This May Explain It

The kitchen experimentation, that is.

You Are a Marble Cake

Eclectic, inventive, and peaceful. You are never willing to accept what's "normal." You live to push the envelope. You find it hard to make up your mind. You prefer to have everything you want, right away!

What Kind of Cake Are You?

Inventive? Check! Push the envelope? Check! Want it right now? Um, well if that means not wanting to pull out my non-exisitant mixer with dough hook, yup, that's me. Thanks to Leslie for the link. And thanks to everyone who left tips for alternate approaches to foccacia. I'm going to give some of them a whirl.

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Dearest daughter was home Friday night through yeasterday afternoon, always a treat. I talked her into modeling the lastest iteration of the checkerboard socks for me.

Evaluation Time

I've finished the first incarnation of the Checkmate socks, so it's time for evaluation.






Overall I like the look, but they are just a leeetle bit loose at the top, and a leeetle bit shorter than I like for myself, at least for winter socks. If they were longer, they would fit more closely at the top, because they would hit a wider part of my calf.
I worked a bit slackly on the top checkers, out of concern that the slip stitchs might pull in too tightly. I think I overcompensated. They aren't bad, they're just not perfect.






I do like the way the toes came out.

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Hooray for friends of libraries. (and thanks to everyone who commented.) This pic was taken just outside the back door, right near the spot I park in

Today was Last Saturday Knitting, and I was so glad to be able to go. (Missed it the last two months.) Ms Bee was there, with funny stories about Bently, and Mr Bee, and well she's just funny about almost anything.

Elizabeth wore one of her beautiful stranded sweaters, and brought along the scarf avec Drylon. Linda was working a sock with a charted pattern. I couldn't read a chart and talk at the same time to save my life, but she seemed to handle it just fine.

It was a huge treat to meet Dale-Harriet, who is every bit as nice in real life as on her blog. And she brought along her lovely friend Ginny, who is a quilter, embroiderer, beader, book illustrator....

Most memorable quote of the day: "Just because your cat had her kittens in the stove, that doesn't mean they're muffins."

I brought along version two of the checkered socks. This pair (obviously) is going to be longer than the first. Also obviously done in a very different color scheme.

I brought the camera, too, and then promptly forgot to pull it out once the talk got going. But I did stop on the way home for a picture of the moon coming up.

After I got back in the car, I though about how it was probably very stupid to go poking my head up over the edge of a cornfield during deer season. My hat was orange, but rust, not blaze.

It was dark by 5:00. About a mile from home I pulled over to try for another moon shot. Oops, no tripod. And the moon was much too bright (note to self: don't use "fireworks" setting if you aren't shooting fireworks.) So I cropped it out.

This photograpy thing is going to take some practice.

Almost done

Just a few rows of the second toe to go (and weave in ends). I'm thinking I might like to do this pair again in a knee sock length.

Molly Bees had blamed the lack of clarity in the last picture on her monitor. Nah, it was a combination of low light and a shaky hand on the part of the photographer. And probably the fact that I have no zoom, so I shoot from a distance, and the cropping sometimes blurs things.

I've sucked it up and ordered a new camera. It probably won't get here until sometime in December, but I have high hopes for it. Optical zoom, image stabilization. It will probably take me months to figure it out, but I'm excited. (Ravelry was helpful here, too. One of the forum threads had lots of good information.)

Yes, the shape of that sock looks strange

But only because the slip stitch ribbing pulls in so very nicely. In action, it will be a good snug, but not tight, fit. At least that's the plan.



I'm working with a stash yarn called Sisu from Sandnesgarn. Fingering weight 80 % wool and 20 % nylon. Nice elasticity, a bit loftier than some. More loosely spun than the Lorna's, and as a result I've split a few more stitches than usual. But I like it. The thing that appealed to me was the relatively wide range of solid colors. I adore using self patterning/hand painted sock yarns. But sometimes a girl likes to make her own color and pattern choices. I bought this online a couple of years ago from a company in Canada whose name I can no longer remember. A quick Goggle search doesn't turn up a lot of suppliers, and most don't carry the full color range. But it looks as though perhaps Bea Ellis Knitwear does. (No affiliation, no experience ordering, just passing along the results of my search).