Dancing flames!

Finished, at long last! For real this time.

Here's a close-up of the lace pattern ("scrolls" from Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks, one of the eight-stitch lace patterns). This pattern never stopped being fun and intriguing. Usually once I knit something, I never want to knit it again, but I would do this again in a heartbeat.

And, for an accuracy check, the sock with Rereading Proust's bitchin' tattoo.

(Upon seeing the tattoo, Treats for Breathing asked, in her wide-eyed and innocent way, "What do you have against guitar music?" She makes me laugh until I snort.)

Just in case you doubted that I'm crazy . . .

The dancing flames socks were finished, bound off, and photographed in the wild at the Yarn Harlot. (Many thanks to Gotta Knit for these pics.)


(Aside: I love this picture. I look so demure with my crossed ankles, don't I? The first and last time in my life, I'm sure.)

They look pretty finished, right? . . . . Or are they?


Imagine the shock and dismay when I appeared at the next knit gathering, working on the same damn socks. I wasn't happy with them. In my eagerness to widen them to accommodate my calves, I went a little overboard. Also, the 1x1 twisted rib that I used for the cuff was not nearly stretchy enough. So, I did what any sensible crazy person would do, and ripped them back one and a half repeats, picked up the lace pattern (by now, I could do this one while anesthetized) . . .

and reknit. I changed the ribbing to a nice 2x2 rib and I left the sock circumference at 80 stitches, instead of 88.

Crazy? Yes. But I'm so much happier with the fit now.

The Mad Crocheter said to me, "Kim, you're a sock perfectionist." No, darlin', I'm an everything perfectionist. Socks are just the only medium in which this level of perfectionism is practical, much less achievable.

ask me how the dancing flames socks are going

Go ahead. I dare you.

The dancing flames socks were coming along very well (note the use of the past tense? Cue the ominous music). They were creeping ever closer to my knees (note to self: Cherry Tree Hill does NOT skimp on yardage. This is definitely yarn to buy again.) One quiet evening, I was trying them on to see if I had enough yarn left to make them into knee-highs, and I asked the Best Roommate Ever, "Do these look a little stretched on my calves?"


She looked over and said, "Uh-huh." Damn.

Now, I love BRE, I really do. She is honest and forthright and I value her opinion. Even when I don't particularly like her opinion. So I ripped back each sock three repeats and added an extra eight-stitch repeat per pattern repeat.

So by the time the socks are hugging my muscular calves, they are 88 stitches around instead of 64, which seems to have solved the problem.

Which is all well and good and yay for problem solving and knitting triumphs and knitting things that actually fit your body parts, but I am really really tired of these socks. I still love them because they are beautiful and the pattern is fun to knit (I know, still. I'm beginning to edge dangerously close to that line between easily amused and simple-minded.) Maybe if I am a very good girl and eat all my vegetables and work hard on my socks, one day, some day far in the future, I will get to knit something else while wearing my beautiful knee-high socks. Probably just in time for summer.

I ainten't dead!

I have returned, more or less, to the land of the living, after feeling like absolute crud almost all week. It wasn't (thank Bob) that horrible flu thing that's been going around; it was more like angry painful stomach clenching every time I tried to eat, coupled with total utter exhaustion. It was a big achievement for me to eat breakfast, check my email and brush my teeth before collapsing back into bed. The stomach pain was especially unfun, because it wasn't combined with nausea, just pain. After a while, I'd start to think, perhaps my stomach hurts because I am hungry. That could be it. And I'd say, "How would you like a nice banana, stomach? Mmm, nice soft yummy banana." And I would eat it and my stomach would go: CLEEEEEENNNNNCH! And I would think, "OK, that seemed like a good idea at the time" and go lie down for a few hours.
On the plus side, I did get caught up on the Ravelry boards. In spite of all the Ravelling, very little actual knitting got done. I always think staying home sick would be so cozy and good for my knitting, with the blankets and the handknit socks and the tea. In the real world, outside Kim's head, staying home sick means I feel far too crappy to drag myself in to work, so I spend the whole day unconscious. In spite of that, there has been some progress on the dancing flames socks (is this getting old for anyone else? "Hey, look, here's another picture of the same pair of socks, slightly longer! Woo-hoo!")

