Sock 'o Doom
Since Blogger is having issues with loading pictures I'll post the right up top to avoid a crash after writing tons.
This is the first of the pair, I'm down to the toe tonight but decided to wait until morning to finish so I could update the blog. This whole "Sock Wars" has been quite the experience! First there's been tons of controversey about the name - it's very offensive to some. And I do wish it'd been title sock tag, or even better: socks forward. As I knitted tonight and thought about the whole game and how it works when you get right down to it, is that everyone knits a pair for the person down the list from them so everyone should end up with a pair. Makes me think that Socks Forward would be a good possibility for a KAL. (That stands for Knit A Long - it took me forever to figure that out. LOL)
On the very evening the pattern and individual dossiers were to be directly emailed to each participant, wouldn't you know a HURRICANE slams N. Ireland where our fearless leader lives. Hurrican Gordon has thrown the works into a tailspin leaving Yarn-Monkey pretty much incommunicado. She did manage to get out the entire list of who knits for whom - with emails - on her blog but there's been no word since Saturday. Meanwhile at the forum comments and questions having been whirling. For the most part it seems people are being honest sports, playing the game by the rules but of course there are always a few who get super competitive over this and are going full bore ahead to out knit everyone. The riot is, it all comes down to not necessarily how fast you can knit a pair of socks but how fast the person targeting you can, and the one targeting her. And factor in International and unreliable mail.
I guess that's why I'm thinking of it more in lines of simply trying to knit up a pair of socks as rapidly as feasible for a new "friend".
The pattern calls for DK yarn. Apparently it's common in the UK and Europe, I had a harder time finding some. The yarn I did buy isn't labeled DK but it worked up to gauge and I love the color. The working pattern has a 2 row repeat: Row 1 - k3,p3 Row 2 - k,p which makes for very expandable ribs. I'm liking the combination of the yarn with this pattern so much that I keep thinking it'd make a striking sweater. At the least I may buy yarn just to make fingerless gloves for myself.
Saturday evening Crooked Finger played for the annual barbecue for some branch of the forestry dept. Though the day was almost hot, the evening cooled off quickly. The last half hour of playing my fingers were cold and I kept thinking how good a pair of wool fingerless gloves would feel. I think I'd be able to play the violin with them on though I should probably use a fingering wool.
Last week I was chained to the grindstone. (Archaic term but chained to the computer seems so dull) I had to totally rewrite the Spinning Booklet. I'd saved a copy to a CD but the computer wouldn't open it. My HP could open it but I'd done it on the Mac so HP thought it was gibberish. I decided I may as well take new pictures. Dark backgrounds use tons of ink when printing! I'm quite pleased with it overall. It's basically the same but I did go a bit more indepth with the silk. I finished printing and putting together 80 books in time to take them to Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival held just 16 miles from our place.
OFFF couldn't have landed on a more pleasant weekend! We're experiencing an incredible Indian summer in the Pac NW. The weekend had temps in the mid 80s! Even more astonishing was the atmosphere was such that the air was clearer than it's been since last spring. The Cascade Mountains were bold in their blue presence. Mt Hood & Mt Rainier dazzling with the fresh coat of snow that had fallen during the rainy weekdays in the valley. Yes! Mt Rainier to the North can be seen on bright clear days. Mt St Helen almost aways has a tinge of grey on her mantle of white. Regrettably I have no picture to share. Two days I drove to OFFF and two days I was several miles from home before I remembered the camera.
A friend called today wondering if I was home. (Yes, buried in end of the month bookwork & accounting stuff for the business. ) She was headed from town on her bike to pay a visit. About half an hour later the computer crashed just as I was rounding third base with the ledger. Of course, I'd forgotten to press Save. ARGH! So Ed kindly filled my tires with air and I pedaled out to meet her. It was the break I'd badly needed. The air is still sweet from all of last weeks rains, the fall harvesting is still under way so the different rich smells of the fields, along with still ripe blackberries wafted on the breeze. The dairy with it's newly fermenting silage was the only slightly obnoxious part. It was worse coming back since the road winds uphill alongside the dairy. We met up about 2.5 miles from here, just before she encountered the last hills coming to our place.
So now, I'm planning to try to get in at least a short ride everyday while this fabulous weather holds. It's too precious to be couped up in front of the computer!
This is the first of the pair, I'm down to the toe tonight but decided to wait until morning to finish so I could update the blog. This whole "Sock Wars" has been quite the experience! First there's been tons of controversey about the name - it's very offensive to some. And I do wish it'd been title sock tag, or even better: socks forward. As I knitted tonight and thought about the whole game and how it works when you get right down to it, is that everyone knits a pair for the person down the list from them so everyone should end up with a pair. Makes me think that Socks Forward would be a good possibility for a KAL. (That stands for Knit A Long - it took me forever to figure that out. LOL)
On the very evening the pattern and individual dossiers were to be directly emailed to each participant, wouldn't you know a HURRICANE slams N. Ireland where our fearless leader lives. Hurrican Gordon has thrown the works into a tailspin leaving Yarn-Monkey pretty much incommunicado. She did manage to get out the entire list of who knits for whom - with emails - on her blog but there's been no word since Saturday. Meanwhile at the forum comments and questions having been whirling. For the most part it seems people are being honest sports, playing the game by the rules but of course there are always a few who get super competitive over this and are going full bore ahead to out knit everyone. The riot is, it all comes down to not necessarily how fast you can knit a pair of socks but how fast the person targeting you can, and the one targeting her. And factor in International and unreliable mail.
