Housekeeping

Astonishing to relate, I finished Round One of Sock Madness so far in advance of the April 4 deadline that I've been luxuriating in a week-long patch of free time. It's an unaccustomed freedom at casa Jersey Knitter, where for so many frenetic months my time has been at the capricious disposal of others. It's meant no labored sock knitting during Earth Hour (as in 2009, 2010, 2011, or 2012). Instead, I've been attending to some long-delayed housekeeping.

First, I upgraded my computer from Windows XP to Windows 10. This required a new computer. I have somewhat mixed feelings about this, as the old one is a mere 12 years old and still works decently well for many applications. Although not for certain online functions, particularly secure financial transactions. It's the first time I've replaced a home computer that was otherwise working adequately because my bank insisted on it. (I have a sinking feeling it won't be the last time.) Then again, the blog reminds me the old computer caused a lot of trouble in its day.



Side-by-side, the old tower has rather a busy vibe; the new is spare and (strangely) argyle-y. That said, I do like the new computer. It's fast. That's all I've noticed so far, but that one attribute is so valorized that perhaps it's sufficient by itself. By contrast, the new software has a rather busy vibe. My computing wants are simple and few, at least at the moment, and I've been patiently turning off the many bells and whistles that I'd rather not have. (Cortana was first to go.) Maybe that will change. Watch this space.

The phoenix-like converse to shuffling off my old computer is assessing projects that are not happening, frogging them, and reconditioning the yarn. For example, there's my ill-fated Geology Socks, cast on during airport hell. The yarn really is too dark to show the fancy stitches to best advantage. I really should know better. Bonus: I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a solid or tonal yarn for the next Sock Madness sock.



SM Round One concludes on Thursday. I'm guessing the next pattern will drop on Friday or Saturday. In the meantime, it would seem more housekeeping is in order.

Beaming

My weekend was an exercise in delayed gratification – the marshmallow test, if you will. There was a lot of exacting work that needed doing and no time to get distracted by the backordered Cricket loom that arrived. I stayed focused – and finished on time and under budget.



Although I may have smiled a lot more than was warranted by the task at hand. And now to play.



Look, a wingnut!



To be continued....

Oh Hai

Happy New Year. I feel like a lolcat surprised by the camera, in more ways than one. Sorry about the radio silence. It's been snowing roundabout Exit 151 – we got almost two feet (60 cm) of the white stuff on Boxing Day, another 16 inches (40 cm) two weeks ago, 7 inches (17 cm) last week, and a wintry mix today. One might think a snow day or three would provide plenty of time to compose a few blog posts, but the rigors of the weather and some sundry other things have kept me fully occupied. I even forgot about French toast for a while. Although while shoveling snow I made Pioneer Woman orange marmalade rolls.



It turns out the pauses needed when making yeast bread (mix dough, let rise, shape dough, let rise, etc) interweave nicely with the pace of shoveling heavy snow (shovel mightily, rest a bit, shovel mightily, rest a bit, etc). The recipe as written (half of the cinnamon rolls recipe) yielded three pans of rolls. I substituted apricot preserves and used a lighter hand with the icing, as there's been quite enough icing roundabout Exit 151 lately.

Some gentle readers, particularly those who read via RSS, may have noticed a stray post that popped up earlier in a strangely incomplete and disheveled state. That's because I tried blogging in public via the trendy new gadget that Santa left under the Christmas tree. It came with an online coupon for a complimentary fancy frozen drink, an interesting product pairing in winter. All was going well – I was slurping and tapping away on the virtual keyboard and feeling posh and clever – when my finger tap inadvertently activated the Publish button. I was aiming for Save. Argh.



Alas, balky-to-wonky response would seem to be the norm for these new-fangled capacitive screens, even with a stylus. The new gadget is far shinier than my old gadget in most ways and I'm happy with it, yet I do miss the precision of the old-fangled resistive screen on the old gadget, which had handwriting recognition capability and could be used while wearing gloves. I wonder what it would be like to have the new gadget with the old screen....

Speaking of old and new, I suppose I should post the semi-obligatory year end wrap up post, even if the first month of the new year is more than half gone. I venture to say I did rather well on my three goals for 2010:

✓ Four singleton socks of shame came down from the clothesline, two went up, for a net reduction from 2009. The total count as of December 31 stands at ten.


Left to right: solid Meadowlands, variegated Meadowlands, Scar, Fawkes, blue Green Merino, Julesokker, blue Clouds, Chain Link, Love Me Knot, Snow Queen.

✓ I spindled sufficient yarn for a pair of socks before my birthday not once but twice, during the Ravel*****s in February and again during the Tour de Fleece in July.

   
   
✓And I reduced use of plastics, perhaps not in a dramatic way, but making steady progress toward unlearning old bad habits and forming new good ones.

Perhaps needless to add, I haven't given much thought to new goals for the new year. But that's for another time, another post. For now, I'm just happy to be here.

Redacted 6/26/12: the Ravelry event formerly known by a name that rhymes with and supposedly infringes on the Olympics™.

