And It's August

And just like that, it's August. I'm knitting along for the Ravellenics 2020 2021 on Team BBMF and for Yarnia Sock Bingo, wrassling WIPs and frogging UFOs. As one does in August. To whit...

Mock Sadness by Helle Slente Design, worked in Schachenmeyer Regia Cotton Color, colorway 2426 Tutti Frutti II. The pair is pictured with chocolate stroopwafels because the pattern was the second warm-up for this year's Sock Madness. Technically the FO is a wrassled WIP because I started it in early July for Sock Bingo (with yarn purchased at Yarnia), before the Ravellenics had started. Whatever. It's done, and Ravellenics glory is mine.


The pattern is fun, with a bit o' everything – mirrored cables, faggoting, and a wide picot hem that I swapped out for 2x2 ribbing because the wide hem looks pretty, but in my view is too hot for summer socks. I also subbed a wedge toe for the star toe because my feet are not shaped like pencil points. The yarn reminded me why I usually prefer four-ply cotton fingering to cotton sock yarn for pretty much everything, including socks. At least the pattern repeat on the yarn is consistent.


A different Sock Madness warm-up pattern, How to Tame Your Dragon by Dots Dabbles, that has been languishing since February 2018, got frogged. It's not the pattern, it's not the yarn (Colinette Jitterbug, colorway Tapis) – yet somehow after more than three years I just wasn't feeling the love. I've reconditioned the yarn, of course.


In Ravellenics past, there was a medal for frogging; now there's "only" a laurel. Nonetheless, more Ravellenic glory is mine.

To be continued.

Memorial Day 2020 a Week Later

One week later, and I feel OBE yet again. Memorial Day weekend roundabout Exit 151 was somber and intermittently rainy, with the long shadow of covid19 looming over the unofficial start of summer. Many of the traditional observances at veterans cemeteries were simplified and restricted to family members with passes and face coverings, and some of the first-of-the-summer holiday revels took on political overtones, becoming either cautiously mannered or defiantly raucous. The grinding partisanship often didn't seem to leave much room for appeals to empathy and decency.

By grim coincidence the tally of confirmed covid19 deaths in the U.S. neared 100,000 during the holiday weekend, prompting the astonishing Sunday, May 24, 2020 New York Times front page shown to the right. It's a list of names with brief obituaries of 1,000 people known to have died of covid19 in the time since the epidemic began in the U.S., less than four months. Add in the unidentified deaths to the ceaselessly growing total, and it would take over 100 pages to list them all. As the headline reads, the loss is incalculable.

It seems to me one of the better ways to honor the memory of so many dead is to keep on keeping on with the single method that is proven effective: social distancing. Attempts to foster natural herd immunity, as in Sweden, have failed, at a high human cost. Many antibody tests have proven not reliable as a guide for personal behavior or public policy. Efforts to invent a safe and effective vaccine continue, as they should, although in the U.S. opinions on taking a vaccine are evenly split between Yes and No/Not Sure. The search for safe and effective treatments also continues. Overall, there are reasons for optimism and reasons for pessimism.

At the close of the holiday weekend came two incidents that pulled another veil off the reality of racism in the U.S. First, a white woman in Central Park got into a verbal argument with a black man, threatened to call the police on him, and indeed summoned police with a false story he was threatening her. He recorded the encounter, which went viral, with many consequences and much spilled ink.

The evening of Memorial Day, George Floyd died while in police custody in Minneapolis. Peaceful protests gave way to violence and looting, and documented concerns that white agents provocateurs like Umbrella Man and others from outside the Twin Cities had come to pursue violent agendas of their own. The protests, violence, and suspicions spread quickly to other cities amid pleas for calm from city and state officials and a flight from responsibility at the top.

As deadly serious as all this is, I am reminded that continued existence IS resistance. So I completed a pair of socks, Waterlily by Sivia Harding, in time to qualify for April/May SKA.



With so much going on, it's my first foot of 2020, and that will have to be enough.

