RPM is a tough sock
Not hard to do, but it likes to act all tough. I mean, look at it. You put it over your hand to get a photo, and it acts all mean and like Kenickie trying to protect his piece-of-crap car.
This, my friends, is how much you can get done while you’re lounging around in France, riding a train from Brive -la-Gaillarde (home of some excellent mustard) to Toulouse, and flying from Toulouse to Paris to Houston and THEN also knitting two days later as you fly from Dallas to Houston.
My hands are still a little stiff, actually.
I’m getting there, though, and then I can package the sock up with the goodies. I need to add some more fun little things to this package … hmm.
France, we have progress!
Well, I couldn’t very well say, “Houston, we have a problem,” now could I? First of all, I’m not in Houston right now, which leads to secondly, there is no problem! Yes, many of my problems can be solved by just leaving Houston, it seems. I’ve suspected this all along and I’m glad to get some confirmation.
Anyway …
So while I sat on the plane from Houston - George Bush to Paris - Charles De Gaulle, I fiddled with my yarn and new needles and cast on the pattern I had quickly printed before leaving as an alternative to the toe-up @#%$ards that I’d tried before. I will return to those some day, I really will. Just not until I’m sitting next to Adelle and she can tell me exactly what it is that I’m doing wrong with these socks.
Lo and behold, it worked. I knit knit knit for a few hours, only slightly troubled by the messy yarn cake that I wound out of this lovely yarn. It will definitely be re-wound once I’m home and before it goes out to my sock sister for completion. I knit and knit and knit … and finally fell asleep for several hours. This was momentous, because I never sleep on international flights. I guess the glass of champagne, little airplane bottle of wine, and two Excedrin PM finally worked. (Don’t start … for some reason medications and alcohol don’t affect me at all the same way as they do on the ground. They simply DON’T work on me. Last time I had prescription sleeping pills and was still wide awake for the entire flight!)
The pattern is fun, it is easy to memorize, and you just fly right through it. The cameraphone doesn’t show the colors well, but they are some pretty blues, greens, and greys. It’s more Blackwatch than what I’d think of as Lagoon, but oh well. :)
So my Sock Sister, if she’s figured out who I am, can rest assured that she will actually get a sock from me! I promise not to leave this one on the airplane.
Socks & Erin … mutually exclusive?
If anyone has been looking for evidence that my brain has ceased functioning properly, look no further.
My Hurricane Sock Sister’s yarn got here and I wound it up (although I might need to re-wind it … that ball is a little messy on bottom) and got all set to start knitting the pattern I’d picked.
Well, the toe-up socks … they defeat me. I cannot grasp the toe-up cast-on. Apparently it is something beyond my feeble knitting powers. I work and work and work at the cast-on. Dell even shoots a little video to show me how to do it, and I still end up with sloppiness that looks nothing like the toe of a sock. I check my needles and see a 2.0 on them. “A-ha!” I think. “I’m knitting with the wrong needles! I was supposed to be using size 0s, and I have clearly picked up the size 2s.”
(Knitters, I know. Just wait.)
So I put the sock down and search fruitlessly for the size 0s Dell had just sent me from New York. Because, you know, that’s easier than driving all the way across Houston to find a yarn store. Seriously, Houston. Could you PLEASE get a decent yarn store in the Clear Lake area? I know I’m totally spoiled by Woolie Ewe in Dallas, but can’t you come up with something that doesn’t involve half a tank of gas and a day’s field trip for me to get to?
Anyway, I search and I search and I search, and they are nowhere to be found. I do find some wonderful blue and white, stretchy Elann … umm … what’s it called? Esprit Print, I think. You know — the sock one like Cascade Fixation. “A-ha!” I think. “Cotton will be much more comfortable than wool for my poor Southern, hurricane-suffering sock sister.” I find another pattern, I cast on — even checking to find a good, stretchy cast-on instead of just winging it. I thought I’d be extra careful since these are for someone else. I’ve dug up some DPNs even though I hate knitting with DPNs, all because my size 4 circs are in my second Thuja. I check my needles with my needle sizer and they are yea, verily, size 4. Handy needle sizer thing, what?
