Snow…

Mid-morning Wednesday it started to snow. Big, heavy, wet flakes filled the sky and started to collect on the ground. I was completely grumpy and wearing the wrong shoes. Walking to my lunch-hour class was not fun as I slid down slushy sidewalks. After class let out, it was still snowing. Some jackass threw a snowball at one of his friends and missed - hitting me in the head. As I slid my way uphill, a SUV too big for the narrow campus lanes splashed the dirty slush that collects in the gutters onto the crowded sidewalks, soaking my khaki trousers (and my fellow students). I went from grumpy to down right angry.

When I returned to work, I sent the Mr. an email detailing the events of the last hour and a half. Later that evening, when my spirits finally lifted (thanks in large part to a Mexican dinner date with the Mr.), he joked that it was a miracle my email made it through the spam filters - it was the first time I had used the “fuck word”* that many times in an email.

To further lift my spirits, I successfully knit a short row heel onto my Cherry Tree Hill SuperSock. Could it be the perfect end to a not-so-perfect day?

The pictures I promised earlier:

Beginning of Embossed Leaves

exhausted dye

exhausted shitty kitty

finished Kool Aid yarn

closeup

*Growing up the “F word” was always fuck in my house. Being in Utah with some very conservative neighbors (not the cows - they were pretty liberal and open-minded), the “F word” I always got into trouble for saying was fart. Yes, fart. So, when I was old enough to say fuck without getting into serious trouble, I began to ask for clarification - do you mean the “fuck word” or the “fart word”? The Mr. finds this just as funny as I do. Clearly, we are a match made in non-Mormon Utah dwelling heaven.

Socks, Socks, Socks…

A little over a year ago, I decided to be brave and venture out of my house to meet other knitters. One fateful Tuesday in December, I went to my first Stitch n’ Bitch where I met Susan, Margene and Laurie. All three were knitting socks and Susan insisted that I too would be knitting socks someday. Me? Socks? Yeah, right. Sure thing. I’ll get right on that.

A few months later, my curiosity continued to be perked by the socks that flew off the needles of these three amazing women. One night, Susan showed the group how to start a toe up short row sock - provisional cast on and all. Mental notes were taken, worsted weight yarn was purchased (I highly recommend knitting a first sock out of a larger weight yarn) and the internets combed in search of a sock pattern. A few weeks later, I had my first sock. Second Sock Syndrome (”SSS”) set it and it took a month and a half to finish sock number two. Before actually knitting a sock or two, I thought SSS was a bullshit excuse for Startitis, but I have felt it with every pair of socks I’ve knit - sock number one can fly off the needles, sock number two takes two to three times longer, yet I have no interest in working both socks at once. Why does number two take so long? Why is the sky blue? Why is Kally so shitty?

For 2006 I have the following socks planned, all from stash:

1. Cherry Tree Hill socks. I started working Nancy Bush’s Conwy back in December, after finishing BIL(2). One month later, I hadn’t reached the heel shaping of the first sock. The pattern and yarn colorway combination just wasn’t working for me. Conwy has been frogged and I decided to go with something simple for this particular yarn. Hello picot and stockinette.

2. Embossed Leaf Socks with Nature’s Palette. I am completely copying Margene on this one, though I didn’t realize it when I bought the yarn - the same day, place and time that Margene bought her yarn.

3. Koigu socks. Not quite sure what I’m going to do with this lovely yarn other than turn it into socks. I may try Conwy.

4. Jaywalker - maybe, baby. Several years ago, I bought a monster cone of fingering weight wool on ebay. I don’t know what to do with all of it, but I do know I have more than enough to make several pairs of socks. I found this tutorial, have made a swatch, done the math, wound the mother of a skein, purchased the kool aid (learning the hard way that self-check out is not the way to purchase twenty-one packets of kool aid), gathered together my mason jars, and…

I haven’t done anything else. I may wait for warm weather and let the yarn soak in the sun for a few days rather than cooking with a crock pot (stove top seems like an unnecessary fire hazard, too short to use the microwave for anything other than popcorn).

5. Mr. socks. The Mr. really liked the yarn I used for BIL and I have almost a full ball, so I’ll be making toe up ankle socks for him. I think I’m going to have to tackle the two at once thing to ensure I don’t run out of yarn, again (see BIL(2) above).

Raise your paw if you’re ready for 200SOX!