Heel Flap

 Well, now I'm confused.  I got home from work this evening, and checked my cleanout.  It's completely drained.  Not backed up at all.  I don't know what is going on.  I'll just have to keep an eye on it. I did call a plumber last night, but he never called me back.  That's how it is around here.  People just don't want to work.    

Next thing I need to do is find someone to bring me some dirt or sand so I can fill in some of these holes and low spots in my yard.  I think that will be this summer's project.  

Since today is a bit of a slow day news-wise, I thought I'd give you your next sock knitting lesson.  Just book mark it until you're ready to get there, or hit the label at the bottom of this post.  And remember, this is just how I do it.  There are many different ways, and none of them are wrong. 

OK, once you've gotten your sock leg knit to the length you want it,    

the next step is to knit a heel flap.  You should have an equal number of stitches on each of four needles. and each one should be 1/4 of your total number of cast on stitches.  For example, if you have a 72 stitch cast on, you should have 18 stitches on each needle.  

Knit across the stitches on Needle #1, then with the same needle, knit across the stitches on Needle #2.  You should have half of your stitches on one DPN, like so: 

For the moment, you will completely ignore the stitches on the other two needles.  Turn your work, so that the wrong side -- i.e. the inside of the sock -- is facing you.  Slip the first stitch, and purl across.  It should look something like this: 

On the next row, the right side row, slip the first stitch, and knit the second.  Continue slip 1 knit 1 across the row.  

Turn your work, slip one, then purl across.  Repeat these two rows for a total of 36 rows.  You should have 18 slipped stitches on each side of the heel flap. 

When it is done, it'll look something like this:

Congratulations!  You have now knit a heel flap.  In the next lesson, I'll show you how to work magic.  We're going to turn the heel.  

Until next time...

Socks And More Socks

I finished my Tidal Wave socks:

I actually finished them a couple of days ago.  I wore them to work today, and they left purple stripes on my feet.  When I got home, I soaked them in some Eucalan, and the water turned dark purple.  I hope I got all the excess dye out.  We'll just have to see.

Next up: Conwy from Knitting On The Road, by Nancy Bush.

Some clouds, just because.

Progress

On the sock, that is...

I'm ready to start the toe decreases, which I will do tomorrow. 

I had to run in to Wal-mart this afternoon to get milk, and I found this:

I know it's hard to tell what it is from the photo, but it is a lap pad thing for my laptop.  It's got a space inside to store the laptop in, if I ever need to take it anywhere with me.  The main reason I bought it, though, is because if I actually hold my laptop in my lap, my thigh muscles start twitching.  I guess it's from the electrical current of the computer.  Whatever the reason, it is very uncomfortable.  I'm hoping this will put enough of a barrier between the laptop and my legs to prevent this from happening. 

It hasn't inspired creativity, though.  I was going to write a post about my earliest childhood memory, and I was going to do it on my laptop while watching TV, but it didn't happen.  I think the sock may have had more to do with that than anything.  I really wanted to get the foot finished before I went to bed tonight. 

And since the foot is finished, I'm going to bed now. 

Goodnight. 

Sock Progress

It's amazing how quickly these things move when the mojo is there.

Next week at this time, I will be watching the Hall of Fame game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Cincinnati Bengals.  Did you hear?  T.O. signed with the Bengals earlier this week.  Him and Ochocinco on the same team--I've got my popcorn ready.

Emmitt Smith is being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Saturday.  Now you may be wondering why I didn't write a long, eloquent post about him, as I did for Bob Hayes last year.  Well, the thing is, Emmitt was a shoe in, and deservedly so.

There was never any doubt that the NFL's all time leading rusher would be a first ballot Hall of Famer.  Never. There was never any anti-Cowboy bias to overcome, nor a drug riddled past. 

We all knew he would waltz right in,

and The Triplets would finally be together again.

So, there really wasn't a whole lot to say about it. Because, in a way, he's been there all along.

