Over the weekend, I had the prettiest blue irises to enjoy. I thought perhaps you would like to see them too.
Knitting Over
The other day I began knitting another pair of socks. I was doing two on two circular needles at the same time. I noticed when I wound the balls that the colors were a little different, but it wasn’t until I took a photo of them that I realized how different they were. Now, they are supposed to be the same, but they obviously aren’t.
I got the balls mixed up when I took this photo. The ball for the sock on the left is on the right. Do you see, though, how different the socks are turning out? After I saw this photo, I decided that I couldn’t stand that. If they’d been patterned yarn and just turned out a little differently, I’d have left them, but this was going to look like I was wearing mismatched socks. So I ripped. Story of my life.
I decided to mingle the yarns on each sock. That way, each sock would have both yarns and hopefully, look similar. Naturally, I can’t do two socks at the same time now. Well, I could if I halved each ball, but rather than do that, I decided to make one sock at a time and hope that second sock syndrome doesn’t strike. This is the fabric I’m getting now, and I like it much better.
I’m quite a bit further along now. In fact, I just have to bind off the first sock. I hope that the moment I bind it off, I start the second one. I’m deathly afraid that I’ll not want to do the other one. The last time I did two socks separately, I think I waited eight or nine years before finishing the other one. There is a lot to be said for knitting on two circular needles–mainly, that you can finish a pair at the same time. One thing I will say is that I think this sock fits me better than any I’ve made in a long time. I think I’ve been making my socks a bit too long.
Compensations
We had a lot of things go wrong around here during the past few days, one of which was that the air conditioner went out. That night we had a very big thunderstorm roll through here with lots of rain, so that added a lot of humidity to our temperature. We’d been having temperatures around 85 degrees. So the next morning, when we got up, we opened up the house to a fog. Lucky was delighted with the idea. There are compensations to those who put up with the heat and humidity–at least, cats find it so. He loves to sit in the windows when we have them open and observe and smell all the things that are normally shut off from him. Being a safe, inside cat does have its disadvantages. So while we were without cool air, Lucky perched in the cat tree and looked down on the back yard happenings.
In the meantime, we’ve had the air conditioner repairman out to replace the part that had gone bad. It took him two trips for parts, but it did get done. It’s nice to have air conditioning again, and it can be as humid as it likes now, we won’t protest.
Actually, we were quite fortunate in that the down time came when there wasn’t just awful heat outside, and we often had a small but welcome breeze. The sight of the curtains billowing in the cool breeze was welcome, and it struck me that it’s an almost unfamiliar sight down here. Between mosquitoes, gnats, and the heat, we don’t get to see billowing curtains much anymore. I think that sight was one of the nicest parts of the film, Sense and Sensibility. I loved seeing the open windows. I did notice that the traffic noises were more noticeable, though. Also, we had two wasps show up in the house. Win a little, lose a little.
Books
I had ordered some books back on April 10, and one of them didn’t come in. I waited and waited, contacted the seller, etc. Nothing. I bought it through Amazon, and when the seller didn’t seem to want to do anything about it not showing up when they said it should, I got a reimbursement from Amazon. The same day the air conditioning went out, my husband went outside to get the mail, and when he came in he tossed a package in my lap. My missing book! It took over a month to get here from WA state. I don’t know whether the seller forgot to send the book originally and hurridly got it to me when I sent a complaint or whether it went astray. It had several stickers on it, but at any rate, I made things right with Amazon and the seller, and I’ve been enjoying all the charts for various sized socks contained in Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. If you know the size shoe a person wears, she gives you the measurements you need to make a sock to fit that foot. It’s a good thing to have on hand. This isn’t a new book; in fact, she has another book out, More Sensational Knitted Socks. I may order it too.
An added benefit is that I’ve also noticed that a lot of the socks I’ve been seeing on the German sock knitting list have been taken from this book. So now, I have the patterns.
I am waiting on Lacis to get a new shipment of New Style Heirloom Knitting by Toshiyuki Shimada in. It’s that Japanese book that has all the lace knitters going crazy. I think I’ll enjoy making some of the designs in it, and I guess while I’m waiting for it to come in, I’ll finish my other sock and maybe start something else. I have plenty of yarn to keep me occupied.
Lacis is doing a lot of things for lace knitters right now. They are apparently attempting to get some lace needles for lace knitters, and they told me that they will have some Japanese knitting dictionaries and stitch pattern books in soon. They are also working at reprinting some of the books the Niebling designs were in. So if you’re interested in lace, watch Lacis.
I am also reading Debbie Macomber’s 6 Ranier Drive. It’s a pleasant continuation of her story of the people living in Cedar Cove. It had been so long since I read any others in the series, it took me a while to remember who all the characters were, but I eventually did.
Memories
Today is Daddy’s birthday. He would have been 84 had he lived. Happy birthday, Daddy.