Overtaken By Epidemic

'Way back whenever, a mere six weeks or so ago, this post started as a Sock Madness post. I had CO the SM14 qualifier on a train somewhere between Chicago and New York and had every intention of competing. Things seemed auspicious: by the most synchronous of synchronicities, the qualifying pattern was Wohin? by the ever-creative Caoua Coffee, a delight of clever technique (gentle readers know how I love technique). Wohin?, a lied in the Schubert song cycle "Die schöne Müllerin" (Op. 25, D. 795), translates to something like Where to?



Little did I suspect that the first week of March was to be the last Before Coronavirus (at least that we currently know of in this region) and the Land of Where To so far has been a place of constantly feeling O.B.E..

One sign of the times is the Times itself – here's a week of headlines for March 16-21, 2020, when reality began to sink in. Ordinarily the New York Times doesn't do full, six-column headlines all that often, so a solid week of them is unsettling all by itself. Then there's the subject of those headlines: the public health crisis and the economic crisis touched off by the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, covid19, and the leadership crisis in response. So much of grave import has happened that it seems frivolous to note, even on a knitting blog, that there hasn't been much knitting going on at casa Jersey Knitter.



Instead there have been many adjustments big and small, some bewildering in their rapidity and increasing severity. BC, I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show and, AC, I was too occupied to blog about it. Branch Brook Park was closed during cherryblossom season, along with schools and nonessential businesses. (Including malls. In New Jersey.) Spring elections were rescheduled or shifted to vote by mail. Restaurants were limited to take-out or delivery only. Supermarkets were required to limit the number of customers in the store; some placed one-way arrows to direct traffic in the aisles and sneeze guards at the registers; customers were required to wear face masks and gloves – some say food stores should move to curbside pickup and home delivery only. Although online ordering is so swamped, shopping at Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods is by invitation only. I learned about social distancing and flattening the curve and how to wash hands (for at least 20 seconds, with plenty of suds).



With all the adjustments come all the feels. So many feels. Gabrielle Treanor's "3 Stages of Pandemic Response" has it about right, except instead of making steady progress through the stages, I tend to pingpong back and forth between levels.



In the pinch, some turn to activism. There's a shortage of PPE for healthcare workers and first responders and others, so I've been sewing DIY facial masks. Other crafters have been turning out parts for face shields using 3D printers and other fabricators. Still others – small groups of apparently well-funded of counter-majority populists – have been protesting stay-at-home orders... some wore hazmat suits and masks, some didn't, some toted guns, some "displayed swastikas ironically," and then there's the Operation Gridlock folks who were blocked by healthcare workers in scrubs. There's a politician who wants "to put on our big boy and big girl pants" and choose to cause people die, there's a candidate for office who looks like a zombie, and it feels like we are living in a failed state.

Whew.



After all that, I cast on another sock, Waterlily Socks by Sivia Harding. It's got a bit o' everything: beads, small cables, lace. The yarn is Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock, colorway Sapphire. I've stopped worrying about Where To? It's one small consolation in a world turned up to eleven.

Transitions

This post has been evolving a while. When I started writing about my weekend it was the season when the walls between worlds grown thin, and maybe some walls between nations, too. Ahem. To celebrate mark the date, there even was a Halloween sun, courtesy the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory.



Roundabout Exit 151 a bit more Halloween sun would have been welcome – Halloween was warm, windy, and rainy. I had planned to test a survey which claims the most popular Halloween candy in NJ is Skittles. Knock me over with a feather, I like chocolate. But, not wanting to run afoul of the generational friction of ok boomer and mindful of slave-free chocolate concerns, I gave Skittles a try on the sparse handful of trick-or-treaters who braved the balmy storm. Within the small sample size, it would seem it's true, Skittles were very well received. Huh.

After the storm and clean up, I hauled our last TV with a picture tube to the recycling center. The attendant suggested I was nuts for wanting to take a photo (and he didn't want to be in it), but it seemed important to document the occasion. Farewell, faithful TV!



