So long ago I can't remember when it was, I read a post on Socknitters that explained how to start a sock from the toe up and gave it a try. Everything was going wonderfully until it was time to start the heel and I realized that I didn't have the slightest idea what to do next. I tried something, which didn't work, then put the whole mess onto waste yarn and hid it from myself. It popped out of hiding now and then, but even though I'd figured out how to do a short row heel, I guess I thought that frogging back my miserable attempt at a heel and picking up the stitches would be to hard. Actually, I'm not sure what I was thinking, because once I finally picked it up again it took two evenings to finish the first sock and would've only taken a couple of days to knit the second one if I hadn't been doing everything but knitting.

It's easy to avoid knitting projects, even the ones I want to do. I let myself get scared by people who posted that there wasn't enough yardage in a skein of Magic Stripes to knit a pair of size 10 socks....I couldn't divide the yarn evenly in half because I don't have an accurate scale (that's near the top of my list of things to buy after the house sells)...I was afraid of messing up my "good" yarn (even though in this case, the good stuff had been bought with a 40% off coupon and would be easy to frog or replace if something went disastrously wrong) ....

Because I was sure there wouldn't be enough yarn, I made them short. A lot shorter than they needed to be, but they fit and I like them and I'm going to try making a tiny hat of pair of socks for #4 with the yarn that's left over.

Hopefully this hat:

I tried last night, but wasn't paying enough attention to the instructions so I'll be starting over this afternoon.

Just because I feel like knitting socks in stockinette and plain old k2p2 ribbing instead of doing a pattern stitch on the instep and cuff doesn't mean I'm wasting yarn. I've got myself almost totally convinced that's true. Which is good, because all I seem to want to settle down and knit right now are stockinette sock feet. I cast on for one of the toddler socks I've been meaning to do, but after a few rounds decided that I didn't like the way the yarn looked or want to fuss with cables. So I pulled out the sock I started in Magic Stripes and then abandoned when I realized I didn't know how to make a heel and the foot was too short anyway. That sock's done now, I've got a good start on its mate, and I'm eyeballing the three other skeins of Magic Stripes that have been aging in my stash....

Devilish Little Horns

I worried about running out of yarn, or that it might not fit his little head, but I never even thought about what a pain picking up the stitches for those little horns would be, let alone knitting them in the round and doing the decreases! Or trying to get a picture of it while he chased me across the room, but I can't complain about that.

The pattern is from here, and I think the yarn might be Woolease left over from Besotted. Quinn's big sister insists that he needs more of a costume, but I don't have the time -- or the yarn -- to knit matching pants, even if I do have a pattern for them.

My socks, which I expected to take forever, somehow flew off my needles:



They've got their little problems (like those weird blue and yellow striped pools of color), but they fit and they were so much fun to work on I'm ready to cast on with some of my pretty sock yarn.

How many days do I have left until Halloween?

I had it all planned out -- spend the next three days finishing my sock, then finish the blue scarf and knit the little devil baby hat for Quinn. There was lots of time to get my Halloween knitting done without abandoning my other projects. Then the cruel folks at Knitty had to put up Yorick. I so need to knit this to wear trick or treating. I've got yarn that should work, I'm just not sure I've got time to make it and the hat before Halloween without totally abandoning the houses.

I'm also really intrigued with this month's Month of Softies theme....especially after seeing the Zombie Rag Doll.

It's quiet here. Both boys are napping and Alex is reading and I'm revelling in the fact that I'm in my own house using my own computer, even if it is set up on the bedroom floor because I shouldn't try to lift the monitor.

This was the view from my kitchen sink this morning:



It'd be more poetic without the Durango sitting there, but I love the trees and the mist and knowing that there are deer and elk out there -- along with the frogs and raccoons and the cat the previous owners left who wants nothing to do with us but we occasionally spot skulking in the distance.