Saturday Sundries

The plan was to get up and drive to Columbus.  Christi has been wanting me to come visit, and I'd planned to do so, but in the end, it just didn't happen.  It's been such a hectic week at work that any sort of movement today on my part was out of the question.   Even though the Saturday Sky was a beautiful, cloudless blue

the temperatures were still in the upper 90's, so doing anything outside was out of the question, too.  So, I pretty much stayed inside all day.  The most exciting thing was that yesterday evening my flat iron died.  I'm just glad it died after work, when I could go get a new one without having to go out in public with my hair all sticking out everywhere.

Even my knitting mojo seems to have wilted in the heat.  I need to cast on the second Pixie Dust sock

but it just didn't happen.  I'm part way through the leg of the first Gingerbread House sock

but it didn't reach out and grab me either.  These are both being made with Knit Picks Imagination sock yarn.  I'm telling ya, this yarn ain't it.  I love the color of the Gingerbread House, but the twist is soooo loose that I feel that these socks won't last very long.

Even my Fruit Of The Vine scarf wasn't calling to me.

Nor were the two lace yarns I still have on the needles. So naturally, I did what I always do in these situations.  I cast on something new.

The pattern is Tidal Wave, by Southwest Trading Company.  The pattern was written for their TOFUtsies yarn, but that's not what I'm using.  This is Cherry Tree Hill Supersocke in the limited edition Very Scary colorway.  I've made a pair of these before out of TOFUtsies, but they got huge holes in the heels.  So, we're trying it again.  The mojo is definitely with these.  I cast them on this morning, and am almost ready to turn the heel on the first one.

But that'll have to wait until tomorrow.  I'm going to bed now.

Repairs

I finally got around to fixing my Varanasi sock last night.  I just duplicate stitched over the thin spot.

Not a bad bit of repair, if I do say so myself.  But, when I got ready to wear them to work this morning, I noticed that the other sock had a thin spot, too.    I decided I'd better fix it, too, before I wore the socks again. 

That one was just a bit more tricky, but it looks OK.  Most importantly, I'll get a few more wears out of this pair of socks.  I was a bit disappointed that these wore out so quickly.  This was Lorna's Laces.  It's supposed to be one of the higher quality sock yarns.  I would have thought it would have lasted longer.

Look at what I bought at Wal-mart:

They're cat toys.   I thought Squeaky might like to play with them.  Squeaky thought differently. 

"You went to that great big store, and all I got were a couple of wads of paper.  I'm not talking to you anymore."

Big Black Socks

The big black socks are finished! They seemed to take forever, even though it was just shy of two months. Now I just have to find a suitable charity to send them to.

Specs:

Yarn: Knitpicks Essential

Color: Black

Needles: 2.5 mm Knitpicks DPNs

Gauge: 10 spi

Pattern: Generic sock pattern with K2 P2 leg and slip stitch heel

Now to get some of my other socks finished before starting on the next pair.

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Socks and Skies and Snakes

WARNING: This post contains photos of a snake. They will be at the very end of the post, and I'll give you fair warning as to when to stop reading. And now, back to our regularly scheduled blog entry.


We'll start with the socks. My second BBS is almost done. I've only half an inch to go before starting toe decreases. Since I am so close to being done, I'm going to wait to post a picture. Frankly, I'll be so glad to be finished. These are like the socks that never end.


The sky started off perfectly clear--one of those solid blue rectangles. By lunch time, clouds were beginning to move in, so I snapped this picture. By late afternoon, the sky was completely clouded over.

A few weeks ago, I was reading a blog entry by an Australian who was at the time in the US. She was going on an outdoor adventure of a kind which I don't remember, and mentioned that one of her acquaintances had warned her to watch out for poison ivy. The blogger mentioned that she had no idea what poison ivy looked like. I wish I could find said blog once again, because poison ivy grows in abundance in my yard.

Yes, that is all poison ivy, and here is a closeup, for easy identification:

My little man was quite proud of himself. He was finally allowed to mow the yard:

He mowed all 3 acres, and did a right good job of it, too. If it had been up to me, he'd have been mowing years ago, but the lawnmower belongs to J.

One last item before I get to the snake.

I'm not normally a bag person. My definition of purse has always been "a handy way to lose everything at once." It follows that I don't scream and squeal over them. I've carried the same denim fanny pack for years, and it replaced one that looked just like it. That's why it came as such a surprise, even to me, that when I saw this camo messenger bag, I actually liked it. I bought it, thinking I would make a knitting bag out of it, but I decided it was big enough to hold my wallet, checkbook, and a sock in progress.

