::waves:: Hi! I’m not dead yet.

I counted several thousand yeast yesterday (13 hours, woot!). And will do so again today, in between a lab inspection, making MORE yeast to count, and measuring protein concentration in still more yeast.

But, in the evening, I finally finished… the sock. And I did promise you a post about knitting and fiber, didn’t I?

You see, in April, I learned to knit, thanks to the wonderful women of my Knit Night. Because I’m like that, I decided to start with a pair of socks. Note this is not the sock of doom, but in fact, a sock (Thuja) that showed up on The Yarn Harlot’s blog (I’m the one in the kilt near the end of the post). That pair of socks came out just fine.

My First Knitting

For my second knitting project I did a scarf, the One-Row Scarf by the Yarn Harlot with my first handspun, so why not try something harder?

Well the first problem was that I wanted to make socks for Dad. But not just plain socks. I wanted a little ornamentation, but the socks still had to be masculine and wearable. Hrm. So I got some Wildfoote sock yarn in Tom Cat, and searched for patterns in my new Sensational Knitted Socks book (Charlene Schurch) and found a nice, “looks like cables” pattern, ok some new techniques, toe up, cool… I got started.

Unfortunately, I discovered that this pattern makes small eyelets in the centers of the “cables.” This is bad when you have a Dad with hairy legs. Doh.

I know… let’s design our own sock! Why not, right?

Hmm… why not add real cables? What’s one more new method in your third knitting project ever?

The cables were my first downfall. A good friend (and yes, I still call her that after this) tried to convince me that cables are much easier if you “air cable.” Uh huh. Someone else, with thicker, more sproingy yarn maybe… me, not so much. I’d go to cable and ZOOOM! My stitch would vanish down the side of the sock and suddenly I’d go from a cabled sock to a Clapotis sock. ::grumbles::

So I frogged, cast on again, and started again. Rinse. Repeat. Twice. Why yes, I’m stubborn, how do you think I survived Biochemistry?

So I finally gave in and went back to the cable needle. Slower, but I didn’t lose stitches. Hurray.

But then… then… without warning, doom struck. I started… to spin. Like spin a lot. The bug hit, and hit hard. Why knit in the evenings when my brain could take off in wild flights of fancy making yarns?

And so, this poor sock, started in June, has only just been finished. Note that I said sock. Singular. Yes. It’s taken me from June until now to finish a single sock. Blame spinning. It is evil and addicting.

So, the sock. It’s an ankle sock because that’s what Dad likes. It has four 4x4x8 cables (4 stitches wide, cross every four, then eight rows) that are inset in the surface of the sock (in a field of knit, rather than purl stitches) so they won’t press on Dad’s shoe too badly. This makes them less obvious, but I’m ok with that.

Toe up, short row heel, 1×1 rib for the ankle. Sewn bind off (thanks to EZ) which isn’t the most even ’cause it was my first.

Dad's Sock

Detail of Dad's Sock

Hopefully, with the other things I have to get done, I can finish the second sock in time for the holidays. Or Dad’s going to have one cold foot. His shoe is off, his foot is cold, he has a bird he likes to hold… or that likes to play with his moccasins, I can never remember.

Anyway, this is why…

Mommas, don’t let your babies grow up to be spinners.

They’ll never finish your socks.

Fiber update post soon. I’ve got some new pretty stuff.

~The Gnome