knitting much while we watch television in the evenings.  I get up and down a lot, move around, fiddle.  It is not particularly conducive to knitting.  And during the day I am doing other things, not knitting things.  As you would expect, there has been little knitting progress on my own projects,  We have spent some time on G's project, but at 5 to 10 stitches per hour, it is still slow going.

I recently learned however that I can pad one of the chairs with a few bed pillows and get moderately comfortable.  I can knit this way, so there is hope. I picked up the ruby bubbles cardigan and am working on it again.

G recently commented that the old chair really is uncomfortable, that it is hard and lumpy, and that it falls apart when one tries to move it.   I don't think he is ready to give it up yet, but the idea is germinating.   So now, when I shift the pillows around in my chair to prepare for an evening of knitting, I smile to myself because I know I'll have my own knitting chair yet.