Friday, November 03, 2006

Socktoberfest is over.

My expectations were set too high. My goal was to complete two pairs and start a third one. I finished the Dublin Bay socks as I said before. Aspirations to finishing the Entrelac sock did not come out as planned. I did manage to finish one of the socks up to the grafting of the toe. I stopped to make sure it would be big enough for my friend's foot only to find out I had made it too short. She has a size 6 not 5 foot. Thankfully, I had not cut the yarn and it was still on the two DPNs.

Also, finished was one of the Open Lace Rib socks. I got the pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks and knitted it in Knit Picks Memories "Yukon" merino yarn. The shading of the blues and grays are so nice. I will want to make another pair of socks in a different pattern with this colorway in the future. Plans are to finish these two pairs and then go back to my other UFOs and get them out of the way too.

I am definitely spoiled now as far as socks are concerned. I love the way handmade ones feel on my feet and really hate to go back to store bought.

Unfortunately, thanks to the powers that be on my job, I have no choice. Many CNAs and nurses wear colored sock to match their scrubs. I think this looks fine. Not the bosses. They have mandated only white socks to be worn at work. If your socks are clean, why should anyone care what color they are???? I finally have enough handmade colors to wear to work and this is what happens!!!! Now I need to find a white sock yarn that will appease work. I have found one brand online at Elann that may work. I plan to order enough to make a pair. One of the benefits of my job is after 28 years service, you can retire and get your pension no matter how old you are. I have one more year and will be out of there at 47. Yippee!!! If I don't want to keep all the white socks I now need to knit, I can dye them after retirement as a declaration of freedom. After a while, work should become lax about the socks and then, hopefully, I can wear whatever I feel like.

The first yarn is plied. I tried a sample and it looked like cat yack. After a quick visit to Jonne, I moved the driveband to the larger whorl like he said. This made a big improvement on the plying. Even though the singles were over and under plied, I plan to knit up a little change purse and felt it. Felting it should hide some of my more drastic imperfections. I don't want to throw away the yarn since it is my first attempt. Isabella and Tiger were thinking mommy had a new toy hanging in the kitchen for them. I had hung the yarn on the edge of the top shelf of the baker's rack so it could dry. This proved to be a huge temptation to them. They thought new toy, and, instead got a squirt from the water bottle. Now, the yarn is hanging in the bedroom until I can make it into a center pull ball.

I am looking for a good picture of a spinning wheel I can use as a pattern in stained glass. I want to make one up to hang in the other window of the craft room. I have the pattern for the alpaca already prepped for the first window. Now I can get into the room and move around, thanks to the re-org a few weeks ago. Hopefully, the alpaca can be started soon.

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