(Yes, I know. Hold on to that needle sizer bit.)
And then, when I’m rechecking the pattern for the cuff, I realize this is supposed to be on size 3s. “No problem,” I think. “I’m only two rows in, I can switch back to my friendly size 3 bamboo circs.” Except not, because bamboo needles + this yarn = hell.
Completely frustrated, I go wandering around the apartment again, searching for needles. I go through the stash basket and the UFO basket and the notions/stash/random crap basket in the living room. Still no needles. I sigh and begin packing for France, thinking that I have completely let down my sock sister, and I have no idea what I’ll do next. I resolve to just find another pattern for the original yarn and the size 2 needles, and I stuff it in my carry-on tote.
And then I look at the needles.
And I notice that the size on them is, in fact, 2.0 … millimeters.
And I pull out the needle sizer, and yea, verily, these are the size 0 needles I have spent DAYS searching for.
And I call myself a dumbass.
And I begin searching the internet for an alternate pattern to include with my original pattern, because surely in 15 hours of traveling to Toulouse, France, I will get SOMETHING done for my sock sister.
Missing Sock Report
I seem to be incapable of keeping track of socks that I’m actually enjoying knitting.
This specimen — known as “Jaywalker” to friends and family — was last seen on Southwest Airlines flight 57 on Sunday, June 25. It was accompanied by scribbled-up pattern instructions, some size 2 Addi Turbos, and some Southwest drink coupons. All seem to have gone missing at the same time because someone (ahem) forgot them in the seatback pocket.
We are hoping that all of the Jaywalker friends can be recuperated at Hobby airport on Friday, but we’re resigning ourselves that we now have no Jaywalker, no Addis, and a lonely skein of KnitPicks Sock Garden in Geranium.
*sigh*
Darn it!
Thuja! I found it!
Look, Dell! I finally finished a sock! Aren’t you proud of me?
Thuja has been languishing under a pillow in my armchair for over a week. I couldn’t figure out where it had gotten off to after I got home from … Dallas! That’s the last airplane I’d been on with it. Anyway. I couldn’t remember where it was, and I was annoyed about that because the only thing left was grafting the toe. So tonight I hunted it down, found a video to help me with Kitchener. I still like three-needle bind-off better, but I didn’t know if it was “acceptable” for socks.
And look! It all worked. And it’s soft, and it’s comfy, and it’s warm. That last bit is not something I really want in Houston right now, though, so Thuja and I wanted a little bit of cooler weather. We had to settle for watching Carolina score yet again on Edmonton.
It’s intermission now, though, so Thuja decided to meet Clive. All good dormousie knitting products must pass under the Whiskered One’s inspection. He is thrilled.
(Most of) one skein of yarn down! Wow … it’s going to take a while to get through this stash …
Jaywalking on a plane …
Socks are a lot better as traveling companions than sitting-at-home knitting. I’ve managed to start two socks and make significant progress while sitting on airplanes. They fold up well — I’m using only Magic Loop because the 80-point DPN triangulation makes me want to hurt someone. They’re soft. They give you an instant “Cool …” factor when people ask what you’re knitting, you tell them, and they can immediately recognize the thing that’s dangling from your pointy objects.
My problem, as always, is just finishing the darn things. I have a Thuja ready for toe grafting but I can’t find the blasted sock. I know it’s somewhere in my living room, but I have no idea where. That’s why I now also have one-third of a Jaywalker. (I’ve made progress since I took this picture and sent it to Adelle from the airplane stop.) It’s on a different needle size, you see, so I’m able to get going with it. I just need to actually FINISH an entire pair, and I’ll feel much better.
Still not entirely sold on knitting socks all the time at home, though. I still have an Eris that needs to be finished, an Audrey that should have been knit last year, and a couple of other things. I do have a ball winder and swift now, though, so that should help!!
And yes, these socks are all from stash. Yay me!