As for knitting, all I got to show is this Pumpkin Socks singleton. I'm DNF for September/October SKA and feel rather indifferent about that, given everything else that's been going on. And while I'm concerned about it becoming a Singleton Sock of Shame, perhaps there's no danger – some gentle readers (who don't themselves knit) find the term objectionable and stifling, and have had the temerity to demand I find better terminology. Hm....



Moving right along... For runners, it was NY Marathon weekend, of course. As all New Yorkers well know, it's the weekend when the city is, er, overrun with fleet pedestrians and traffic closures. So perhaps it was only fitting that the president, having declared himself no longer a New Yorker (for whatever good that does), decided to snarl traffic further by attending a mixed martial arts card at Madison Square Garden, where his reception inside and out was decidedly mixed. This on top of his Game 5 reception and followed by an off-year Election Day and some of the crowd at a Trump rally in Monroe, Louisiana leaving early.

No doubt about it, the times are a-changing, winter is coming, and there's snow in the forecast.

Rambling On

Oh hai. I've been traveling too much, knitting (and canning and blogging) too little. Some of the travel has been very pleasant, some less so. Here's some of the pleasant.



Ahh.

Too little knitting is not no knitting, of course. Here's a Pumpkin Sock interposing itself in the sculpture When Anthony Met Stanton by Ted Aub, that depicts Amelia Bloomer (you can barely see her loose trousers, known as bloomers) introducing Susan B. Anthony of Rochester to Elizabeth Cady Stanton of Seneca Falls. The statues are life-sized – it's a bit of a surprise how tiny such looming figures were. And surely gentle readers all know what happened in Seneca Falls, New York, the 1848 Women's Rights Convention, re-enacted annually in July. Something to consider if you're in the Finger Lakes region. (I can't believe I'm nattering on about travel, when I've been traveling too much as it is.)



Next year marks the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, or (white) women's suffrage. Much ink has been shed about the racism baked into the women's rights movement, and the differences and intersections between race and gender. I have some thoughts on such matters, of course, but right now I'm going to rest (not quit) and ramble on.

Wandering, Not Lost

So. I joined the Camp Loopy knit-along. This year's theme is outer space, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing on July 20, 1969, and blast-off was June 1. Which may not be the wisest move – joining, that is, not the choice of theme or the start date (or believing the Moon landing was real) – as my last blog post was ::cough:: eight weeks ago... and I haven't yet cast on. It's the usual, too much travel.

So. While I remedy both regrettable states of affairs, howabout a photo of the Moon, taken last night because I couldn't get an image of Jupiter and its moons, which were in opposition on Monday. It's handheld because the tripod had one leg ripped clean off during a chaotic night shoot in February. The damage is beyond duct tape, sigh. Anyway, I love how the lunar terminator, the divide between bright and dark, highlights the craters in light and shadow.



Sock Madness Round 7, the round of champions, starts tomorrow. I dropped out after Round 2 for the usual reasons, although I made scanty progress on the Round 3 sock, inky madness by Susan Gehringer. And I want to knit the Round 4 sock, Canon by Caoua Coffee and the Round 6 pattern, Swirlagon Socks by Kirsten Hall. So many patterns, so little time!



Somehow I got out of sync with the FIJ Challenge monthly challenges, too. June is jam month, so in the time remaining I'll try to put up some old favorites and try a new recipe if I can manage it. The big discovery from last year was tomato jam and I want to put up mass quantities for the lean times – last year's hoard was barely sufficient! But of course it's not tomato time yet and (of course) I have yet more travel scheduled. Well, the journey of a thousand miles starts with consulting a lot of maps.

Off to knit like the wind!

Trolls Ascendant

What a strange and terrible week it's been, so dominated by the spectacle of corrupt and spineless politics in Washington, Big Lies, and crackpot threats of violence. In an odd way it reminded me of the scene on a beach while a hurricane is going by: the warning flags are up, the water is churning with tremendous force, and yet some people are surfing. Perhaps some of the same principles of responsibility and self-care may apply.



