Adventures with sticks and string.
It’s been a lovely weekend, weather-wise. The KOARC and I had an al fresco lunch yesterday. Our Saturday Sky:
Our dessert:
The KOARC:
My Earth Shoes:
Earth Shoes 092907
I finished the Trilobyte socks.
Trilobite Socks 093007
Knit in a wool/bamboo/nylon blend from J. L. Yarnworks on a 2mm needle.
And through this all:
Lucy sleeps!
I was a bit surprised by the number of comments I got in response to this statement in yesterday’s blog:
A number of you have asked (most of you very politely, one very rudely) when I’m going to stop knitting socks, for Pete’s sake, and move onto something bigger.
I have no problem with people asking questions of that ilk. I’m all about the discussion and the exchange of ideas and free speech, et cetera. I do, however, have a problem with rudeness.
I often have long boring philosophical conversations with a colleague about the sad state of society. We are both old codgers (comparatively speaking) and every day we see behavior in the workplace that just astonishes us. Colleague believes that a breakdown of civilization is imminent, and he may well be right.
I seem to have gotten a bit off track here. My point is — I am always a bit surprised when someone leaves a rude or snarky comment on my blog. It doesn’t happen very frequently, but it does happen from time to time. Why am I surprised? Because I feel that there is a minimum standard of behavior that ought to be observed in any group. I think unprovoked rudeness, snarkyness, and snide insinuations are simply below that standard of behavior. No, I’m not losing any sleep over this — when I get a comment of this ilk, I usually roll my eyes and wonder if these commenters, blanketed in the anonymity of the online world, would say the same things to my face.
(Although given the state of society, it wouldn’t surprise me if they did.)
The moderator of an online group I used to participate in once said that the group was like her virtual living room. She asked that group participants behave in the group in the same way they’d behave as a guest in her home.
Well, this blog is my virtual living-room. You can disagree with me, you can ask questions, you can offer ideas and insights, as long it is done in a civil manner. (And, as an aside, if you choose not to notice that I’ve not vacuumed the virtual carpet in a while, I’d take that as a kindness.)
It occurs to me that if commenters are visitors to my virtual living-room, the spam commenters are those pesky door-to-door sales people — the ones who are trying to sell me goods, services, or a religion that I don’t want. The spam filter is my front door with the peephole. Heh.
Anyway.
The bottom line is that I’m still feeling the love for socks. I shall continue to knit them to the exclusion of all else for as long as the sock spirit moves me.
That said, I’m making remarkably slow progress on my current sock. Because I’m having an unusually bad bout with insomnia, I fall asleep on the train. (In fact, the other day, I woke up just in the nick of time to get off at my stop.) So no train knitting. And I’ve had some other things to do in the evening that have taken away from my knitting time.
Behold the second Trilobite Sock.
I can only hope that I’ll have the pair complete by Sunday’s blog entry.
Ann-Rose had a question:
How does knitting toe-up affect your choices in patterns? Do you find that some lace or cable patterns are best done top-down, or do you just redesign a pattern if you want to use it as a toe-up motif?
Actually, I think it’s easier to use existing charts and motifs in toe-up socks than in top down. Cables, for example. They are generally knit from the bottom up, so the charts are already set up for toe-up socks.
A lot of the lace motifs I use are ones I’ve doodled up myself. I’m not saying that someone else hasn’t already created them elsewhere, but I’m not using any thing as a reference. So once again, I just start from the bottom and move up.
And most existing charted lace motifs are, I believe, charted from bottom to top.
violetsunus commented:
I am new to knitting and I started a gray wool sock so far so good. I enjoy seeing your knit socks , I was actually looking for more. But, I have a question, when you knit your socks do you knit them with the RS facing you or the WS facing you? I seem to be knitting wrong side out, is there anything wrong with that?
I do knit with the RS facing me, but I know people who knit in the round with the WS on the outside. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that!
What about you all? Do you knit in the round with the RS on the outside or the WS on the outside?