And I've got knitting pictures:



Branching Out, which I finished a while ago. After the first few pattern repeats, which had me wondering if I really should have blown the last of my yarn money (for a while at least) on laceweight wool and shawl books, it got much much easier.



And the Broadripple Baby Socks. This is some of Alex's mystery yarn, which I had to trade the Goodwill alpaca for. From a distance, it looks a lot like Fixation, but it's definitely something else. I love the dense squishy fabric it worked up into and the color, which reminds me of rubber rain boots. They're too small for Quinn, because his Mommy didn't read the size until she had her heart set on the pattern and yarn, so they'll be waiting for #4.



And my socks, which I'm knitting in Knitpicks Dancing with bits of a couple of different patterns. I started out hating the color and the weird blue and yellow stripes -- how does the yarn do that? But now that I've got one done, I'm anxious to finish the second so I can wear them. And after that, I want to start a pair with the other color of dancing I ordered to see if it's got any neat tricks.

The tangle of sock yarn has been tamed! And I didn't have to resort to the scissors, and I'm almost done with the sock. Which would be finished by now if I hadn't been dumb enough to let the baby play with my skein of yarn while I was trying to knit with it.

I bought a little doily pamplet/book/thingie and a skein of pretty green crochet cotton at Walmart while I was grocery shopping yesterday (any yarn purchase that costs less than $5 and goes in with the groceries can't be considered breaking the yarn diet, right?) and the doily books I had reserved should be in by now, so if I can get all three kids occupied at once, I should be able to give this crochet thing a try soon.

After reading the Yarn Harlot's reasons NOT to learn, I'm convinced that this is something I've gotta do. Fast? Uses up lots of yarn? So I could possibly make sweaters for the kids (who will outgrow them fast, so it all balances) with cheap yarn from Goodwill or the discount stores which would make dh see how much yarn I'm using and agree with me that I need to buy more pretty stuff from Knitpicks. Unfortunately, he might pay too much attention to what I'm knitting and what yarn I'm using.

And I don't have the energy to haul the kids to the other library where they'd actually have crochet books with baby patterns...

It's been a whole month without my computer, and I'm handling the deprivation a lot better than I thought I would. I still want my internet access back -- NOW -- but I'm not obsessing about it every minute of every day. I've got other things to keep my occupied (besides the family and the homeschooling and the moving...)

Like the Yarn Harlot's new book. I spent two weeks bugging the local bookstore until the copy I ordered finally came in. Now I'm toting it around from room to room wiht me, enjoying the cover with the shocked little sheepie on the front and reading a chapter now and then.

And my sock. Despite the fact that I'm using fingering weight and size 1 needles and have huge feet, I've made it up past the heel, in the process discovering that I can barely get my foot close enough to the rest of me to wrestle a partial sock onto it. Luckily I got the size right on the first try, so as long as I don't lose this one before I need to compare it to its mate, I should be okay.

All that's left to do is the leg, which would be the easy part. If I hadn't let Quinn hold my yarn while I worked on the heel, turning it into a scary tangle that totally wasn't his fault. And if he hadn't shot out out a little hand with that unexpected speed unique to destructive not-quite toddlers and pulled a dpn loose from 30some teeny tiny stitches, which I couldn't fix until we went to the new house so I could get a teeny tiny crochet hook from the sewing room. The stitches are all back in place and now I need to decide whether to keep fighting the tangle of find some scissors in the hopes that it'll be easier to fix without a sock and needles attatched to one end.

I've done a few more repeats on the Euroflax Stole and finished Branching Out except for the blocking, which I'll wait and do at the new place. I'm ignoring the blue lace scarf because it doesn't look like much fun and I've got something like 16 more 20 row repeats to do.

I want to try some of the worsted weight toddler socks that I printed the pattern for months ago and thought I needed yarn for, totally forgetting about the two skeins of highland wool I bought for I-cord Booga Bag straps and then never used....And the Baby Broadripple socks...and a crochet doily if the book I reserved came in and it's got good directions...