When trolls are ascendant, one is left to concoct one's own sunshine amid the sturm und drang. A third way, if you will: not reacting to them, not pretending they aren't there, but a form of resistance (admittedly privileged) to their coarsened public discourse. So I've been doing some cauldron work, and am rather pleased with the results. There's more tomato jam to add to the Great Wall of Tomato Jam, this time using yellow and (more) orange tomatoes. It's Marissa's recipe again, with 20% less sugar, white vinegar substituted for cider vinegar, and ground jalapeño subbed for smoked paprika and cayenne. I'm ridiculously happy at how the colors have held during cooking and processing.



Ah, the colors. I could look at this all day. Flavor and yield are good, too. Tomato jam is often paired with cheese, but I like it best with eggs.



Meanwhile, the Diana Prince sock progresses, while as anticipated the shrug is Overtaken By Events. Ah well, maybe now more than ever a bit of Amazon fortitude and some fancy needlework is needed. Pew! Pew!



After an absence to several years, I'm planning to go to Rhinebeck this year. I've been before, but for the first time I'm planning to stay overnight. I'm thrilled to bits, even though I'm still so busy that I'm not going to attempt to knit a sweater. But... er... well, maybe a hat.... To be continued

The Pits

Oh hai. Happy... Halloween? All Saints Day? Where was I? Right, canning along and dealing with an abundance of pits, which made August, September, and October fly by bloglessly. I missed the U.S. Open. I missed Rhinebeck. While that's a sadness, there may be consolations. As gentle readers may know, when life gives you pits, sometimes that implies peaches or possibly cherries or possibly both, which is not so bad. But other times it's just the pits.

So. Back in August I canned peaches. The FIJ August Challenge was a twofer, low temperature pasteurization or steam canning. However, as both challenges require specialty equipment, impecunious renegade that I am, I just chugged along hot-packing peaches. It wasn't a good year for peaches, too cold during critical bloom times during the spring and too wet, flooded, and overcast when the developing fruits needed sun. Out of the various peaches I tried this summer – from New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina farmers markets – NJ peaches were the sweetest, which ordinarily is not the case.

Prepping peaches for canning requires blanching and peeling, slicing (halves and even quarters seemed too big, I tried sixths), then simmering until hot in canning liquid. It was a surprise to see that blanched, peeled peaches retain a lovely blush...



... that vanishes with simmering. More accurately, the slices lose their blush, but the canning liquid takes on a pretty pink tinge that eludes my poor digicam.



For canning liquid I tried recipes that use apple juice or heavy syrup (in the Ball Blue Book). My plan was to be able to eat the peaches and drink the juice, but some of the hungry peach-eaters at casa Jersey Knitter greatly prefer peaches in heavy syrup because they find juice pack too acidic. I wonder if a touch of honey would help smooth that out.

Processing is straightforward. I had some trouble with syphoning and fruit float, then read the former is caused when the contents of jars are either too hot or too cold relative to the water bath, especially with larger jars, and the latter happens when the specific gravity of the fruit is less than that of the canning liquid. Adjust accordingly. Eureka! (Alas for the peach-eaters, I think that means light syrup is more appropriate.)



The results were very good, far superior to store-bought canned peaches, which encouraged further production. Also a certain amount of backwards progress when the hungry peach-eaters helped themselves to the peaches in heavy syrup. For quality assurance purposes, of course. Only one heavy syrup pack jar made it to the class photo.



That is the most canning of one thing I've done so far, but not enough to see casa Jersey Knitter through the dearth of fresh peaches. I'd hoped to continue canning peaches through September, but the knowledgeable farmers market dude told me there's a magic moment that usually happens around the third week of August when peaches still look good, but no longer taste good. I'd never really noticed, but that is exactly what happened. Then other things happened, I was away a lot, and missed the FIJ September challenge, fruit butter, altogether. I was looking forward to trying a recipe for tomato jam... although this hasn't been a great year for tomatoes either, at least not in my tomato patch. Ah well.

