F*%#$$%#%#ing Socks

OK.
It is Not fair!
No... really it's NOT
See the picture of the socks in the last post.... oh hang it I will post it here again for pitty sakes...
Just a minute I have to go find the damn thing.....
Ah... here it is...

Now take a close look at this picture..... can you see anything that might possibly be wrong with it?  I mean there's nothing wrong with the picture... albeit it's not the best picture in the world... but I am referring to what is in the picture.... do you see anything wrong with the F@#$#&*ing Socks....

Ah yes....one sock is substantially longer than the other.....@#%$@^$%&%^*^&*^&(&(&$%#$@

Sorry I had a momentary lapse of sense.

Yes it was only after I had posted this picture yesterday that I realized that one sock and another do not always make a pair. The upper sock is lovely. It configures as a sock should... nice shaft.... lovely heel... wonderful instep.... perfect toe....

The lower sock however does not configure as a sock should.... the shaft is alright... yes it looks good... doesn't it.... the heel is fine... I counted the rows.... yep it looks fine. The instep is ok...... yes it is. It's the damn toe.... (cut the bugger off I say!) The toe is far too long and this sock would fit a hobbit for God's sake.

So I had to take out the toe and ravel it back and re-knit the toe... I had repeated the pattern once too many times and so I had to take back the extra repeat in the toe of the sock too and then knit the toe back on.... now it looks right.

Meanwhile the socks in the dye pot.... yeah we're not going there.... at least not tonight... I've done enough swearing for one day. (sigh)

Sock Saga

So the sock saga continues....

I have two pairs finished but I'm in a bit of a quandary because the dye job on the first pair is still not satisfactory. Then the lady who is getting them for Christmas popped by today and there on the coffee table in my living room sat her socks! I didn't draw any attention to them and gently just dropped a knitting basket that I was sorting through on top of the socks and hopefully she didn't notice a thing. So as I sit here tapping out this post I have a pot of dark grey dye brewing.

The socks are not in yet but they are soaking. They will be going from dark forest green to dark grey and I will have to embellish them to purdy them up and bit.  I have an idea for that... add in a little orange embroidery and voila. They will look awesome when I'm done.

Meanwhile socks number 2 came off the needles at 12 midnight last night and so I am working on a little side project that may have something to do with Christmas socks in the end but not sure. Socks number 2 are awesome.

Teapot tried them on and liked them so much that he confiscated them and so they will not be winging their way across the country to my sister and her family.Instead she and her husband will be getting nice little gift baskets full of yummy stuff. Actually I am kind of relieved about that because I was getting down to the wire (and actually over it) on timing for Canada Post to get my parcel to them in time for Christmas. This way it will go in the mail first thing tomorrow and would get down east in time for the big day.

So the little side project that I got caught up in this morning and that I spoke of in the previous paragraph came into fruition quite spontaneously since in the last few weeks the two cats have discovered my laziness. Back in the fall when I did my cleaning and moved the house around to accommodate the new loom I had taken the lazy man's attitude and pushed a bunch of small balls of home spun/hand spun yarn into a bag without sorting through the mess. then I had some left over silk with was meant to go into a baggie and get put away in my stash. This did not happen and as I said the cats discovered my laziness and decided to play. In the bottom of the basket that I had poked everything into was a bunch of baggies of fibre from a workshop I had done two years ago and had never been properly put away either. When the cats discovered my basket of goodies sitting on the floor of my studio, all vestiges of order melted into kitty chaos. So today was the day, the day of days to organize that basket.

The first hour was spent pulling apart the many small balls of yarn and untangling them, and then reballing them and organizing them into baggies of similar colours. Then I took all the little baggies of fibre from the previous year's workshop and out came my drum carder and I decided to blend multiple colours and fibres to get a mish-mash of roving with mixed up fibres.

The rest of the day was spent spinning the mess of fibres together. So far things are looking civilized and somewhat pretty. I'm spinning fairly fine... so not sure if I will use the resulting yarn in a shawl or maybe I'll put several singles together to make a nice sock yarn. We'll see how that turns out.

Now that I have the hang of turning heels I am anxious to try out other sock patterns. I have bee perusing the many patterns that litter my pattern books and have settled on a pair of dress socks that are unisex.... they look so pretty in the book and somewhat simple so I will give that a try next. I still have five more pairs to finish before Christmas...

So with that in mind, I must be off to spin a little more before bedtime... for tomorrow I knit!

