Personal Footprints

Finished up a pair of socks based on Cat Bordhi's Personal Footprints. Left over yarn from my two most sock recent projects. The more I work with this concept of sock making, the more I like it! More information on Ravlery.

Socks Done!!!

Finished the Blue & Purple socks. Information on them on Ravelry. I'm very happy with the results. Cat Bordhi's little hint on how to make the transition from heel/foot to leg to avoid holes was fantastic. That tidbit can be found on the videos I mentioned in yesterday's post.

I started out as a true blue, cuff down, DPN sock knitter. Didn't think there was any need to do it any other way as that just work perfectly and why fix somethin' that ain't broke! Then I tried afterthought heels. Okay, they work nicely, too. Magic Loop changed my sock knitting life, and I haven't even missed my DPNs. Toe up was still too much of a hassle until I finally mastered Judy Becker's Magic Cast On. For now, toe up, Houdini Socks are my preferred way of making socks. I love the way the heel fits, how professional the toe looks and how much easier it is to fit socks to others.

My friend, A, gave me a ball of green ww wool yarn she's not fond of to make Mittnz. Didn't use it for that, so CO a pair of wool house socks last night. Although just the toe is finished, they feel warm already. They will be donated to our next blitz, Feetz.

Again, Rachel has described my life completely. Please read!

Are they not just the nicest looking couple?

Invisibility

I've been on a mild anti-depressant for about a month now. My nutritionist believes the whole theory behind cortisol and anxiety making it difficult to loose middle of the body fat. She and I agreed that reducing anxiety in my life would be a good thing on many different levels.

And it has. I am happier. The chemicals have taken the edge of anxiety producing situations. I have less discomfort related to being out of the house, taking the bus to the mall and so on. It's been nice. And I've started loosing weight again. All the weight I have to loose is between my neck and knees. I have here to for unknown muscle definition in my arms and legs, and carry little extra weight in my face and neck. (Loose skin, yes, fat, no.)

That would spell success on a variety of levels.

Something else has happened that I'd not bargained for.

Yesterday, my friend, A, and I were sitting next to each other in Starbucks as we generally do on Monday after the kids are dropped off and school, knitting socks, drinking the nectar of the gods, and catching up on the weekend. A little old lady walked over to my friend and said, "Oh you're making socks. From the toe up!" A said, Yes," showed her the sock as I bent over and dug out my most recently finished pair and held them out for examination, too.

It was like a scene out of a ghost movie. I was the ghost. This little old knitter chatted with A about her sock and totally ignored me, my outstretched hand with brightly striped socks, like, well, I was invisible.

No, I don't think the antidepressants made me invisible. And yes, this has happened before. What's different is this time I felt it. Previously, I expected to be treated this way, either ignored or bullied. It was normal for me. And I just blew it off. Welcome to my world. Yesterday, however, now that my little happy pills secrete wonderful chemicals in my brain, I felt it. It hurt. As I sat knitting last night, I cried because that little old knitter lady deliberately ignored me. She went out of her way to speak to A, no more than two feet away from me, and just as precisely chose to pretend I didn't exist. And I felt it.

Which makes me think about whether I want to continue with these magic pills.

On a happier note, there is knitting, too!
These are a compilation of a couple of patterns. The construction comes from Cat Bordhi's Houdini Socks. The stitch pattern is from Joansie's standby, Blueberry Waffle Socks. The yarn is hand dyed. I wondered what would happen if one dyed half a hank one color and half another. Not much. It's okay, and might be a big more exciting if the colors weren't so closely related..... They are still pretty, just nothing to write home to mom about.

Houdini's and Afterthoughts

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Just the thumb left to do on Joansie's Mittens. I again traded off between two projects yesterday and got to the Kitchener stitch on both of them. This is the waste yarn for the afterthought thumb.The next step on the Houdini Socks is to pick up the sts, clip the yarn, frog to get to live sts, and then begin the leg. Here's a pick right before the clipping. With the next sock, I'll take a picture of the clipped yarn being frogged back. I have to finish the other half of the cuff. I'm using EZ's Sewn Cast Off as I think it's the stretchiest one there is. It insures the cuff won't get too tight and keep the sock from being worn.I decided to use the "toe" as the heel on these socks. This is the Magic Cast on Toe I did last week. It's not quite as attractive as the regular mitered toe, so it was chosen for the heel. Another benefit of Houdini Socks!

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Keeping the "We" in "Yes, We Can!"

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Handspun newspaper yarn. Two stars of ingenuity and two ?? for what can you do with it? On the other hand, this soda bottle purse would make a great carrier for a ball of yarn. Maybe a hold cut in the top the feed the yarn out of? Info on plastic bottle waste.

Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall....Ommmmmmmm....

