To Sock Sensei Judy

Dear Sensei Judy:

You have taught me the magic cast on. You have helped me to create socks. You rock!

You have taught me the math of socks. I have now made all of the required beginners errors, including forgetting to change balls of yarn when changing socks, and, at the same time, getting both socks on one needle. And I, with knowlege of your confidence in me, have corrected these errors.

My socks, at the end of the toe, were supposed to be 3.75 inches wide. When I measured them, they were 4.0 inches wide. I have taken a deep breath, eaten some chocolate, decreased by only two stitches per sock, and will keep knitting on the body of the sock. I can always give them to my sister-in-law. After all, these are only practice socks, and I am allowed to make mistakes.

If anyone is in the local area, besides receiving my congratulations for being a very, very lucky person, if one wished to learn how to knit socks, toe-up, any needle method, you should take Judy's class at Tangle. It's a great one.

I will keep knitting, Judy. I will come to class on Tuesday.

Unless it snows.

Your humble student,

Lori

Knitting during the snow week

It snowed this week. This makes my life very hard, as I work for a certain public transit provider. It means that, no matter how hard it is to get to work, nor how little my job has to do with the actual operations of the buses you see on the road, I have to go to work during bad weather events.

I have knitted. I've knitted a lot on my Red Scarf #4, the final red scarf I have planned for the 2007 Red Scarf Project. It's a 3x3 rib, which is boring to knit, but I love the finished product. It's soft (merino), warm, stretchy. The yarn is Berroco Pure Merino, Color 8560, a nice burgundy. It will work well for a male and look fine on a female too. I think I'm about 8-20 inches away from the end of this last scarf.

Then, all that remains is finishing the four scarves...and you know how I feel about finishing. But this project has a DEADLINE, so I think I'll do it.

Then back to Emily's jacket sleeves. Her birthday is soon!

That is, if I don't get distracted by Judy's socks. Sock class is on Tuesday. Hooray, hooray!

Today, we looked for a new car to carry my knitting in. The current car only gets 12 mpg. The one we looked at gets 30-40 mpg. That will greatly increase my radius for what would be considered a local yarn store.

And, I got invited to aTupperware party! What fun! I do want to go, but hope I'm not too distracted by the socks or my several medical appointments or the new car thing.

Too much excitement.

See, I need the six feet of 3x3 rib to calm my spirit.

Socks Cancelled due to...

SNOW!

It's snowing here. This is unusual for Portland, real powdery snow in the metro area.

More common: wind storms or ice storms.

The socks and Judy's Magic Cast-On must wait. Curses.

Oh well, more time to finish my last Red Scarf for the Red Scarf project and Emily's jacket.

I have lived with the anticipation of socks for so long. What's another week?

On The Eve of Judy's Sock Class

I get to go to Tangle tomorrow night and take the first class in Judy's sock class.

I'm so excited!

I got a new camera, so let's see if I know anything about posting photos. And yes, some of the photos are still awful. I'm learning about the different fancy stuff the camera can do. I feel like a fool, but hey, learning is what humans do!

This is the pre-class assignment, for learning how to knit small diameter pieces in the round, using two circulars (or magic loop or dpns). It's a pattern by Alice at Tangle. It's a fabulous miniaturized neck-down raglan sweater. And, actually, it's ...drum roll please....my FIRST EVER SWEATER!!

Yes, yes, thank you for the applause. It was done on two USA size 1s, using Lyon brand sock yarn-Magic Stripe. I had to fudge the colors for the sleeves a little (hence the dings of green & white on the left sleeve), but I'm happy with it.

Here's another photo:

It's tiny. It wouldn't even fit a Barbie.

And, just so you know, here's the rest of the knitting progress: Emily's jacket, obscured by interested cat:

The cat is named Toast. The first sleeve is about half done. Emily's first birthday is less than 30 days away. And I still have to knit a sleeve and a half, sew in ends, sew seams, select and sew on buttons. Gosh.

But I'm not giving up Judy's sock class.