6 Days - 7 Nights

Sock Worm on the right: "Look what I see."
Sock Worm on the left: "I can't bear to look....I'm keeping my eye closed."
I've always had a problem with a loose gauge, but on the last half of Sock #2, I just had a feeling I was knitting too tight. It ended without the last 2 rows being navy. But, I'm done and these toes will either be inside my clogs or will make for interesting conversation!

Liz said to take photos using natural daylight to get closer to the true color. During daylight today (which was pretty dark due to overcast skies), I wasn't finished with Sock #2. During daylight tomorrow, I'll be at work and we have no windows. I thought about taking my socks to work, going outside at lunch, changing into the socks and taking a photo, but then decided to just tell you that these socks are closer to shades of cornflower blue than royal/turquoise. I'll take a photo next weekend.

Needless to say....I'm so excited. It took me only 6 days to finish the 2nd sock...and during that time I worked a few days, grocery shopped, cooked, did laundry, bought the gray/red/gold Sassy Stripes, got my 16 year old son a job, went with my husband to buy a new grill, helped him put it together, and went to church and youth group! Not bad! Those stripes seem to really keep me going. ("I'll get up and cook when I get to the next color change.....")

Now I'm going to ignore the celtic cable scarf, the silk sari scarf, the Lopi dog sweater, the WIPs put away years ago and knit another pair of socks.

Tagged....I'm It

I was “tagged” by AuntieAnn. Here are the rules and my random facts!

Rules:

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts about themselves.

2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their 8 random things and post the rules.

3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and post their names.

4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Eight Random Things about Me:

1. I've lived in 7 states and 3 countries (counting the US). The other countries were in Asia. I would love to live in a European country for a while, but alas....without someone else to pay for it......

2. I sold Mary Kay for several years. When consultants tell how they got into Mary Kay (to sell products or recruit other consultants), they tell their "I" story. My "eye" story is about how I was primping for an evening of excitement at Seminar in Dallas and pulled all my eyelashes out of one eye when the eyelash curler slipped. They were all stuck perfectly curved on the mirror, and my eye was bald!

3. I fold towels in secret because I'm the only one in my family who knows how to do it right. I don't want to crush their egos by letting them know I refold their incorrect work when they aren't looking.

4. I've been through the San Francisco earthquake, the 1968 tornado in Topeka, Kansas, several floods in Oklahoma and Texas, and several hurricanes/cyclones on the Gulf Coast and in Japan. Don't be afraid to be around me....I really don't think it's me!

5. I have webbed toes but I'm not a very strong swimmer. (Actually only the 2nd and 3rd toes are partially webbed).

6. I earned expert medals in pistol and rifle, and I've fired an M-60 machine gun and an M-79 grenade launcher. These skills come in handy when knitting (or threatening the family to let me finish a round).

7. I hiked down the South Teton (we actually ran the last mile and luckily our legs kept up with gravity) and from the top of Haleakala to Hana, Maui. I've never hiked UP a big mountain.

8. I like mint and I like chocolate, but I hate them together. I'm never in the fight over a York or the last Thin Mint.

I'm too new to blogging to have anyone to tag (other than those who've already been tagged and tagged me).


Sock Update

Maybe later I'll post a photo of my completed sock #2. I'm beating my speed record and have just started on the foot with 2 days left in this long weekend to knit

Memorial Day

Please remember those have served and are currently serving our country.

The Twelve Days of Sock Knitting

At 10:43 PM on May 22, 2007, I finished the sock I started on May 11th. I used Cascade Yarn Sassy Stripes. After many false starts, I finally got rolling. I might have even finished on time, but Saturday before the challenge was over, I didn't even look at my knitting bag. And I forgot to keep track of the hours I spent knitting so don't know exactly how long it took. The main thing was that it was fun and I'm pleased with how it turned out (except I did end up with those ears on the toes, but since the kitchener stitch is navy, you can't see it).

I started Sock #2 last night. Since I'd made a few alterations to the sizing and didn't take good notes, I had to start before I forgot what I was doing. (I guess if I remember now, I could stop knitting long enough to clarify my notes!) I wanted #2 to have basically the same stripe pattern as Sock #1, so had to pull a bunch of yarn out of the skein to get to the right color for the cast-on.

While working on this, my mind kept wandering to the Sassy Stripes in the grey, red and gold colorway. I'm wondering how that would look......

So....the sock challenge begins today! I think the first thing I will do tonight is uncheat ... I started my sock before the challenge but after Liz wrote about it, did a few rows which I've realized are messed up. Is that karma?

I was going to help my friend, Stacey, cook for the graduation party of a young man who is very dear to us and is graduating from college tomorrow. But this morning I realized I haven't spent an evening at home with my family in a week. Even if I'm knitting, I'm with them (and can feed them). Plus, if I'm going to enjoy Mother's Day with Liz, I've got to get going on my own weekend chores....

I'm so looking forward to Mother's Day, but can hardly believe it will really happen...or more to the point...will I really be able to sit and knit and not be fussing around with food, helping Liz with all that laundry, nagging her brother to clean his room...

So...to all you Knit a Sock in a Day participants - good luck and good knitting!