I guess that's why I'm thinking of it more in lines of simply trying to knit up a pair of socks as rapidly as feasible for a new "friend".
The pattern calls for DK yarn. Apparently it's common in the UK and Europe, I had a harder time finding some. The yarn I did buy isn't labeled DK but it worked up to gauge and I love the color. The working pattern has a 2 row repeat: Row 1 - k3,p3 Row 2 - k,p which makes for very expandable ribs. I'm liking the combination of the yarn with this pattern so much that I keep thinking it'd make a striking sweater. At the least I may buy yarn just to make fingerless gloves for myself.
Saturday evening Crooked Finger played for the annual barbecue for some branch of the forestry dept. Though the day was almost hot, the evening cooled off quickly. The last half hour of playing my fingers were cold and I kept thinking how good a pair of wool fingerless gloves would feel. I think I'd be able to play the violin with them on though I should probably use a fingering wool.
Last week I was chained to the grindstone. (Archaic term but chained to the computer seems so dull) I had to totally rewrite the Spinning Booklet. I'd saved a copy to a CD but the computer wouldn't open it. My HP could open it but I'd done it on the Mac so HP thought it was gibberish. I decided I may as well take new pictures. Dark backgrounds use tons of ink when printing! I'm quite pleased with it overall. It's basically the same but I did go a bit more indepth with the silk. I finished printing and putting together 80 books in time to take them to Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival held just 16 miles from our place.
OFFF couldn't have landed on a more pleasant weekend! We're experiencing an incredible Indian summer in the Pac NW. The weekend had temps in the mid 80s! Even more astonishing was the atmosphere was such that the air was clearer than it's been since last spring. The Cascade Mountains were bold in their blue presence. Mt Hood & Mt Rainier dazzling with the fresh coat of snow that had fallen during the rainy weekdays in the valley. Yes! Mt Rainier to the North can be seen on bright clear days. Mt St Helen almost aways has a tinge of grey on her mantle of white. Regrettably I have no picture to share. Two days I drove to OFFF and two days I was several miles from home before I remembered the camera.
A friend called today wondering if I was home. (Yes, buried in end of the month bookwork & accounting stuff for the business. ) She was headed from town on her bike to pay a visit. About half an hour later the computer crashed just as I was rounding third base with the ledger. Of course, I'd forgotten to press Save. ARGH! So Ed kindly filled my tires with air and I pedaled out to meet her. It was the break I'd badly needed. The air is still sweet from all of last weeks rains, the fall harvesting is still under way so the different rich smells of the fields, along with still ripe blackberries wafted on the breeze. The dairy with it's newly fermenting silage was the only slightly obnoxious part. It was worse coming back since the road winds uphill alongside the dairy. We met up about 2.5 miles from here, just before she encountered the last hills coming to our place.
So now, I'm planning to try to get in at least a short ride everyday while this fabulous weather holds. It's too precious to be couped up in front of the computer!
posted by Fiberjoy at 9:06 PM
5 Comments:
I hadn't even considered how Sock *Wars* would feel to someone of your tender heart and high principles. Much higher "ouch" factor than my mild discomfort at meeting my Knit Night friends at a coffeehouse, when coffee is not part of my world because of *my* principles.
I'll make you a deal. Once the dust has settled from Sock Wars and our fingers have rested up a bit, if you want to organize a rousing game of Sock Tag, I will gladly sign up to be "it".
And in the meantime, I hand you a fresh-from-the-oven [virtual] brownie, chock-full of dried cranberries and ginormous pecan halves that a friend from church brought us last fall.
Mmm, fresh brownie with cranberries & pecans. Scrumptious. I had a tall glass of cold milk with it. :-) Thanks Lynn!
As for starting a KAL, well the whole process of organizing and processing something on this scale is more than I could chew right now.
What a lovely post, and I'm with you on 'SockWars', although there are plenty of folks out there having a grand time...and honestly, if all 'wars' could be 'fought' with pointy needles and yarn...What yarn did you find to use? I would be all up for a Sock Tag but alas I wouldn't even know how to go about organizing such a thing. I love seeing your photos and reading your posts, my brother lives in Eugene and back in the 70's I lived in Portland, and I miss the Great Northwest. So, what type of spindle do you recommend for someone just starting? I love the turkish spindles your husband makes....are they good for beginners? As it is it will be after the holidays before I'll be able to actually 'do' anything about it, but I'm dreaming and thinking.
It was good to see you last weekend - I just wish we had some time to sit and visit, or walk about and spin together; now that would have made it perfect!
I love the new photos in the book - they look great.
and yes, our discussion about the Sock Wars was an interesting one to me :-) thanks...
Fiberjoy, my dream is to hear you play the fiddle for me one starry night, so keep those fingers nimble! And as regards sock wars or sock tag - well let's have Sock Midwinter soon so we can send each other mementoes of the great midwinter celebration when the sun at last turns and begins to climb. A little green sock or a red one? With leaves or petals from wherever we live tucked inside? What fun that would be.
Jo
Celtic Memory Yarns
Post a Comment
<< Home