Adventures with sticks and string.
Thursday morning:
Friday morning:
Saturday morning:
Sunday morning:
This is the first sock of the pair. I’m calling the design “Ida’s Delusions of Grandeur” and it is knit from Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn in the “Pansy Golightly” colorway on 2mm needles. Knitting on the second sock will commence almost immediately.
Lucy sez:
“You woke me for that?“
I did suck it up and finish the second Seaweed Sock last night. Ta-da!
To recap, this is beautiful Bellamoden sock yarn in the “Nori” colorway and the sock is knit on 2mm needles.
And for your knitting pleasure, here is the pattern (in pdf format). It’s also available from a link on my free patterns page (see the tab at the top of the blog).
I did start a new sock. Here is its toe. 
This is my beloved Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn in the “Pansy Golightly” colorway. Just look at how it knits up! Is it any wonder I love it so much?
Speaking of beloved sock yarn, look what L-B sent me!
This is Tempted Good Grrl sock yarn in the Secret Garden colorway. Them that know me, know how much I love green and this colorway makes me feel positively woozy I love it so much!
And I’m wondering what Lucy is so intent on here . . .
Yesterday was a rare day when I actually knit at work. I never do that. But after having my third computer in 6 weeks go belly-up, I’d run out of offline things I could do. I probably spent 3 or 4 hours of my day at work yesterday quietly knitting at my desk. I don’t think anyone noticed, but if they had I don’t think they would have dared say anything. 
With the first computer failure after they carted the dead CPU off, I took annual leave and went home. Yesterday I was fed up enough to say screw it — I had no desire to use up more leave because of something I couldn’t control.
By the way, the latest computer (which is computer #3 for those of you keeping score at home) booted up nicely when I got to work this morning. But I’m taking bets on how long it will last, given the lifespan of its predecessors.
Anyhow, this unprecedented chunk of knitting time started me thinking about how much time I spend knitting. I tend to do it in little chunks of time, but those chunks add up. On a typical weekday I knit:
Then there is the evening knitting. When I get home, I answer emails, take photos, and work on my blog post. I tend to pick the knitting up at 6:30 or 7:00pm, and knit for only an hour or 90 minutes, usually with interruptions to email and Plurk. By 8:00 or 8:30pm I set the knitting aside and watch something on television.
(Those of you on Plurk know I am often awake in the middle of the night, as I’ll post there once or twice when I’m supposed to be asleep. I sleep intermittently. but I never knit in the middle of the night. My goal is to get back to sleep, so at most I’ll turn the tv.)
Of course, weekends are different — I get more knitting time in during the day.
Speaking of Plurk, I was interviewed on this afternoon’s Plurk Cast. It is available for download here (it’s Episode 3), so you can check it out and hear my pearls of wisdom.
There was a question in the comments yesterday asking how long it takes me to knit a sock. It varies, but it usually takes me a few days to knit one sock.
Okay now, just for fun, here’s the timeline on today’s computer hijinks.
9:20am: IT Drone appears in my doorway, telling me he is here to install the one software program he did not do yesterday.
IT Drone: I need you to log off and log the computer so I can push the install from the network.
Me: I mentioned this to you yesterday: This software cannot be pushed — it needs to be installed manually.
IT Drone: I will do it remotely.
IT Drone disappears.
I spend the next hour watching as managed software (not the program I need) is uninstalled and reinstalled on my computer. Three times.
10:30am: my phone rings.
IT Drone: I’m still working on pushing your software from the network.
Me: It cannot be pushed from the network. Ask IT Manager. He manually installed it on my last computer last Wednesday.
IT Drone: I’ll call you back.
I watch as the same managed software is uninstalled and reinstalled a couple more times. I phone IT Manager. No answer.
11:00am: my phone rings.
IT Drone: I’m still working on pushing your software from the network.
Me: Please talk to IT Manager! It has to be installed manually!
IT Drone: No! It was pushed from the network.
Me: I’m telling you I watched him as he sat at my computer last Wednesday and manually installed it. It took five minutes.
IT Drone: I’ll call you back.
I watch as managed software is uninstalled and reinstalled once more.
11:15 am: my phone rings
IT Drone: I’m going to have to install that software manually. It won’t push from the network.
Me: Please do it after I leave this afternoon. I’ve lost enough time today already.
I get off the phone and announce to the office in general: “Hey guess what? He can’t push the software from the network. It has to be installed manually.”
A roar of laughter arises from my co-workers.
You cannot make this stuff up.
Oh, here’s my sock. I might finish it tonight, but I wouldn’t count on that.
And Lucy says hey!
Here’s what the second Seaweed Sock looked like when I left for work this morning:
Here’s what it looked like when I got home from work:
What I did today:
Got to work and discovered that my 6-day-old computer was belly-up. Dead. Former. It had ceased to be. Et cetera. I’ve been having hardware issues for the past 6 weeks. The hardware we have is junk, hence the frequent failures and the new ‘puter that I got last Wednesday afternoon.
I called the IT Help Desk and reported the issue. Four hours later (after finally getting an IT manager on the phone and throwing a tantrum of epic proportion) someone came up and took the dead computer away. An hour later, he brought up a new one and spent the rest of the day restoring my data to the new computer.
And then I came home.
So at work today, I dealt with one phone call, reviewed someone’s work in hardcopy, read a book, and knit. Quite the productive day.
In the morning, Lucy has taken to dashing out the door when I leave for work. Once in the hall (I live in a high-rise condo) she throws herself down on the floor and just lies there. I have to put down my stuff, scoop her up, and put her back in my condo, to her annoyance.
If she only knew where I was going, she wouldn’t be so eager to come along!
Anyhow, I’m very glad to be home, where the hardware works and the kitty is purring! And there is no need for tantrums of epic proportion.
Check out the Fall 2008 issue of Knit Simple magazine. There are two very easy top-down sock patterns in it: one for mom, and one for baby. Designed by moi. They are shown in the preview here. In the second row of photos.
The magazine asked me to design an extremely easy sock for mother and baby, top down. This pattern is my gusset-heel sock, turned up-side-down, so you knit it from cuff to toe. No picking up of stitches at the heel. And the toe is a star toe — very easy. Though you could of course do any toe you want. Both socks are done in fingering weight yarn.
In other sockie news . . . I’ve finished the first Seaweed Sock!
Here’s a close-up:
This is a very simple lace pattern that gives very satisfying results. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ll offer this pattern as a freebie. In fact, my Plurk buddies already have access to it. 
There was a question in the comments about Plurk. It’s a social networking, micro-blogging site. If you google, “what is Plurk” you’ll find plenty of answers. Bottom line — it’s fun!
In other news, Lucy is just plain ol’ worn out from her tough Monday.