I knit a loud sock for September Sockdown and was disqualified for being inattentive to the rules. Shrug. My DQ sock is a modified version of Socks on a Plane, and indeed was knit on a plane, and on trains and automobiles, too. Progress has been the opposite of speedy. I've been using a counting thread to keep the 3x3x7 cable crossings correct.



Carole fortuitously reminded me I had a bag of pitted Bing cherries in the freezer, prepped and set aside during the surfeit of cherry season for a purpose now forgotten. I decided to repurpose them for brandied cherries (recipe in the Ball Blue Book), to be used in festive cocktails and boozy desserts, except I substituted Amaretto for brandy as I find almond more sympatico with cherries. Freezing and canning were not kind to the cherries' texture, but otherwise the boozy cherries are incredible – sweet, dark, and quite alcoholic, definitely a consolation for missing the FIJ October challenge (dehydration or pressure canning). Indeed, the canning syrup was so good, I canned the excess too.



The trouble with any -along is too many inspirations/patterns/recipes, too little time. And boy howdy, do I have too little time at the moment. So let me just note these recipes (Fikira Honey Candy and Canned Lemon Curd) and the fond hope I can get to them later. November, November, that's how I'll remember!

Unruffled

Now where was I before being distracted by those squirrels... right, modifying my Sweet Nuttins. I enjoyed knitting them in all their bells and whistles glory – interminable German Twisted CO! ruffles! cables! lace! beads! patterned heel flap! patterned gussets! – but I usually wear mid-calf socks under trousers, and I knew the ruffle would fidget me. So I unpicked it.

First, I picked up stitches using dpns, then frogged back. Or rather I unpicked back, as ribbing doesn't exactly zip out when frogged backwards. I suppose that means there's no gorffing in knitting.



The unpicking process was rather hard on the yarn, Lorna's Laces Solemate, which is very soft and prone to splitting and pilling. Initially I'd thought about knitting a longer cuff, but after seeing how frizzed the yarn had gotten, decided to bind off using Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy BO instead. That made the unruffled sock somewhat shorter than the ruffled sock. JSSBO flares slightly, but not nearly as much as the original ruffle.



After more unpicking, I had a pair ruffle-free yet still sweet Sweet Nuttins. It's too hot right now, but I'm looking forward to wearing them when it's cooler.



It occurred to me that this Adrienne Fong pattern knocked me out of Sock Madness 10 and another of her patterns, Sockdolager, knocked me out of Sock Madness 7. More accurately, it's the usual busyness and travel that do it... unless... unless it's the Curse of the Belly Button!

I Got Nuttins

It finally stopped raining roundabout Exit 151, and I finally finished my Sweet Nuttins – ahead of the Sock Madness Round 4 deadline but 35 minutes too late to earn a spot to advance to Round 5. I even had the requisite late night, bad light FO photo.



When better light dawned, I took a modestly better photo to show off the socks' ruffled cuff, cables, lace, and patterned gusset. I don't know why the yarn (Lorna's Laces Solemate, colorway 809 Midway) looks so very different under different lighting conditions.



Shortly thereafter the new pattern for Round 5 dropped, and the competition went on without me. Which left me free to modify the pattern and put my stash in order, up next. Edited to add: Squirrel!

Bit O' Everything

Round 4 of Sock Madness started with a bang – the specs announcement and the pattern drop happened in quick succession! The pattern is Sweet Nuttins by Adrienne Fong. It's got a bit o' everything.

There's an interminable German Twisted Cast On, also known as the Old Norwegian CO. I was starting to feel like an Old Norwegian with this one, and so was my yarn. The extra twist in the CO was un-plying the soft yarn I'm using, Lorna's Laces Solemate. I misplaced the band, so don't know the colorway. Edited to add: Ravelry remembers! The colorway is 809 Midway.