Things being given away... Like this $100 gift card to Amazon.com

Houdini Socks

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I traded off between two projects yesterday: Joansie's Mittens and the Houdini Socks. I'm on the home stretch with the second mitten, almost ready to start the top decreases. I finished up the second foot on the Houdini socks. Next is finding the location of the leg opening, cutting, unpicking the sts, picking them up and beginning the legs. I divided the remaining yarn into two balls so I can pretty much knit till I run out of yarn. Just haven't decided if I'm going to do a st st leg or a ribbed leg. They'll be short socks....
A very pretty variation of the Baby Surprise Jacket!

Fiber themed wallpapers for your computer!

So what do you think? Does speed knitting appeal to you?

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Keeping the "We" in "Yes, We Can!"

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Home made fortune cookies! Wouldn't that be fun for a themed party?

Mend your clothes instead of tossing them.

President Obama's remarks on cars and environment.

Abracadabra!

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As time went on in my knitting yesterday, and I attempted to figure out how to adapt 64 st heels to 58 st socks, and failing miserably, I decided that the Houdini Socks would make a good substitute. Another reason I chose this is now I can make the sole of the other sock, see how much yarn is left and decide if I need to buy another ball or not.

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Keeping the "We" in "Yes, We Can!"

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“The future is filled with vast and marvelous possibilities. This is a great time to be alive. Let us not despair. And let us go out and work with renewed vigor to make the unfolding work of destiny a reality in our generation.”--Dr. Martin Luther King


So, I've been seeing a lot of commercials for the MagicJack recently. You plug it into a USB port on your computer and then plug your land line phone into it. Free calls throughout the US and Canada. The cost, on sale, for the unit is around $40 and includes one year service. Then it's $20 a YEAR for your phone. And it travels with you and can be used with any internet using computer. We're getting to the point we need a land line in our house. Eldest granddaughter wants to be left at home when we make short trips out, and she's developing a social phone network. A cell phone for her is out of the question, but this might work... Has anyone used one, known anyone that has?

Glass Houses...be sure to take time to read the comments!

Broke or Poor?

Circuit City announced recently many of their stores were going out of business. Watch this clip to make sure they or any other business doesn't rip you off.

Abracadabra! Alacazam!

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Well, they are definitely not identical socks! Another pair of Dobby Socks. These, of course, were much easier because I used two different skeins of self striping yarn.

Details: Houdini Socks by Cat Bordhi
Yarn: Red Heart Heart & Sole: Tequila Sunrise and Razzle Dazzle
Needles: US#3, 32 inch ciruclar
CO 52 sts for a child's medium size

I CO two projects last night a Mystery Knitting Project and a pair of Dobby Socks for Youngest Granddaughter. These won't be Dobby Socks--just regular cuff down socks with lots of color and not matching!
Contest for a great sign!

Another contest, this one at Fiberholic. Go check it out, enter and please let her know I sent you!

A thief that knows what's good. How sad is this?

Check out Robyn's blog for this hilarious picture of her baby!

Thanks, Grace, for the belly laugh!

Now You See It....

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The first sock is done! Second one cast on and about half way up the foot. I'm using up the Heart & Sole leftover from my socks. So this sock is Tequila Sunrise and the other one will be Razzle Dazzle. This pair will go to one of my grandsons in Hawaii. His brother's birthday is September 1st, but I wanted to send something to both of them. Pattern: Houdini Socks by Cat Bordhi.

So look what I discoverd: Dharma Trading Company sells yarn for dyeing. The most generous place I've purchased dyed yarns at is Knitivity. His sock yarn skeins are 460 yards. Dharma is selling 860 yards of Brown Sheep Wildefoot sock yarn for less than $20. Shipping is based on weight. Such a deal for the home dyer. And they have tons of other types of yarn for dyeing.

For those of you that have color like this close by, those of us that don't have it miss it terribly. I can smell the water and the leaves that are decaying, the bit of coolness that you know isn't going away and will get even cooler soon. I miss the promise of snow and ice skating past these soon to be bare trees. I miss autumn.

Beachcomber by Karen Robards

Another good mystery. Definitely not something you want to read if you're vacationing at the beach.

Christy's been involved with the mob all her life. Her father was a mobster as were all of her mother's subsequent boy friends. She's just broken off her engagement with her boss because she discovered he was laundering money for the mob.

Someone out of her past forces her to be a currier and that's when the trouble begins. She's sent to wait on a wonderful beach where a serial killer has decided she's his next victim.

View all my reviews.

