Fast Gratification

I have been working here and there on my Twisted Tween Socks and Unnamed Red Socks, not enough for progress to be noticeable to anyone but me.

Plus, I have been stitching Monet. Around 750 stitches completed so far. 107,250 to go. I can't figure out how Monet painted the original without going blurry-eyed. All those tiny bits of blues, lavender and gray.

I took a trip to the yarn store yesterday, gift certificate clutched in my hand, ready to indulge my fiber cravings. Except that, while my knitting time has increased lately, it is far less than it was five years ago in my single days. I didn't expect it to affect my yarn buying mind, but it did. Everything I saw, I found myself comparing to the yarns in my stash. I have so many wonderful yarns in my stash, waiting to be knit, I found myself only wanting to buy what was nicer than what was in my stash. I only found one thing. Well, three skeins of the same thing. I left with one gift certificate still unspent. I figure I will bring it to Knit Night, and use it on something that catches my fancy after two hours of child-free knitting time.

So I started something new. Something in worsted weight. Something with speedy knit gratification. I started this yesterday, and already have noticeable progress. I have progress since the picture was taken earlier this afternoon. I am making some convertible hunting mittens for my sweetie. He is showing admirable patience as I measure his hands, and ask questions about how high he wants the cuffs to go up his forearms.

Today, it is all about the speed.

Blues

My sweetie had minor surgery right before Christmas. We planned it that way, to maximize the holiday pay and shutdowns for as much of his required time off. Which meant that I spend two weeks at home with him. He was supposed to be taking it easy, so the first two days were spent taking care of him, and the remaining 12 days were spent contemplating chaining him to the chair so he would take it easy.

The kids went to Grandmas' houses as usual, to limit noise and blood pressure. I worked from home, and went in to the office for half days here and there, but mostly, I was at home doing home things. Laundry, cleaning, and relaxing. A sort of mental health recovery for me during my sweetie's physical recovery.

I did a little knitting, but not enough to photograph. Same two pairs of socks I have been working on for a long time. Twisted Tweed and Un-named red socks.

I also started something new. There are these cross-stitch patterns that I have been drooling over for years. Reproductions of Monet paintings. My mother got me four of them for Christmas. Considering how large and intricate the patterns are, I think this may be enough for a lifetime.

I started the first one. "Red Waterlilies" The directions are a little different. They recommend working a 10 by 10 stitch square at a time. Sometimes I am only doing a few squares of a color. Start, stitch three squares, end. Sounds crazy, but you would never be able to keep track of what you have stitched otherwise.

There are too many slightly different colors. Right now, all I have done is blues. Sky blues, periwinkle blue, cornflower blue, blue violet, delft blue, antique blue, wedgewood blue. . . .Blues, blues, blues. (The unstitched squares you see is the medium light blue violet that I missed on the list to buy.)

Mind-numbing, but in a good way. I have finished five squares on the first page. There are about 40 squares on each page. There are 30 pages. That makes. . . . roughly 1200 squares. Someone please tell me that my math is incorrect. That is a lot of blues. Sure, there is some greens for the lilipads, and pinks/reds for the flowers. Some lavenders and grays for accent, but still a lot of blue.

Today, it is all about the blues.

Making knitting out if boredom

Continuing education Wednesday and today. Video replay. What a wonderful thing. It means that I don't have to trek 150 miles (round trip) for the live seminar. Plus, the mood is far more casual. People don't feel the need to feign interest during the more boring and useless parts. (Travel and cruise law? In my twelve years as an attorney, I have never had a cruise law issue. Who picks these topics?)

A little work, a little knitting, and we can skip the breaks and lunch to get done two hours faster. The proctor did decline the suggestion to view on fast forward, perhaps rightly so.

So I have been cranking out the sock inches. Twisted Tweed is nearing the heel. Probably close to the inch away that I thought I was at last weekend.

Plus, I did a little work on . . . . my red sock. Have I not named it yet? I am halfway done with the first sock. How have I not come up with its name yet? I will have to give that some thought.

As it turns out, if you lease a property at below market value to a religious organization, then there is a charitable purpose and you are entitled to a property tax exemption; if you lease property for below market value only because you are receiving government subsidies to off er low-income housing, then there is not a charitable purpose and you are not entitled to a property tax exemption. Welcome to my day.