Christmas Rant

Recently I have been checking out some of my favorite blogs and low and behold some of them have shopping lists.... lists of things that they think we, the reader, might like to buy.... I hate that. I think that is totally stupid. So anyone of you who has a blog and is thinking about giving everyone ideas about good gifts, or for anyone thinking about Christmas in general, here are a few things you might consider before falling into the abyss of Consumer stupidity.

First of all, let me say that what you might think is a great item for the masses, to someone else probably is stupid. Recently I was on one site that suggested we should all go have a look at a Solar Powered Queen..... ! And what does the Queen do once she is powered up.... she waves at you. Now this is the heights of stupidity. I mean we all know that I am a Royal fan but a stupid plastic waving Queen is not my idea of the all purpose Christmas gift that is going to make me say WOW!  (Well it might make me say WOW but not in the way that the giver would appreciate.) It is one more thing that is made out of petroleum products that defaces our planet and has absolutely no meaning except for the manufacturers pocket and maybe the Queen. So what I am trying to say in my miserable way is that what you might think is an awesome gift, to me would be one more thing on the way to the landfill.... (I'm starting to sound like Chuck V here now with his spiel about the landfill). Better still and the best gift I could get is a visit from you and not some plastic junk.... remember the anniversary party to which none of our friends showed up.... that was the worst, meanest gift we've ever gotten. I would rather have your company than a solar powered waving Queen.

Second: In this world of complaints about our economy and our environment, a solar powered Queen can only damage your pocket book and piss me off as she lands in the landfill. I really do not want to have to watch anyone declare bankruptcy because they over spent at Christmas purchasing a dumb object like a solar powered Queen. (Knit me a Queen instead if it must be a Queen... I at least know then that my relationship with you means enough for you to spend some time on a gift). Again, in my own stupid way I'm saying your opinion of a good Christmas gift might not be mine since I don't believe people should give gifts if they can't afford it. All you're doing in spending money you don't have, is making the credit cards companies richer and bringing down governments... i.e. Greece (who by the way doesn't have a Queen and wouldn't want a plastic solar powered one if they are in their right minds.)

Third: stop sending me cards with just a signature.... and make a card instead of waiting for the CNIB or the Heart and Stroke Foundation to send those dumb freebies through the mail.... once upon a time getting a card in the mail meant something.... you would find out what people were doing and it was so nice to catch up. Sending cards out is not a popularity contest. "Oh look I sent out 59 cards this year," says so and so. "Well I sent out 78," says another so and so.... "Well I can top that.... I sent out 102 cards this year." (Thanks Mrs Beaver, for the lovely card..... by the way... so far yours is the only one with anything written on it, beside your name.) (And to Sweet Davey.... keep this in mind when you send yours through the mail... I keep hinting each year that you should write something on your card but this year you're getting a direct hit! Write something besides, Sweet Davey and family. Perhaps you could tell me you're a Grandpa... that might be something you could write instead of letting me find out on the family website!!!)

The other day I was listening to The Current in the Evening on CBC radio. Anna Maria Tremonti was talking to poor people and asking them what it was like to be poor in Canada. It was an eye opener as well as a tear jerker. People were calling into the show and talking about what it is like to be poor in Canada. (Yes we have lots of poor people in Canada.) Story after story of poor people...people who are struggling just to keep food on the table were being broadcast... each story more heart renching than the one before. One lady called in and talked about how she went to a friend's house for a sleep over for the first time as a child, and the friend's mother let her have a bubble bath. She laid out on the bed a perfectly pretty flannel nightgown and a beautifully thick towel and ran a bath for her with bubbles from a bottle of Mr Bubble (remember those pink bottles of bath bubbles). The lady talked about how she remembered sitting in the bath until every last bubble popped and it was the greatest gift anyone could have given her.

It's the small things in life that mean so much.

So don't tell me that a solar powered Queen is the best gift ever....it's not. Instead, just go do something nice for someone and then write to me about it.... and tell me you were thinking of me when you did it because that is way better than a solar powered Queen... or any other piece of junk.

See... I really wasn't kidding about the Solar powered Queen.....and I'm not giving the link... purposely because I refuse to encourage anyone to purchase this piece of s*#t oops maybe I shouldn't have said that.

Where Do You Find Your Inspiration

Inspiration is a funny thing. Sometimes you have it and sometimes you don't.  I've been thinking in the last few days that a muse would not be such a bad thing. It's been really hard to find inspiration in the last little while. Sometimes I think that I live a somewhat limited lifestyle... especially in the winter. Summer time is great and I go out as much as I can but in the wintertime, I stay close to home mostly because I can't afford to slip on the ice and damage my back any more than it already is.  Recently its been quite icy, which means that I'm not getting out as much as I would like and certainly not finding the all illusive inspiration.

