There Be Sock In The House Tonight

Damn straight! I finished it while re-watching the best parts of "Julie and Julia" - the bits with Stanley and Meryl in it.




My other foot is rather envious to be without a sock...






This is what's left of one skein:




And now on to the other sock and skein:




Hell, yes! I'm moving on to the other sock. I hope to have it finished by the end of January.




January 2011, thank you very much.

What A Pain In The Ass

But what a beautiful way to close a toe or heel on a sock!




When done right, it's like a knitting miracle.

The other knitting miracle, beyond EZ, is Knitting Help.

Can I Get A Witness?

Dudes. Heel gospel according to Elizabeth Zimmerman!

From this:





To this:







To this:







And now, time for me to get down:

And Lo, There Was An Aggrieved Silence...

Then much smiting and swearing the blue streak.

I was feeling fine with the CB socks, even to the point I cut the sock for the leg opening ( I'm going to refer to it as quasi-steeking).












The skirmish that began at 10 pm and didn't end until I admitted defeat at 12:30 am is the fucking heel. AGAIN.

I did not shred the sock.

I did not burn the book.

Although I was close on both counts.

As I was washing my face and brushing my teeth for bed (swearing a blue streak) I realized it's not the pattern that's the problem, but the way my foot is shaped. Very wide and very long.

So I'm going to ignore the CB method for the heel. Where I should begin decreasing, I'll use EZ's after-thought heel method.

For now, and this is not for the weak of stomach or heart, let's look at the carnage:


This is not a heel for a human being. Maybe the start of one for the Kraken, but not for a human.



Look at this, will you? You could fit a small limb in there!



In fact, I thought about tentacles when I looked at this fiasco.


So I began the tedious process of tinking:




All the way back to many rows prior to the "heel" line that was supposed to be so wonderful in helping me place a heel without much fuss. RIGHT.




The sock with at 12:23 a.m. today:




The sock and items at 12:30 a.m. (I did contemplate vile and violent methods for a total of 6 minutes. It only took one minute to throw it in the project bag.)




And Tank? During all this drama? Pretty nonplussed about it all:

Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a sock knitter!

Bones was always my favorite on the show...

Progress is slow, but so far, little swearing has occurred during the one set of increases recommended by the pattern book.




However, I've had to mark myself up:




I felt absolutely foolish doing such a thing. For socks! I mean, it's not a medical procedure, is it?

Then I remembered how my other socks turned out and I felt less foolish for trying something new - that might actually work.

Here's the progress to date:




I have a wee bit more to go before the next "Major Step" in this sock knitting business.

But isn't this a great looking sock so far?








And I am just *loving* the yarn. I can't tell you how much it makes me happy. Of course, this is happiness is tinged with the ludicrous hope that this time, this time by the knitting gods, I may actually have socks that I knit which fit nicely and are not boring to knit.

This may be asking too much in the hope department.

Then again, I did get married three times.

I can justify hope in any situation.

No Rest

I disturbed the Tank's beauty rest when I was running the vac around during chores this morning...




Poor thing.


I'm so weary.

Bloody Damn Socks - Bringing Knitters Together

I've been noticing something interesting about my sock war - which is really just a war with myself in my overblown expectation that I should be perfect at knitting socks after three pairs, but we'll get to that in another post and when there's more liquor on the table - is the community that has sprung up around me in support.

I have human feet (thankfully) that are great for me. They get me where I need to go, they are healthy and strong, relatively pain free, and grateful when I remember to put lotion on them. I even have this great space between my first and second toe that makes for excellent flip-flop wearing:




In my recent trials with knitting socks that fit me perfectly and using the proper tools to do so, many have given me ideas on what they do in knitting their socks.



second pair of socks I made - three years ago


Socks really aren't a big deal. Many non-knitters, wishing to save me money, time, and cut down on the torrent of swearing from my home, mention the commercially made socks as a viable alternative. And I do have plenty of those as I'm not ready in any stretch of the imagination to live off the grid here.



Damn Socks in progress


However, so many knitters have told me what works best for them. And very generously offer this information to me. (<-- I mean that sincerely - no snark.) Each person is so kind to let me know that while there may not be the kind of blue haze of cursing floating around them as it does around me, I'm not the only one to go through this kind of frustration.





And that while whatever I'm doing may not work, look at all the potential solutions that are available!





My background in education and work experience is global sociology. Where, when, why and how do people come together? What are the motivations for doing so? What are the outcomes?

It's interesting to see how this creation and participation of a community happens on every level of the human existence. And like in every community, there are polar opposites on each end and then a mixture and melding as one moves toward center.


And one of the many things all communities have in common, is the ability to bring the positive from within themselves to cheer on and support those who are struggling in that community. This type of action among community members creates such things as Doctors Without Borders, Heifer International, KIVA on to the level of the local church, synagogue, or community group helping to alleviate hunger in that community.




And this kind of community even tries to help a knitter drop one less f-bomb while trying to get knit herself a pair of socks that fit.

One Skirmish Won

Today I woke up with a headache. I wish I could say it was the aggrieved state I was in with the sock business, but it's the antibiotics that gives me an outrageous headache by day 8 (out of 10) in the prescription.

Anyway, to make myself feel better, I wore a comfy dress sweater and slacks for work. Then I reached into my sock drawer and pulled out these socks to make me feel better:




These are socks hand knit by the same SnB friend who brought the book to me, refusing to allow me to leave the sock cult with any shred of dignity. The socks are even more lovely and comfy in person.

The Tank approves of these socks:




When it was nearly time for me to leave work today, I called The Yarn Shoppe and found they had the size 2 Addi Turbos in the lengths I was looking for, so I popped over to pick them up. I wasn't going down in this sock war without putting up a fight with the proper equipment.




When I arrived home, the soft and sweet colors of Encore yarn that I ordered for the Tulips cardigan baby sweaters had arrived. I can't wait to knit this sweater for Miss N. up north in these colors!




After some dinner of groovy homemade hummus I whipped up and a lowfat, low carb burrito, and a bit more stroking of the new yarn, I was ready to take on the Bloody Damn Socks once more:




Surprisingly, it went very well.

Of course, I threatened the yarn. I know, such violence and emotion toward an inanimate object - and one that wants nothing more than to do your bidding and make you happy. I seem to be able to pick the one malcontent out of the lot, much like husbands I've had...


I followed the directions from the book and marked the heel accordingly.




Then a few more rounds of plain knitting to bring it to the ball of my foot to see how it felt.


Holy hell! Will you look at how lovely this is now?! And this yarn is beyond charming in its colors...








Of course, now I have the sole to contend with on this sock.

Then marking the ankle spacing in relation to the heel.

Then turning the heel.

Then dealing with the leg opening.

Then sizing the leg.

Then the leg pattern.

So many opportunities to work up a sweat and swearing storm lie ahead.

Socks Can Bite Me

Things were going so well at first:
























Then I got to the part where you figure out if the amount of stitches were either too loose or tight. No problem. Too loose, so I need to frog back to the increase prior to the one I left off and then do plain knitting from there.

I tinked back, slowly, and the next thing I know, we've got this mess and my numbers keep changing with each count:



I believe my exact phrasing was: Oh fuck this!

I frogged the rest of it and threw the whole mess on the table and went to bed with a headache.

I don't even want to look at it this weekend, let alone try it again.