Now, if you don't want to see the snake pictures, stop here.

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Ok, if you are still reading, I'm going to assume you have no fear of snakes. I was out walking Rylea this afternoon when we stumbled across this little beauty:

As my luck would have it, I didn't have my camera with me. Naturally, I did the only thing I could do in that situation. I tied Rylea to a tree and caught it.

I'm not sure what kind of snake it is. It looks like either a kingsnake or a sub-species of rat snake. I even went to the Mississippi State University snake identification site, but none of the snakes there quite matched this one. The solid grey head and relatively unmarked belly is what is throwing me as for identification.

I do know that it is nonvenomous. I am quite familiar with the venomous snakes native to this area, so I had no fear in catching it. Good thing, because it took a little nibble on my thumb. It didn't hurt, and barely drew blood, but gave me a nice little bite pattern.

As for my own snakes, it was feeding day for all but one of them. Everyone but Slider ate. I swear, I think that snake is trying to starve himself do death.

How does one make a smiley for pulling your hair out?

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Socks and Skies

This morning's sky was beautiful. Good thing I got this picture when I did, because just an hour later, the clouds had cleared off and the sky was clear. It makes for a beautiful sky, but a rather dull picture--that rectangle of solid blue.

I finished the July mid month dishcloth:

I've decided to go back and finally do the June mid month cloth, the pattern of which has been languishing in my inbox for a month, now. I always intended to do it. I just never got around to it, until today.

The second black sock is coming along nicely, with 9" of leg knit so far.

Unfortunately, all my work may be for naught. I asked Cody to try them on, and he claimed he couldn't get them over his heel. I was able to get them on with room to spare, and they fit over a 2 liter coke bottle. Hopefully, there'll be some skinny legged soldier wherever these are going who will be able to wear them.

Pay no attention to the pasty white leg above the sock. It was a gift from my Swedish ancestors.

Socks and Skies and Shrooms

But first, the July dishcloth KAL, which I finally completed--just a couple of days late. Yes, there is a design element in there, but I didn't catch it until I had already bound off, so it will stay.

Now on to the weekly summary of socks:

I finished the bubble wrap socks. The yarn is Steinbach Wolle color #05. This is the first time I'd ever used that yarn, and I both loved and hated it. I loved the softness of it, and the colorway. At the same time, I hated it because it was so extremely splitty. I think I had to knit every stitch in these socks twice--once, then once again when I had to redo the stitch to correct where I'd split the yarn. I do declare that I've never in my life seen such a splitty yarn. But it was very soft, and got even softer when I washed it. Now that they're done, I do really like these socks.

My Big Black Sock is past the heel turn and gusset decreases! Yippee! Now I just have to knit a big foot and the first one will be done. Man, that leg seemed to take forever. I hope the foot goes faster.

I started this simple garter rib sock with the watermelon yarn I won. This was to be a leisure sock for a man, but looking at it, I wonder how many men are going to want to wear hot pink and green socks? I could make lady socks out of it, but the need for men's socks is so much greater. I'd really wanted to do those. I don't know, though. More and more men are wearing pink these days, so maybe they will go for them. I'm using Comfort Zone needles to knit these, and so far I don't like them. They are wayyy bendy. That is supposed to be their selling point, but I'm finding it difficult to pull my yarn through because the tips bend so much. I'm told that one has to get used to these, so I'll keep plugging away at them and hope they get better.

Finally, the Jaywalkers. I got a little bit done on them this week, but the soldier socks have been taking priority here lately.

This is the sky I woke up to this morning. It was raining so hard that I didn't even try to walk the puppy until it quit. The yard was all soggy and the ditches were full. Katie of course, bailed off into them as soon as she got outside, but Rylea was a bit more hesitant. She eventually did get out into the water just a bit. It wasn't even deep enough that she had to swim, but she got out pretty quickly.
Later on, the clouds moved off and the sky looked like this. Much better. The cloudiness kept the temps down, and it almost felt like fall outside.


Today's Pic: mushrooms--or toadstools, I'm not quite sure which they are. July 7, 2007