Another PSA
Aimee is participating in a Lupus walk — go to her blog for the particulars. She’s got lots of great prizes for people who donate — here’s an example of a few of the prizes she has to offer.
Lucy Sez
My momma keeps it so cold in the bedroom that I need my cozy cushion!
It’s still only Wednesday, right? Oy. This is turning into one of those never-ending weeks. And I don’t have much here.
I do have a bit of Trilobite Sock number two done:
A number of you have asked (most of you very politely, one very rudely) when I’m going to stop knitting socks, for Pete’s sake, and move onto something bigger. The truth is that I don’t know. I still have a lot of sock enthusiasm going on here and I’m not ready to slow down enough to let other knitting creep into the repertoire yet.
I’m sort of in limbo in a number of ways, so I’m feeling like I don’t want to commit to something “big” until some other things smooth themselves out.
Looking For Spinning Wheels?
Check out this eBay auction that L-B pointed out to me. Wow!
PSA
Jill over at The Jilly Knits is participating in a “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” walk and is having a contest in conjunction with the event. Hop on over to her blog to see what you gotta do to enter the contest.
Lucy Sez
You know you want to!
I was delighted that my silly question about how you clasp your hands prompted such a lot of fun and thoughtful comments.
Just so you know, I am left-handed and I clasp right thumb over left.
The KOARC is right-handed and clasps left thumb over right.
Carissa pointed out this interesting article written in 1932 in The American Naturalist about the subject of hand clasping and arm folding. You have to be a subscriber to read the whole article, but I found the first page that displays on the link very interesting! Thanks, Carissa!
About That Other Poll
Although it was not the popular favorite, my new socks will be called Trilobite Socks. Here’s the first sock, completed.
I have long had a fondness for trilobites, and when the pattern for this sock first began to emerge, that’s what I thought it looked like.
My fondness for trilobites can be traced back to a toy my brother and I got one year for Christmas: Creepy Crawlers. Anyone else have a Creepy Crawler set? Remember Plasti-Goop? Ah, childhood!
The trilobite was my favorite Creepy Crawler. On this page there is an excellent photo (scroll down) of all the Creepy Crawler molds (the trilobite is in the mold in the top row, center). Looking at that picture really brings back memories! I wonder what happened to all the Creepy Crawlers my brother and I made?
Summer of Socks Prize Winners
Just so you know, I’ll be sending the prizes out a few at a time — so it may take a little while before you get your prize if you were among the winners. Thanks for your patience!
WendyKnits Patterns
I’m so pleased that so many of you have reported success in purchasing my patterns from The Loopy Ewe. As I told some of you, I sent a huge number of them out to Sheri, in hopes that they’d stay in stock long enough for you to be able to pick and choose. It seems to have worked — a few of them are out of stock, but a number are still available. And fear not — Sheri will re-stock the ones that have sold out. She’s just placed another huge order with me.
Thanks so much for your enthusiasm in purchasing them. You really know how to make a girl feel wanted, you know?
Lucy Sez
I know I’m loved and wanted!
(Late-breaking news: as of this moment, all of my sock patterns are currently available at The Loopy Ewe)
As usual, you guys came up with a lot of great names for my current sock.
Here is the sock:
I’ll tell you up front that I’ve already picked a name. It is one that I thought of that several of your suggested as well. But I’m interested to see if it would be voted in as the name, so I’m putting up a poll. And here it is.
Loading ...Vote!
Mystery Fibers!
More from Clara‘s fiber guessing game:
What do you think gives the fuzz to each of those yarns?
And now for something completely different.
Because I’m in an inquiring frame of mind . . .
Here is a picture of my hands clasped.
Right thumb is on top.
Here is a picture of the KOARC’s hands clasped.
Left thumb is on top.
When you clasp your hands together, which thumb goes on top?
Loading ...It’s just one of those things I’ve been wondering about in my spare time.
No, I don’t get a lot of sleep. Why do you ask?
Lucy Sez
I always sleep well!
