These socks are the Lichen Ribbed Socks pattern out of Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.  I'm knitting them in Knit Picks "Simple Strips" yarn which is 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon.  I really like the colours in this yarn. 

I had actually completed these socks and then decided the heel flap was too long for my feet.  I've ripped one sock back and made the heel flap only 24 rows long rather than the 30 called for in the pattern.  Now to reknit the heel and foot, then I'll rip back the other one.

Right now I'm working on a basket weave scarf.  I'm using the scarf to practice my continental knitting.  I learned to knit English/American throw-style, but after all these years my right wrist has started to bug me a lot.  So far my tension is all over the place.  Part of my problem is that I hold my left fingers a little too straight.  I'm trying to get myself to bend my fingers more and relax them, but I think that's going to take awhile.

One thing I have discovered that I really like is Norwegian purling.  You can check out a small video of it here.  Scroll down to the "Alternative Methods" section.  I love not having to move the yarn to the front to purl.  There is an extra movement to do this, but I find it a lot easier than regular continental purling.

I'm interested in trying the combination knitting developed by Annie Modesitt, but I think I'll work on learning western continental first.  I feel like a brand new knitter and don't feel like doing much knitting right now, because anything I really want to make right now I would have to do throw style.

Enough for now.  I'll try to post some actual photos soon.

Yes, I've been lazy about updating my blog.  A lot's been going on.

George & I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary on Saturday, May 6th.  We had 4 people over for dinner and then told them it was our anniversary.  George made Aghan Chicken, cooked on a rotisserie over a charcoal fire.  He also grilled some tomatoes and red bell peppers directly on the coals, and grilled some asparagus which he then doused with balsamic vinegar.  The final dish was the cooked up onion and spice marinating sauce from the chickens.  Dinner was delicious and we finished it with a Black Forest cake that one of our guests brought.

On Sunday May 7th, George & I took the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train.  We did the brunch trip.  We're glad we finally went on the train, but we're in no hurry to go again.  The food was alright, but we've had better.  I've since been assured by people who have been on the dinner trip that the food is great.

Last night (May 9th), we went to see Cirque du Soleil's performance of Varekai.  It was wonderful and different from the original show as developed and shown on the series "Fire Within".  Some elements were still there, but a lot was new to us which made it fresh.

Well... I've been a little ill and a lot injured.  I picked up some kind of headcold or something that caused me to miss work last Thursday 4/27 and work only 3 hours on Friday 4/28.  Meanwhile on Sunday evening 4/23, my right foot started to hurt.  As the week went on, it got worse.  I saw my podiatrist yesterday and he took x-rays.  Good news - no fractures.  Bad news - he thinks I've torn a tendon.  I'll be in a walking cast for the next 3 weeks while we see if that helps it heal.  I'm in a lot of pain and last night woke up at 3am because of it.  I was back in bed by 5am and the alarm went off at 7:30am.  I'm now exhausted and in pain.

On the knitting front, I finished the small basket and felted it.  It's looking pretty good.  I took the 3 baskets to my knitting class last week.  Lauren and I agree that I need to run the largest basket through a hot wash again after I fasten the handles on more securely.  I did a much better job with the handles on the medium and small baskets after seeing how the handles on the large basket turned out.

I re-did the toe on George's left sock and he's much happier with the fit.  Now to wash and block them slightly.  And to get him to wear them out of the house.

I started another pair of socks, this time for me.  I've finished the first sock and last night I started the second sock, and with being up for two hours in the early morning, started on the gusset already.  The 2nd sock will likely be done tonight or tomorrow evening.

I've been very busy recently.  Ended up working both Saturday and today as we're in a crunch to release a product.  It's been a case of fix one bug and introduce two new ones.  At least I get paid time and a half since I'm a contractor rather than a salaried employee.  I've been having trouble sleeping so with this on top of it, I'm really tired!  The product needs to be done by Friday EOD and I have a couple of other products to test so this will be another busy week at work.

Meanwhile, I felted the second basket and it's looking good.  I hope to finish crocheting the third, smallest basket and get it felted tonight so I can take the set to show off at Tuesday's knitting class.  I still need to re-do George's sock toe, but I might be able to do that on the bus to and from work.  Then it'll be time to come up with a new project.  Any ideas?  More socks? A knitted felted bag?  Another Faroese-style shawl?

I got some advice from a co-worker in another department and went out to the Mercury Support Knowledge Base.  I used a GetROProperty command to get the encoded URL and feed it back to the script so that I always have the URL created by the run.  I've also figured out how to parameterize the starting URL so I can change country, language, etc for our international purchase paths.  I'm feeling very good about my progress with QTP and VBScripting right now.

I felted the blue basket yesterday and wanted it tighter so I turned up the heat on the hot water heater this morning, then ran it thru the washer again tonight.  It's drying now.  Meanwhile, last night I finished the green basket (medium size), except for the handles as they need to be in the blue yarn and I need some more.  This basket holds only 5 of our stuffed animals.

I finished George's socks tonight at knitting class.  He tried them on and I need to re-do the toe on the left sock because it's a little tight.



And yes, there is a left sock vs right sock.  I'm knitting socks for George because his right foot is 2 sizes larger than his left foot.  This is the result of foot surgery he had when he was 10 years old.  At first I worried about how to distinguish the socks from each other: knit a L on one, R on the other; put a different color for a row on the sole; etc.  I didn't need to do any of that after all as the size difference is so obvious!  (Except in the foreshortening in this pic.)

I finished sewing up the sides Sunday evening.  I don't know why I put it off for so long other than I hate seaming.  It's really cute and I plan to take it to show off at my Tuesday evening knitting class.  Then I need to get it mailed off to the birthday girl. 

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

Tuesday night I started a crocheted basket to be felted.  The large size is huge as I'm using a 15mm hook.



I finished the basket, except for the handles, tonight and filled the basket with our stuffed animals that live in the living room.  I was able to fit 7 in this basket.