Cavern of unfinished socks
Okay, so now my brother has two unfinished socks in my possession. I get so far in a sock and then suddenly I’m attacked by rampant knitter’s paranoia. Is this the wrong yarn for this project? Is this pattern completely off? Will this sock be any good, or will he be making sock puppets for the cats out of it?
The first sock just seemed to be too stretchy and too small. The second attempt at a sock seems to be way too long in the foot and not long enough in the … what do you call that bit at the top? The body? The pipe? The bit at the top? I also think I might run out of yarn since I only have two skeins.
I need a pattern for men’s socks. I know he’s a size 10 shoe, and I need a real pattern that will tell me how much yarn I need and how far to knit on the different parts. Anyone have suggestions?
Couch o’ Knitting
The couch in my Houston apartment has the advantage of rarely seeing a cat around. Since it’s also where I park my rear after work every day, it’s turned into the designated knitting location for my time down here. I can’t tell you how many movies and tv series I’ve watched while sitting there and knitting away.
Since I do most of my knitting here, most of my yarn and needles have migrated here as well. The good thing about the traveling between cities and staying in a hotel was that I focused on one project and kept it with me until it got too big to travel. Now, though … well, look at that couch! I’ve gone from a mostly-finisher to a chronic starter!
You’ve got the blue, green, and purple Therapy Clapotis at the top left; I knit that one almost every night because the pattern is such a soothing repetition. That beautiful black wrap? It’s the long-awaited Cozy, finally getting close to completion. I started on the last ball of yarn this weekend and made the decision to bring the extra-large suitcase this week so I could transport it down here. (Yes, I packed based on my knitting. Lord.)
Top right corner is Samantha, and you can see that I’ve started unraveling the neck shaping so I can rework it … and then I got scared/frustrated/etc. and left it on the back of the couch. (That’s also Clive’s spot to sleep when he’s down here, so I’m glad he’s in Dallas. I would have to actually do something with Samantha if he were here.) I’m also not excited about Samantha because Kailyn is the size of many eight month old babies and she’s only three and a half months old. She’s VERY tall. Well, she started life at almost 9.5 pounds, so what did I expect?
So then we have, on the couch seat, Phillip’s sock, a new baby sweater for yet another baby, and a pile of KnitPicks self-striping sock yarn for — you guessed it — even more baby sweaters. Oh, and some Geranium sock yarn because I love it. There’s also a Rowan magazine hiding under that pile with the pattern for Audrey. The yarn for that is slowly making its way up here, too.
I just need to focus, I know, but I keep wanting to start new and fun things. Btw, I’m still waiting for the sock love to strike. My next ones might have to have a pattern to make me care about them.
Sock 2.0
I’ve started on socks again, trying to supplement the knitting with video-watching so that I don’t get too bored. I have to say that sock knitting is nice for something to do while you’re doing something else; other than that, I’m not too fond of it yet.
I’m using the Pocket Reference Sock Pattern, and it’s been easy enough to understand. I think I need to go back to the full version, though, because I’m really not understanding what to do at the end of the heel and the next part of the sock. So … yay, socks?
Cozy on up to me.
I never did post an update on Cozy and my cousin’s wedding, did I? Oops!
I ended up not finishing the wrap in time for the wedding. I was up to three feet by noon on the day of the wedding, and I’d already warned Mom that it wasn’t looking good for getting finished. She called at 12:30 and said that she’d found a substitute, so my fingers and hands finally got to rest. I’d been knitting almost all of my waking time since 2:00 p.m. the previous day!
I still haven’t really picked it back up. I did a few more rows, maybe a complete pattern repeat, but I just needed a break.
So I started on Phillip’s socks.
I’ve gotten halfway through the heel flap on the first one. I have to hand it to the sock knitters … it’s nice and easy, and a basic sock is mindless knitting that’s still enjoyable. I’m already afraid, though, that this yarn won’t be good for socks even though it’s a sock yarn. It stretches a lot, see, and there’s no elastic in it.
We’ll see. Onward and toeward!
