February 25, 2007

Froggy went a countin'....

After having two really nice blog entries Yahooed, I've decided I'm going to write it all out in WordPad and then cut and paste to the blog. It's so irritating!

Above is a pic of my little froggie row marker. He helps me keep my place on my decrease/increase rows. The ring farthest away from Froggie is my "change" row and the ring closest to him is my "knit even" row. Otherwise I get so excited when doing my heels and toes I forget the knit even row!

I washed my Tofutsies yesterday and they are all nice and dry...ready to wear when I take my grand daughter to school tomorrow to show them off! I have 1 .75 ounces left to make my grand daughter some socks with. I borrowed F's scale so I can make the leftovers into two equal balls. Then, other than a toe up sock, is there any way to figure out if I have enough to make a sock? As much as I dislike this yarn, I don't want to start and then run out. I seriously don't want to buy more, either. Any hints? It's so much thinner than regular sock yarn it might look kinda funny if I just save it for contrasting heels and toes....

I CO the Socketta, color 363. Decided not to do ribbing on this pair. I have half an inch of garter stitch and then went into the stockinette stitch. They will definitely be slouchy socks, but I don't mind that at all. I am planning on doing an Afterthought or Peasant heel on this pair, just to see how I like doing it. I did a star toe on the Tofutsies and found it a bit easier...only, I think, because this is the type of decrease I do for my generic hats so it was second nature for me to do it. My star had six legs on it and I noticed most patterns have three or four.

Picked up a copy of Folk Socks by Nancy Bush at the LYS on Friday. Haven't had a chance to sit down and read through the history of socks, but am very pleased that there are recipes for different heels and toes. I ordered Charlene Schurch's Knitting Sensational Socks from KnitPicks on the 17th (shipped on the 20th). That order should be here on Monday. I'm not a big book buyer, but having good reference books rather than books of patterns is, IMHO, a necessity! These two books come highly recommended for that purpose.

My disabled son spent the day with me yesterday. He was in a car accident almost ten years ago and suffered Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). For a kid that wasn't supposed to live, he's doing pretty good! Seriously, the docs gave him a 1% chance of survival and that's their "nice" way of saying "No chance." Guess he showed them! He's not the same person, although bits and pieces of him are there. Lost the use of his right hand, left foot, right eye from brain stem damage, but he does hold down a full time job, has his weekly role playing game and all that kind of stuff. Anyway, we watched a movie, he played cribbage with my grand daughter and then some games on the computer. Again, pretty good for a guy who was not supposed to have lived!

Got really cold again here. Down in the low 30s yesterday morning and pretty cool this morning. Had to dig out my knitted slippers and put a sweater back on even with the heat on! I'm not complaining. I know how hot it'll get this summer and I'd rather be able to warm myself up as cooling off is never as easy!

To answer Michelle's question from yesterday: Yes, the heel and toes are the same yarn. The swirling around the foot yarn pooling disappears when moves into making heel flaps and doing the heel and toe decreases.