A Sock in Time

In response to questions on the last post, yes, I darned the sock. Promptly. A handknit gift is too precious to let go without at least an attempt at a repair! Here's the mended sock on foot with the darning egg I inherited from DH's grandmother.



Although I just noticed it, the hole was big enough to require woven darning, plus a patch of duplicate stitching, aka Swiss darning. (Why do sock terms have nationalities, at least in English?) The mended area feels very different to my fingers, but not to my foot.

These reminders of impermanence – sock and egg – and all the perky Summer of Socks chatter on Ravelry ("I'm making ABCDE... XYZ socks!" "I made my own kits!" "I'm finishing all my current projects!"ad naus) gave me so much sock agita that I finished two socks that had been languishing, Scar and Fawkes. Gah. Interior monologue, with attempted perkiness: They're a pair equivalent! No, not really. Ah well, at least I have two sets of dpns free for the June 21 start of SoS.



Today's New York Times has an excellent article on the trauma of dealing with garden pests, "Peter Rabbit Must Die." I praise its verisimilitude and fault it only for mentioning Disney stars but neglecting the Warner Bros. masterpiece, What's Opera, Doc?, familiarly known as Kill the Wabbit. I've been known to sing a chorus or two, to the tune of The Ride of the Valkyries, not the heavy metal version. (Photo credit: Bunbun created by Michelle and copied from Lolcats.)

Allison at Simply Socks Yarn Company is having a third anniversary contest. Go give her good wishes and some market research for a chance to win yummy prizes.

Some Wandering, Some Lost

In the last set of comments, Jeanne asked "What are the things that look like fish?" They're yarn bobbins, used in certain kinds of colorwork. They hold small amounts of yarn neatly, with less (not no) tangling.



Over time I've amassed a vast collection of bobbins in divers sizes, shapes, and colors. Mostly because, as now, I can't find them when I want them, so I get more. No doubt they're wandering (not lost) somewhere roundabout Area 151 and will turn up in good time. In a pinch I've used bits of cardboard as bobbins, too.

Deborah wanted to know if I'm going to Rhinebeck. I'm planning to attend on Sunday. Further, thanks to the indefatigable Stitchy McYarnpants, I'm playing Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo again – I'm a square!

   

Squares need a way to display the Blogger Bingo (and Jersey Represent!) button. There were some stray skeins of Lamb's Pride Worsted, colorway M-64 Charcoal, and Noro Yoroi, colorway 4, in stash, so I'm knitting up a small backpack (to be f-f-felted). It's at the formless blog stage.



The backpack started out as one of Linda Cyr's Fabulous Felted Backpacks in Knitters K61, Winter 2000, then the mods took over. [Mwaahaha.] I decided to make a smaller size, to knit it in one piece to eliminate seaming later, and to omit the bobbled cables, which are gorgeous, but lost (not wandering) in the Yoroi.

That reduces a somewhat elaborate project to mindless TV knitting – perfect for this evening's season premieres. Eileene insists Heroes and Journeyman are worth watching, so I'm watching.

Twelfth Day

Today is THE Twelfth Day of Christmas. This year there's convergence between the Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Christian calendars, so one can say that without asterisks, fear of offense or contradiction, or risk of faith-based tumult [sigh]. In honor of the day, here's a last Christmas confection, a confession, and an offering.

Behold the peppermint-striped sock worked in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, custom stripe 0ns/11ns available at Purl. I love the way the striping changes from thin stripes on the leg to bold stripes on the heel flap to skinny stripes on the gusset and back to thin stripes on the foot. (I originally worked a short-row heel, which yielded an even prettier stripe pattern on the heel, but the fit was not comfortable, so off it went to the frog pond.) There are more rows in the heel flap than stitches picked up along each edge, which makes the flap curve gently to cup the heel, one of the elegant niceties of a full-fashioned sock.

Also visible in the picture is a nifty green-tipped needle holder, StitchKeepers by Rollie, a most useful gadget I learned about from Kim. They're on the pricey side for point protectors/needle holders, but they do a superior job of preventing stitches from sliding off needles, keeping needle sets together, and stopping needles from poking through tote bags. I got 'em at Stix-n-Stitches (Exit 148).

As holiday knitting time was consumed by other needful things, I didn't finish a single official holiday project this season. I'm 0 for 5. So no gold star for me. At least I found the rest of the holiday plates, which will all be placed back in the box marked Christmas plates.



My fellow SnBers took a pass, so the Karabella is on sale at DeStash. It's my first offering – may it find a happy new home! [ETA: Got a nibble! So far, so good.] It's sold!

Tomorrow is a day for spinning. Cara mentioned Judy's post on Distaff Day – apparently January 7 is the traditional date for post-holidays resumption of traditional women's work... as opposed to the non-work of holiday cooking, etc? It's also the Memorial Ride in NYC to remember cyclists killed during 2006. The weather is still so freakishly mild that I'm inclined to spin outdoors. Cyclists notoriously tend to get fat over the winter, but this season so far there's been little excuse. Ahem.