KIP – This Tangled Skein

Yesterday was my first Saturday off in a few weeks, and I was busybusybusy. Little Miss and I got a late start on going to our church’s Yard Sale, then walked by another yard sale (with a not so much accurate sign that said “Estate Sale”) where I bought a bunch of buttons. After picking up a cinnamon roll for K, we headed home, and Little Miss went down for a nap.

Then, it was out the door again, this time all by myself, to drive downtown for the Yarn Harlot. It was odd being in the Central Library in a non-work-related situation. I had to borrow K’s library card in order to get my parking validated, since I can’t find my card. (I memorized the number some time ago. The sad thing is that this is the second card I’ve lost. I’d be more concerned about it if I weren’t checking my own account activity on a very regular basis, so I know no one else is using it.) Stephanie was highly entertaining, even while being (unknowingly) threatened by the Giant DPNs of Doom:

She’s not nearly so blurry in real life, but I was three rows from the back of the auditorium. “Get there 10 minutes early,” said K. Yeah. Sure. I was in line 20 minutes before the start time, and I was still nearly in the back row. In fact, I was in just about the same seat I usually occupy during the monthly Book Order meetings. And, yes, that’s a sock she’s knitting during the Q&A time. My knitting is not so blurry in real life, either, but it’s a test project, so I won’t be putting up a real picture of that until the pattern goes live.

I found out about the test knitting gig through (where else?) Ravelry, where I also found out that the Yarn Pirate Booty Club is open for enrollment. With all of these new opportunities to spend money, I am in search of new financial planning software. I am not loving the Quicken 2004 I’ve been using. Any recommendations for a Mac-OS-X-Tiger-friendly program?

In the past week, I have knitted on a sock at a Weight Watchers meeting, at the West Hollywood SnB, at a meeting of my union, and in front of the television. And I may be working on it at the library this afternoon, depending on how many people come for our monthly Craft Club.

Do I have pictures of the sock in any of these places? Of course not.

I’ve been working on my very own pair of Jaywalkers, in a colorway of Regia Crazy Colors that’s sort of like a rainbow. I started a couple of weeks ago, and I thought I’d be done with the pair by now, but I overestimated my ability to turn a heel. I started out with the flap heel in the pattern, then hated the way it looked after I picked up the stitches around the gusset. I ripped it out and tried to do a short-row heel, but I couldn’t quite understand the pictureless directions I was following, and I couldn’t find my copy of an Interweave Knits back issue that successfully guided me through short-row heel-making on a pair of baby socks, and I think I created a new type of heel. One for people with REALLY wide, round heels. So, I ripped that out, and that’s where it all went horribly wrong. I ripped and ripped, and I couldn’t figure out where I was in the pattern. And I ripped and ripped, and I couldn’t find where one round ended and another began. I’m normally not bad at reading my knitting, but I was lost. So, I ripped and ripped, and I eventually ended up two rounds past the end of the ribbing at the cuff.

That was Thursday night, at SnB. I worked on it a little on Friday, my day off. At Saturday’s union meeting, I got back up into the heel, which is once again a flap heel. After gleaning some advice on picking up the gusset stitches off the Internet, I have a fairly decent turned heel, except for the glaring hole in one corner, which I am not ripping back to fix. I’m not. I refuse. I will finish this sock and get on to its mate. I just hope I finish the toe before I finish the skein, because I only have two skeins, and I’d hate to have to rip back AGAIN just to shorten the leg.

Although, come to think of it, I’d have a chance to fix that little gap….

Tag: KIP

The Yarn Harlot Does LA

Jaywalkin’