Sock in a Day....or a Sock in 18 hours or less

I've joined Everwhelming Liz's Sock in a Day challenge. I just wonder if I have to frog the 3 garter ridges and 1st 2 pattern rows of my chevron (Sensational Knitted Socks) out of Sassy Stripes in blues? I already have cast on, knit six rows, ripped out 4 and reknit 6. I promise not to pick it up again till the 11th and will count the 2 hours I worked on this while watching Food Network Caters Your Hawaiian Wedding on Sunday afternoon. I think working on a sock would be a great Mother's Day activity!

I've been asked about my name...Da Gu Ma...and what the heck that means. This is the name given to me by my neice - well, actually by her mother before she could call me this. My brother's beautiful wife is from Taiwan. Da Gu Ma means "oldest aunt on father's side." My sister loves this, as her name, Ar Gu Ma, means "2nd aunt on father's side" (therefore letting everyone who understands Chinese know that I'm older)! I am just using phonetic spelling because I have no idea how else to write these names. Four year old Marianne, who understands but resists speaking Chinese, sounds so adorable when she calls us.

While Not Knitting.......

This weekend, my family did something new for us. My sister's son, and my husband's niece and her husband all competed in a triathlon. My sister, her daughter-in-law, grandson and I drove around trying to capture her son on camera as he biked (we missed the swim due to our usual problems in leaving on time and getting organized - like knowing exactly which condo they were staying in when we went to pick up Lauren and Jake!). Among the family paparazzi, I got the best shot!!

We missed his run because the sky opened up. Although we tried to get out of the car and watch for him among the sloshing runners, all we managed to do was get really wet and take photos of Jake "eating rain." We never did see our niece, but I ran into her Sunday as she waited for her husband to run in triumphantly from his event. All of them did really well and had a great time! We had fun watching and especially having family visit us.

Photos.....at last...

OK...after discovering the "Add Image" button last post, I finally had time to try it. Knitting blogs are so much better with them. The foot picture is the alpaca pre-frogging. You can't really see the little cable running down either side of the leg. You couldn't really see it even in a good photo or in real life.





You can definitely see the cable in the scarf. I'm really having fun with this, and with a 16 row pattern, it gives me great goals and stopping places when I have time to sit and knit.


I decided to also add a photo showing what you can do with Venezia if you get tired of knitting it and want to stop at the arm holes. Wouldn't that look cute on the slopes?

Screech......Rip..........New Plans for the Alpaca

The alpaca feels so wonderful....but when almost to the toe on sock #1 I finally admitted to myself that I just wasn't liking the way the socks looked! So after talking with my knitting consultant (a.k.a. daughter), I frogged them. I was going to do a 2 by 2 rib sock, which I thought would work well with the slightly fuzzy yarn, but I just kept thinking about the Celtic Cable scarf pattern on the Kraemer Yarns website (http://www.kraemeryarns.com/patterns/pdfs/CelticCableScarf.pdf). I have a lot of scarves, because I love them, and wasn't sure if I needed another very warm one, but this cable pattern is so cool. Besides, even though we are subtropical here, remember the dog that needs walking every day? I'm sure I'll love wearing it during our cold month next winter. It takes more concentration than I'm used to, but it's fun to watch the cable grow. I'll post a photo as soon as I figure out how to do that. I'm sure my consultant will help....oh....I just noticed the little "add image" button - I might can do this myself!

Update on the dog sweater which I was knitting without a pattern (I just measured the dog). It's in the 70's in the evening now, so when I got up to the part where I needed to figure out how to do the legs, I decided it wasn't worth the mental effort (I'm a pretty lazy knitter). It's not in a drawer yet....just over in a corner of the den waiting for attention - sort of like the dog.

Have I Gone Too Far? or Other Uses for Islandic Lopi

So for the last 2 weeks, the weather alert system at my job has been warning us of possible freezing temperatures here in the pretty far Southern US this weekend. And I have a huge stash of bulky Lopi that a girl friend brought me from Iceland when she was sent by the Navy for a couple of weeks. So I decided that since our family pet, a sort of pitiful but sweet, Lab mix with diabetes and doctor's orders to walk every day, needed a warm sweater for this weekend. (Let me say that I have never believed in dog clothes and think that she has WAY too much hair as it is - which she obviously doesn't need because she sheds it everywhere). But if we are out walking in 0 degree freezing rain, I think she needs something. I also wanted something to knit while watching TV that didn't require me to look at it. I'm about 1/2 way done, the front has come through, and I won't even have to bring in my orchids that can't stay outside if it gets below 40! I know global warming can cause extremes in temperature, so if not this winter, maybe next? I'm starting to think that this wooly blue dog sweater (knit on size 15s to make it go fast) will go into a pretty full draw of half-finished knitting projects.

Now, I'll have to pay attention to what I'm doing and get my alpaca socks finished before our temperatures get back up into the 70's!

Genesis

I have been keeping up with my daughter's knitting for a while through her blog, and now she'll be able to do the same. It seems I call her for knitting advice and it's hard to follow without photos. Maybe this will solve the problem! But, I have work to do today and better get after it.