Nothing inspires me like the great outdoors. Nothing inspires me like paddling down a lake or a river with my paddle dipping quietly in and out of the water.  I usually do that in spring summer or fall, but what I really want to do is take a canoeing trip in the winter.... no I do not want to camp in the winter but yes I do want to paddle down the river when snow is falling and while the banks are showing white and frosty. I want it to be cold enough that the snow that falls is not wet snow but warm enough that we're not freezing our buns off. I want to be able to pull out my camera and take pictures of the pristine silence of winter.  Inspiration?.... I think so.

Nothing inspires me like new experiences. I'd like to do something I've never done before.... and while paddling in the winter would meet that criteria, I can think of other things I'd like to do too. I'd like to go for a horse and sled ride... a real horse and sled ride. Not these modern concocted things that lots of places put off for Christmas that are so slow moving that when you get off the cart at the end of the ride you are surprised to look in a mirror and realize that your hair hasn't turned any greyer than it was when you first got on earlier in the afternoon (at least that was my experience). I remember reading in my Little House On The Prairie books when Laura (the main character), spends a wonderful afternoon with Almanzo, (her future husband), going up and down the main road in a fast moving small cutter singing Christmas carols. They would whip down the road and well out onto the prairie before making a wide arc and turning back onto the main road again. I can only imagine how much fun that must be and since reading that I've always wanted to do it.  How inspirational that would be! You'd feel charged for months.

Nothing inspires me like good music... and I love the symphony.  It's been so long since I've been to a concert with a symphony. Over 20 years.  When I was growing up, my mom, who also loves the symphony orchestra, would buy tickets to the Saint John's symphony... (I don't even think there is such a thing any more) and we would go together for an evening of beautiful music that transported you to another time and another place. I try to get the same affect from time to time by playing some of the classical music CDs that I have here. It's not the same though. Somehow you cannot replace the thrill of the drums that raise to a crescendo and as it does so you can feel it all through your body. Somehow you cannot replace the movement of all the violin bows moving in unison or the harps trilling. I miss that.

What is it that inspires you?  When Teapot asks me what I want for Christmas it is this that I know must be my response.... I will say, " Dear, all I want for Christmas is a little inspiration!"

I wonder if I will get it.

OH...NO... Not Now...!

So I am in it (up to my neck in poo) again... bad back. One whole year without a bad flair up. But this morning I find myself crawling up and down stairs since last night something exploded inside my back when I sneezed.  It has been seriously twinging in the last few weeks anyway... so somehow it doesn't surprise me. Last night I could not find a place of comfort anywhere so out came the painkillers and anti-inflammatories. Today I will get Teapot to pick up the newest meds that are specifically geared to nerve pain.... and we'll see how that works... hopefully it won't fog up the brain like last time. 

What really ticks me off about it all is that it's three weeks before Christmas. I had a five week stint last year and I really don't want to spend Christmas eve and day trying to suffer through severe pain. Besides I have socks to knit and it is seriously difficult to knit fast when your hurting.

Anyway, I'm sure you don't want to hear about my aches and pains.

I finished a good book yesterday.  Yes I do read in between knitting and other stuff. It's called before I fall. It's actually a youth novel but Daughter #2 finished it last week and suggested to me that I might like it. I did. The title is Before I Fall and it is written by Lauren Oliver.

It is the story of a teenager who dies in a car accident and has to come back and relive her last day seven times before she finds out what is wrong with her life and why she is stuck in limbo. There are no goofy angels or anything like that there is no supernatural world, just reliving the last day over and over again in different ways.  It's a really interesting concept and very well done by the author.

Books here lately have been back on the agenda... if not actual paper books certainly audio books. I finished Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte (sister to Charlotte and Emily) in Audio books and I've finished several paperbooks, including the one above.  I tend to go through fits and starts with reading throughout the year.  At some points in time, I'm so focused on the homework for the MSP I can't even think about reading... but at other times (when I'm knitting socks for Christmas) I read before going to bed and when I'mbored with the knitting or needing a break for my hands. I finished Before I Fall yesterday and today I'm reading Siege Of Heaven which is a book about the first Crusade in 1039 A.D. An interesting read and for me an opportunity to learn a little more about European history.  It is a story told from the point of view of a spy for the Holy Roman Emperor.  I've always read about the crusades but usually from the point of view of the Brits not from lower countries in Europe...I've always wanted to learn more about the Medici's and Borgia's... it's funny because since my father started figuring out our family history I've taken more of an interest in lower European history... my several times great Grandmother had the last name of Avis or Ayres. There is some secret history that we are not sure about and a trunk that went missing with her real name on it which would prove her real ties in Europe... (this would have been around 1600 A.D.)...but if her last name is Avis then she has ties to Portuguese and Spanish royalty... this is really hard to prove... but she did have lots of money... how she ended up in a small fishing villiage in Newfoundland is beyond me. But it is just before her time that the Avis family got turfed out on their butts by another line of of the Spanish royal family. It's all very intriguing actually... I love family mysteries. : )