The interminable CO in due course turns into a ruffle. As I usually wear handmade socks with pants, I'd rather not have ruffles on my midcalf socks. When this round is over, I plan to remove it. After the ruffle comes beads. I hated the beads I'd selected, so had to rush to the store to find more suitable ones. I like these, which to me are reminiscent of blueberries amid swirling vanilla ice cream.



Not to mention there's cables and lace, an interminable patterned eye of partridge heel flap, and patterned gussets. But that's for next time. *knitknitknitknit*

Greater Than the Sum

As per usual, there's been much busyness roundabout Exit 151 that has taken me away from blogging, also from knitting. So it took me 11 days to finish the Sock Madness Round 3 socks, Waimakariri by Sonya Newstead. Named for a braided river in New Zealand, the pattern masterfully explores sock architecture with its wandering cables.



The elements that comprise Waimakariri are simple enough. The sock begins with a cabled tab.



One knits around the tab, increasing for the toe. A Kacha-Kacha is extremely helpful.



Then things get a bit complicated. Even with a Kacha-Kacha I had to pay such close attention that suddenly (!) I had a singleton. The techniques involved are simple enough – there's nothing particularly difficult or unusual – yet the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. Between the need for attention and the need for competition speed (and the busyness) there's a woeful lack of intermediate pix. Sorry about that.



The pattern as written is difficult to modify and, alas, also does not fit over my heel. After discovering this inconvenient reality and frogging my first attempted leg, I solved the issue without otherwise altering the pattern by knitting one gauge on the foot of the sock, a much looser gauge on the leg, and a much tighter gauge on the cuff. YMMV – some Sock Madness knitters say this sock fits them very well without any gauge acrobatics.

Because the many increases and decreases and changes in stitch count introduce significant strain into the knitted fabric, the untenanted sock puckers and the tenanted sock has a few holes. Other Sock Madness knitters say both are mitigated by washing and blocking. I've not had the time nor the leisure to do that yet, but I hope that also works for my socks. I found knitting the strained fabric put more strain on my hands and wrists than most cabled fabrics.

My sock has variable gauge not only on purpose, but also inadvertently in places. The yarn used, Zauberball in colorway Grashalm, is a loosely spun singles that varies in weight from light fingering to almost-DK, which was annoying in the extreme. I mostly liked its variation in color, a subtle ombré for the most part, except where it's not (sigh). At least the dye job is so regular that it took no effort to knit matching socks. Unsurprisingly for a loosely spun singles, the yarn was splitty and pilly, and a challenge to knit. I doubt I'll use it again.

While I was occupied the bloom season in Branch Brook Park galloped by, one of the earlier and faster seasons in memory. Happens sometimes. Lacking cherry blossoms to view, next is a brief rest for me and my tired wrists, then the Sock Madness resumes with Round 4.

Ahead of the Storm

The alarming weather forecast for tomorrow is for pelting rain and 70 mph (113 kph) winds. That's bound to do some damage, so I rushed out to Branch Brook Park for a hurried look at the cherry blossoms lest I miss this year's show entirely. The main season bloomers were just shy of peak bloom. If you can't see this year's show in person, try Cherry Blossom Cam.



Inspired by jooan's wee socks, I knit a wee Rose & Thorn sock, using the fussy beaded CO, Quatrefoil Eyelet (in Treasury 1) and twist sts for the roses and thorns, eye of partridge French heel, and wedge toe. Note to self: for a wee sock, it's better to knit a plain heel flap rather than a slip-st flap, which pulls in too much for the reduced scale. I think I'm going to attach the wee sock to my purse.



Here's hoping everyone in the path of the storm stays safe and sound. See you on the other side.