"Socks are Dobby's favorite clothes, Sir! "

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Aren't they cute? They are really easy to make.
Details:
Pattern: Houdini Socks by Cat Bordhi
Yarn: Left over sock yarns
Needles: US2, 32 inch circular
Size: Child's Medium
CO: Aug 16 BO: Aug 18
Ravelry
And I immediately CO another pair. These will refrain from having any pink in them so I can send them on to my 2nd GS in Hawaii whose father has very conservative taste. I'm hoping because they'll be Dobby Socks he'll let him wear them, even though 95% of the weird colors will be in the shoe! This is left over Heart & Sole, Tequila Sunrise.

Oldest Granddaughter's first day of 2nd grade went very well. She likes her teacher, has only one new friend in her classroom, and lost only one from last year. So she knows everyone and can slide comfortably into the academics. She has early dismissal today and tomorrow and then starts full days on Thursday.

Youngest Granddaughter and I had a nice morning, making Oatmeal Raisin cookies. After we picked up her sister, we went to Mickey D's to celebrate the first day of school, and then to the library to stock up on at home reading material.

Two more weeks till we leave for Disneyland. "Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?" I found three CDs on line last night, purchasing two of them, that the grands used to listen to when they were younger and riding in the car with me. Mickey's Silly Songs and Mickey's Children's Favorites. Hope they get here before we leave so we can thoroughly saturate ourselves with them on our 7-8 hour drive! We also have a portable DVD player for the kidlings to occupy some of the time, will have stacks of books and coloring materials, too. I'm scouting for an audio book appropriate for the entire family. We've all listened to HP books many times, so I'd like to find something new....

If you'd like to knit a scarf and need someone to give it to that will really appreciate it....

It's Magic!

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This is the Houdini sock with the leg sts picked up and ready to be transferred to the circular needle. As I only have size 2 needles, and like to pick up live sts with the smallest size needles I have (US0), once these are picked up they need to be transferred to the circular to knit the leg. The two ends are the row that is cut and picked out to create the opening.
And here is the finished sock. I used EZ's Sewn Bind Off. It's a nice stretch BO that allows lots of room to put the sock on.

And here is the second sock. Leg stitches have been picked up and a few rounds knit. In this sock, I put in an afterthought strand (knit the sts to be picked up later onto waste yarn, slide them back on the left needle, and then knit with the "real" yarn.) It was much easier to pick out and I think will work just as well. The "corner" (meeting of heel, foot and leg) is a little harder to keep the hole from appearing, but other than that doesn't seem to make any difference.
Today is Oldest Granddaughter's first day of second grade. She's been so excited for the last several days and was very disappointed to find today is only a half day. It's going to take us all a while to get into the schedule of school days again. I'm going to be adamant this year that her clothes are picked out and lunch made the night before. I hate the rushing around in the morning.

Question of the Day: If one has S.E.X* at more than one store in one day, is one promiscuous?


*Stash Enhancement eXperience

Dobby's Houdini Socks

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This is a closed piece of knitting. Soon it will be the foot of a sock. I have to admit, this is an interesting way to make a sock. I'm making these to fit one of the grands... just to try out the concept. This is the Houdini Sock by Cat Bordhi.

The Ocean Waves are finished! Didn't take long to finish off the toe decreases while listening to my book du jour, Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs.
Kathleen's finished her "Dobby Socks"! Aren't they gorgeous?
Bones to Ashes: A Novel by Kathy Reichs

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another good Tempe Brennan book. Tempe helps Ryan and another detective, Hippo, solve cold cases concerning young girls who have disappeared and bodies of young girls who have no names.

Tempe remembers a childhood friend who disappeared when she was about the same age as these girls. Harry, Tempe's kid sister flies in from Texas to help--and even is a bit of a help this time

The book follows the familiar Kathy Reich's formula. Even though Tempe has been hit on the head in every story because she's wandering off alone where she shouldn't be, she still keeps doing it and still keeps getting bonked on the head. Book smart, but common sense, not so much.

She's still a good, likeable character.

View all my reviews.

Tide's goin' out....

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I got a lot of sock work done yesterday. I'm doing the toe decreases and will be finished today. I'm really happy with many things I discovered making these socks. Afterthought heels are much easier and look much better using ML. And why I never thought of this before....putting in the afterthought heel half way through the foot allows trying on the sock for better fitting in the foot length, than trying to guess it and putting the heel in after the toes are finished.
And looking at it from the bottom makes the Houdini Socks look a whole lot easier as far as measurements and such go. However, I still need to learn to make a toe up sock.... Although I wouldn't do this (I don't think) I like Cat's idea of, "the pleasure of peacefully knitting footprints, letting them pile up in your knitting basket until you are in the mood to get fancy with legs."

School starts for Oldest Granddaughter on Monday. Although the days will be quieter, I do hate the thought of giving up my relaxed mornings to waking, feeding and transporting her. Oh well, can't have everything...at least not all at once!

Only Beaker....


I miss the Muppet Show!