Anyway I've been sitting long enough behind this computer with my very sore back... I guess it is time I go and try to find a place comfortable enough to keep me knitting cause I have to finish that sock... and oh yeah I need to dye the green ones too... sock pics tomorrow hopefully....

Whirling Dirvish

The wind on Thursday was so bad that the road on which we live, was blocked to all traffic for a few hours yesterday morning while they cleaned up the trees which had fallen across the road. Then we discovered this....

That's our barbecue... it had been picked up and thrown over on it's side with the propane tank... and the tank was full. Now I would say, that's a pretty good wind! We have not walked our fence line to check for damage but I suspect Teapot will do so today. It is meek and mild this morning. Quietly, becoming daylight. It all seems so peaceful this morning after those high winds.

Teapot and I took the girls to town yesterday for dental appointments and shopping... Christmas shopping that is. After the girls were able to come away with, no cavities for Daughter #1, and only one in a deformed tooth for Daughter #2 (her first ever cavity), we went to Chinese buffet at our favorite restaurant. Then we hit the stores. I realized how much I miss the relaxed atmosphere of downtown St. John's, Nfld with it's boutiques and wonderful small stores as we rushed from Wal-Mart to the mall. There's very little boutique shopping in FSJ, though there are some pretty good places to shop if you are willing to drive. Main street is quite spread out and walking is treacherous with the ice on the sidewalks.

I totally struck out in Wal-Mart... (I hate Wal-Mart, but sometimes it is a necessary evil). I was looking for Socks for Dad who uses a specific kind of diabetic sock that Wal-Mart carries and no where else. I was also looking for a dog kennel for our wee dog who thinks it's great fun to chew and rip if left in the house for any amount of time by himself....but there was no luck there.... then I was looking for a set of cotton Jersey sheets in queen size... no luck there because they just had twin and double. I did find a table cloth though it was ogangey red.... which really doesn't match at all, but will do. But I did get some rabbit food and some wee stocking stuffer things. Then on to the mall where we hit Coles book store to drool dreadfully over the things that we want.... and ended up buying gift cards for nephew and friend's kids, (because we have no idea anymore what they have read, thus the gift cards). Then we went looking for a new artificial tree for my Dad who wanted a tabletop sized pre-lit tree. Well let me tell you how hard that was. FSJ has a  serious shortage of service industry workers, so, many stores are nowhere near ready for Christmas. After checking Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire, TruValue, and the Real Canadian Wholesale store we finally found a 3 ft colourful fibre optic tree that I think will suit at Home Hardware (we were working our way from down to up in FSJalso cleverly known as South to North.) By that time we had to go drop Teapot off at the dental office for his appointment.... by that time we were pooped so we headed to Tim Horton's for a Mocha and a break. There, I got some more gift cards for Christmas gifts. After we were sitting for a wee while Teapot walked in looking like this...

he couldn't have a Mocha because it would have either A. dribbled out the side of his mouth... or B. burnt his lip without him knowing (if it was hot enough which it was).  This sent us all into reams of laughter and I thought Daughter #1 was going to pee in her pants. She had never seen her Dad with half his face not working (which was somewhat disturbing to me)!

We had one place else to go before heading to the grocery store. We hit a religious book shop... (no we are not fanatics).... it is the best store ever...  It reminds of the boutiques of old. Kurios carries everything in there. DVDs with stories where you hear no swearing or see no blood and are really nice stories... (if you pick the better ones)... They also have really nice educational stuff. Right now they have wonderful Christmas ornaments and beautiful CD's of Christmas music. I ordered a Study bible for my Dad, which he has been asking for, in large print. He can't see well enough to read his own bible any more, so large print is almost a necessity.

After doing the grocery shopping, (and getting a free Christmas turkey) we headed home exhausted but repleat with knowing that we had achieved almost everything that we wanted... for now.  I know there will be more Christmas shopping... but some of it I can do online.  The whole trip to town was a bit of a whirling dirvish just like the wind from the day before.