Ecce Socks

Roundabout Exit 151 several sacred holidays are also common secular holidays. Yesterday, Good Friday, is one of them. For me, day off = FO. Ecce [Latin, Behold] Sock Madness glory, Rose & Thorn Socks by Ronni Smith! Worked in a mystery pink yarn from stash, they're a perfect fit on my Frankenfeet, which is a rare thing for a competition pattern.



It turned out the beaded cast on is about equally complicated on circular needles as it is on double-pointed needles. After trying the former and becoming frustrated with dangling wires, I gave up and reverted to trusty dpns. Here's the beady picot cuff before folding.



After folding and joining, some beads went askew.



It sometimes took considerable fiddling to get them astraight. It's better to knit carefully, even if slowly, and to get it right the first time rather than to have to stop for corrective measures.



Alas, I was knitting in such haste, I forgot to weave in the cast-on tail before finishing joining the cuff. Oh well, I wove it in later.



The pattern calls for an eye of partridge French heel and a wedge toe, my favorites for fit. The only mod I made, allowable under competition rules, was to lengthen the foot with three rounds of stockinette before starting the toe. I also double-dipped with March Sockdown, cable challenge. Happiness!

Meanwhile, at church I was voluntold to read the liturgy for the 12th Station of the Cross ("Jesus dies on the cross") for Good Friday. High churchy ritual generally doesn't do much for me, but perhaps others derive value and benefit from it. I hope so. It's not a draw for me, it also doesn't stop me from attending, but on the whole I'd rather stick to my knitting.

Round Two Already

Yesterday was the first day of spring (in this hemisphere); roundabout Exit 151 it snowed overnight, just a dusting. I didn't really notice as the second pattern for Sock Madness dropped: Rose & Thorn Socks by Ronni Smith. After the usual dithering over yarn and beads, I got to work.

The pattern has a touching backstory and features a beaded version of Judy's Magic Cast On wherein the beads symbolize small drops of blood from the thorns. The process ought to be straightforward.



Except it's not, especially not on double-pointed needles. For the love of yarn, DO NOT USE DPNs for this pattern, at least not until the cuff is hemmed. And once the cuff is hemmed, it's helpful to place an BOR marker. Ask me how I know all that.



Once past the beaded CO and hemmed picot cuff, the pattern settles down. One measure of that is there are finished pairs already. Gah. I can't keep up with that, and have given up trying. Instead, I'm going to use this pattern to double dip with March Sockdown, because I can. knitknitknitknit

Still

Sorry for the long radio silence, I'm still here, still knitting, still blogging after another prolonged stint of being elsewhere, not knitting, and not blogging. All I can say is there's no place like home for the holidays, not to mention it would be really, really nice if I could stay still for a while.

With all the to-ing and fro-ing I neglected to post the FO photo for my Owl Sock's. It was a fun knit, and I'm glad I finally made some hartshorn cable owls. I'm equally happy my owls are on socks rather than on a larger garment. (YMMV, of course.) One reason I love to knit socks is the opportunity to try out patterns on a small scale, and the subsequent discovery scale matters.



Back in October I optimistically joined NaKniSweMo, a November knit-along. But I did a lot of traveling in November (and early December), and so swatched a lot but never really cast on. The plan was to knit a Striped Raglan Sleeve Sweater by Cheryl Kubat. The pattern indulges my inordinate love of Noro, and I hope to knit the sweater some day soon.

Sometime after November turned into December I cast on a sock for December Sockdown, By the Seine River by Dona Knits using Regia Design Line Jazz Color by Erika Knight, colorway Kind of Blue.



In my mind the sock was intended as a tribute or hommage to the victims and survivors of the November 13 terror attacks in Paris. Horrifying to relate, before I cast on there were jarring incidents of mass violence closer to home – so many that one can speak of repeated exposure, terror management theory, and "How Terror Hardens Us." Apparently it's not by imparting a strong desire to learn useful survival skills, but by irrationally reinforcing existing prejudice and hatred. I wonder if that applies to other kinds of trauma as well and if one simply gets swept along helplessly or if it's even possible to resist unreason by standing still.