And here's a picture of the remaining ball of yarn. I will give this to Cherry Tree Hill, they don't skimp on the yardage. Thigh-highs, hell. At this rate, I'll be able to pull them up to my neck.

.

Now that's what I'm talking about!

The weather for the past few days has been perfect for early March, cold and crisp and windy. It even snowed a little yesterday morning. Normally, I hate the cold. I am a tropical mammal; the cold is not my friend. However, I know I'll never survive the 10 months of Atlanta summer unless I have something to compare it to. I'd rather sweat than shiver, but I need to do a little shivering to remind myself.

The knitting is progressing at a normal pace, which is frustrating me. I'm getting cranky and irritable with all of my projects. I want a finished object, dangit! The second sleeve of the sweater is inching painfully along. It's annoying and fiddly trying to make the sleeves and body match with a finite amount of yarn from three very different dye lots. Also, it's cotton, so I can't even spit-splice the yarn.


The grey shawl is still tiny; not much progress to report there. The Dancing Flames socks are zipping along nicely. I got to the second heel last night, so the end is in sight.

Or rather, the end WOULD be in sight. Um, I hate to ask, but does it look like the ball of yarn is getting smaller? At all? Because, um, I don't know. It really doesn't seem to be. These socks are going to end up as thigh-highs, aren't they?

What else? Sock progress.

All this emotional turmoil is terrible for the soul, but great for the knitting.


Much progress has been made on the dancing flames socks. The pattern is simultaneously soothing and mesmerizing; it's great for those times when my brain is too full. I finished the second toe last night at Knit Night. I'm waiting to bind off the first sock until I see how much yarn the second one will take. So far I'm very impressed with the yardage, but I hate having tiny little balls of yarn left over. I like to do both socks toe-up and bind off both with only inches of yarn to spare. I live on the edge.

Very many thanks for the well-wishes and good thoughts sent my way. I appreciate it muchly; it helps to know people are thinking of me and rooting for me.

"What is this I'm feeling? Is it pain? Panic? Hunger? Am I hungry? Who's hungry?"
20 points to anyone who can tell me the origin of this quote

Because Knit Night just isn't Knit Night . . .

. . . unless I have my feet on the table, taking progress pictures of my latest sock, really close to people's beverages. (Don't blame my mother. She tried her best to beat some manners into me.) This is my latest sock, made from Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome. The colorway is "sugar maple", and the pattern is "scrolls" from Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks. I'm not really sure how this pattern is supposed to look like scrolls, but I love the effect it has on this fabric. I wanted these socks to mimic flames. Left to its own devices, the yarn would just make sort of variegated stripes, but this lace pattern makes it look as if the colors are leaping and dancing across the sock. Plus it's been super-easy to memorize and a really fast knit. I usually don't make a pattern more than once, but I can see myself using this again, perhaps with blues to imitate the swirls and eddies of a stream.

Also, if you look closely, you can see Gotta Knit's neverending (but gorgeous) blanket in the background.

Valentine's Day recap

Apparently the guys in my office were concerned that, as a spinster, I would have a sad, lonely Valentine's Day. They needn't have feared. I spent my VD in the happiest place on earth. It was Red Wine and Chocolate night, and much fun was had by all. I got plenty of Valentine's Day kisses from this little cutie,

(I was too busy getting kisses to take a new picture) and lots of hugs from all my favorite people. I knit and laughed and ate and stayed up two hours past my bedtime (when the alarm goes off at 5:30, bedtime is little-old-lady early.) One of the regulars told us that she'd asked her husband if they could do Valentine's Day on Saturday instead, and he said, "Sure . . . hey, wait a minute. You're just saying that so you can go to knitting." She said, "Of course! You can't just MOVE Knit Night!" (What was he thinking?)

I also finished a sock toe. This pattern is making me so happy. I think I may have to marry it.

It was the best Valentine's Day ever. Thanks, Kim!