Today is cleanup-the-house-cause-company-is-coming-for-supper-and-cook-a-smashing-meal day. I also have to knit on some socks that I have on the go... (I broke two of my rosewood needles yesterday in the taking of them with me).  I think I will go and order some Signature nickle plated (that means slippery) 5 inch dpns in a variety of sizes for Teapot to put in my stocking, while I drink my tea.... then I have the day set out before me!

Hope your Christmas forays into shopping are more relaxed.....

Socks, Socks Everywhere And Not a One To Wear

So I finished my first pair of socks and they look quite strange at the moment... I ran into a little problem. I decided to use some yarn that I had spun back in level 1 and I'll be honest, it was pretty inconsistent yarn. But I wanted to use it up and get it out of my stash. So I gathered up all the balls I had, which were several and I started in on knitting the socks.

I finished one in no time and realized that it would need to be dyed since I was using the ugliest colours on planet earth. They were all beiges and various shades of putrid yellow because this was the yarn I had used to do the dyeing portion of level 1. No wonder I wanted to get it out of my stash!

I finished the first sock and was proud that I had turned the heel with little or no problems. I then proceeded to finish the second sock. That's when the problems started.

The pattern that I am using in the men's socks from the latest issue of Piecework magazine called Manx Loaghtan Boot Socks.  I followed the pattern precisely for sock number one and then I followed the pattern precisely for sock number 2.... After I had them finished, I threw them into the dye pot with the idea of dyeing them a nice Christmas green (this was Daughter #2 idea) however, I stupid-like used my rice steamer which is a dyepot and actually not a rice steamer, but sits on my counter in the kitchen waiting for stray dyeing projects which happen on the spur of the moment.

For small projects the rice cooker works like a charm. So I mixed up the dye, brought it to a boil, stirred it vigorously with the vinegar already stirred in. It looked great, so in went the socks. When I went back a short time later all the dye had exhausted. Perfect except there was a portion of one of the socks that had pushed up from the bottom and was actually out of the liquid. Thus the dye had not taken evenly. This I knew would not be a problem because I would just redye them and make sure they were fully submerged in a slightly darker shade of the dye. I took them out of the rice cooker and rinsed them out and hung them to dry... I did this because I had used up all of my vinegar in the previous dye bath and I needed to go to the store to buy more.

All day, the next day, I waited for Teapot to come home he was going to pick up the vinegar from the store on his way home from work. That evening I mixed up the pot of dye with the new bottle of vinegar and grabbed the socks with the intention of rewetting them before throwing them back in the dye pot for round 2. It was then that I noticed a problem... one sock was shorter than the other!

How on earth could that have happened.... I thought. Well I had followed the pattern and where I had used 16 repeats of the pattern in sock number one I had written it down and done exactly the same on sock number 2. I knew I had. Really. I was sure.

I sat there staring at my first socks ever in dismay... that when I thought, Ok check to make sure they are actually the same. I counted the repeats of the pattern and sure enough I was right. 16 repeats for sock number 1... 16 repeats for sock number 2. Yup right... perfect. So what was the matter... I closely examined the socks. That when I realized that sock number one was larger than sock number two because my spinning sucked. The yarn I used for sock number one was the early spinning and was therefore thicker.... the yarn I used was yarn from the same batch but it was slightly thinner than my first yarn. Inconsistent spinning makes for inconsistent knitting. so now I had a useless pair of socks. I wanted to cry!

I threw them down in disgust and worked away at the next pair of socks also in the same pattern which I was knitting for my nephew. I kept thinking about the other pair of socks. I wanted to cry some more. But I got a brilliant idea. why didn't I pull out the knitting back to where I started to decrease for the toe and just add in one more repeat of the pattern. Would anyone really notice that one had 16 repeat and the other had 17 repeats?! So I did that. and now the socks match.... well... at least in size. Daughter #1 tried them on and said that they felt great. But as a result the socks now look like this...

I will need a very dark colour indeed if I am to have them look even remotely consistent. So more than likely I will dye them black or very dark charcoal grey and then maybe I will add a little embroidery to make them look pretty. Meanwhile after I had Daughter #1 try them on, I started to realize that maybe the other socks that I was knitting might be too small for my nephew... I thought the size that I was knitting (men's size large) seemed to be a might bit too small for a 16 year olld teenager boy. Hmmm....

So after raveling back the socks I am now re-knitting them one size larger and on slightly larger knitting needles. so far so good.

Still after all that work, there are socks, socks everywhere, and not a one to wear...

But stayed tuned because I'm determined that all socks will eventually be wearable and beautiful too....