that was then

Last week I had a sock halfway completed. Then I took this picture:


..and so I frogged it. The camera always manages to bring a new perspective to things! I was a bit dismayed; I had put any available free time I had over the last week into working on this sock. But let's face it, this yarn was screaming to be frogged. I love the yarn and I have to do it justice. I just can't rip it out yet again, because I'm sure the ply will be shot after a fourth rip.

So this is now [again]:


I had already cast on Charade with my Rosie Yarn Pirate, and previously I had cast on 70-something stitches because I have some pretty big feet, but the sock was WAY too big. Now I'm going with the pattern to the "T". Hopefully there's a lot of ease in the pattern.

Last week we finally got to the beach. We live only a few hours from the coast, but packing up three young kids and finding the time for an overnight trip can sometimes be a little daunting. Once we're there, though, I kick myself for not making the trip more often.

today's ramblings

This week has been a whirlwind of activity, but not much in the way of knitting. My oldest daughter, Laurel, had art camp. She took a full-day program, so it felt like she was back in school already. I had to wake to an alarm -- which I detest -- and pack a lunch, and then pack all the kids into the van and get her to class. I am a bit spoiled; usually my husband is home to help out with this kind of thing, but lately he's been working a lot.

He's a firefighter and his schedule is great for both raising a family and fostering a healthy parenting environment; he works for 48 hours and then is off for 96. During the summer months though, with co-workers on vacation or sent off to aid in wildfires, there is much overtime available. For the last three (maybe four?) weeks, C has been working 96 hours and then only home for 48.

The kids are in Daddy Withdrawls. They, too, are used to having two parents around. And of course Dad does a few more fun things with them. In fact, Laurel prepared a list of things she and the other kids wanted to do over C's last 48 hours home:


As you can see from the "For Sure column", Annika (age 3.5) wanted to go to the gym to swim, Laurel (7.5) wanted to go to John's Pizza, and Gavin (nearly 2) voted by proxy for a great city park.

Mom has mundane tasks like laundry, cooking and mopping to do; when those things aren't done, Mom gets a bit cranky. After all, Mom can't feel the zen of knitting when she looks around and sees a mess. Mom might have found an answer -- knitting outside.


The sock is Pirate's Dream Sock I cast on earlier this week. I typically don't like pooling of handpaints and do anything to avoid it, but I'm really trying to let the yarn be what it wants to be -- a freakin' sock! Considering it has already been frogged twice, I'm not willing to rip it yet again.

And if that doesn't work, then I can always rely on new yarn making me feel better! On Wednesday, I received the first package from my first ever sock club: Yarn Pirate's Booty Club.

Isn't it beautiful? There's a YP pin, some yummy soap from Good Soapworks of Athens, and, of course, Merino sock yarn in Rum Runner! There are plums, turquoise, and browns. I think I'm going to cast on a type of rib pattern from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks.

the first ever

I am completely new to blogging. I've always thought it was a little presumptuous of me to assume my day-to-day life was so interesting that I needed to type it up and share it with anyone. After all, as a stay-at-home mom, what could I be doing that hundreds of other moms aren't?

Then it came to my attention that there were plenty of moms doing just this -- who doesn't have a capacity to overly gush about their kidlets? -- but that the moms I was reading about were also knitting! Could child-rearing be considered a hobby? Because if so, the primary blogs I've been lurking on are a perfect blend of my favorite hobbies: parenting and knitting.

Once I started pointing and clicking, the marriage of knitting and blogs was understood. The online knitting was much different than what I was seeing in not-so-local LYS. And because I have no LYS nor any regularly knitting friends, these blogs were opening my eyes to new friends, new patterns, and the crazes of Jaywalkers, Monkeys, Saharas, and of course, Ravelry.

I received my Ravelry invite last week and needless to say, my days (and nights!) have been consumed with uploading pictures of my stash, admiring others' stashes, picking things out for my queue, and making friends! While waiting for my aging iBook to process my requests, I've made some progress on my Priscilla's Dream Socks from Interweave Knit's Favorite Socks. The sock yarn is Yarn Pirate in the Rosie colorway. I was trying to make Sandra's Charade socks with this yarn, but my gauge was SO off and after the second frogging, I decided to do something that was a bit more, um, gauge-proof. The 2x2 rib is the perfect project for computer-side knitting. I did prefer the striping at the cuff of the sock over the pooling spiral in the leg. It almost has a retro tube sock effect, doesn't it?