Today, it is all about the learning.

Efforts at Eyeballing

We went camping this past weekend. Well, camping trailer camping. Since my sweetie hates to have me drive his truck if he can prevent it, that meant 90 minutes of knitting time each way. What a treat!

I worked on my Twisted Tweed Socks. Near the end of the drive home, I had a brief flash of delight. Hey, I think I am almost to the heel. Where is the first sock? See only another inch. Well, maybe two. Hmm, that is more like three. Ok, so I am halfway to the heel. Whatever.

Today, it is all about the inaccurate eyeball.

Small creations

I am pleased to announce that my first Twisted Tweed Sock is finished, and (as the antidote to the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome) the second one cast on. I took it with me to California, though was not able to knit nearly as much as I had hoped. There was no plane knitting. We flew across 2/3's of the country, but no knitting for Mommy. In spite of the fact that it was pask his bedtime, eventually by hours, my little guy was wide eyed and cranky for the entire flight. My sweetie was enjoying the open bar (we had enough frequent flyer miles to get first class, which I thought was a very good thing with a toddler on the outside and a wee one on the inside) and wasn't much help to me.


I was able to knit on some of the sightseeing days, when our host was doing the driving. A couple days, I was driving, to which my sweetie initially objected, until he saw the intricate network of freeways in the LA basin. Not for rookies.


As a celebration, I cast on a new sock. Just something to break loose some boredom with my current projects. (My usual model is still sleeping in his crib, so his new Halloween teddy was pleased to substitute.) Some of my new sock yarn in a lovely semi-solid shades of red colorway (with the occasional dash of navy for interest), in a deceptively simple textured pattern. My new favorite style for hand knit socks. (Why was I so enamored of the self-patterning yarns? I maintain that I just had not yet discovered the rich sublety of semi-solids,) I can't wait to get these babies on my feet. I have several maternity tops that would match them, though I doubt they will be finished in time for that. I have other pre-pregnancy tops that match too.


Speaking of pregnancy, I am feeling better these days. Safely entered the third trimester, I feel like I have been huge forever this go round. Some days I can't get comfortable no matter what, and the intermittant insomnia creates some tired days, but last weekend was a couple of good days. I celebrated by turning these,







into this. . . . Yummy Vegetable Beef Soup. Lots of protein and veggies, and all things good for a growing belly, especially in the winter.








I can hear my little guy stirring, so I think it may to be time to start my day. It is Veterans's Day, so the courthouse is closed, but I am going into the office to catch up on paperwork. Best wishes to all Veterans, those serving now, those who served in the past, and those who have gone before us. In that last category, a special moment of silence for my grandfather, Jerome Prescott Knight, U.S. Army, retired, and my father, Allan Prescott Knight, U.S. Air Force. Between the two of them, the fought in three wars and lived to raise families and instill in us a sense of moralily and patriotism. God bless America!

When I wasn't looking. . .

. . . I somehow made knitting progress. I measured/tried on recently some current projects, and to my shock and awe, I realized that I have made serious progress.



Pomotomus socks: only an inch or so til the toe decreases (of sock 2).



Twisted Tweed: only an inch or two til the toe decreases (of sock 1).



Sweetie's hoodie: only three inches to the neck shaping.



How did this happen? I mean, I know that I HAD been working on these three projects. A row here, a few stitches there. I find that I can't knit with the little guy is around and awake, because he has a little too much interest in what Mommy is doing, so all of my knitting the past couple months has been sporadic and on the sly. So you can imagine my surprise and delight. I may even have some finished projects to show off soon.



And about time. At the last sock club meeting, someone observed that I was knitting Pomotomus, and asked if I had started another pair. Um, no, this is the same pair. . . that I have been working on for three years. This person doesn't have children, btw.



I may have some serious knitting time coming. My sweetie and the little guy are flying to Calif. Some frequent flyer miles were about to expire (thanks mom!), so we are taking a little trip to see sights, and visit friends and family. My sweetie expressed surprise that I was planning to bring knitting on the plane. "When are you going to be able to knit, with watching the little man?" he says. Ok, the second leg of the flight is after the little guy's bedtime, and there is always a CHANCE that he will sleep a little. Plus, there are car rides when I may not be driving. I am not going away for a week and leaving the knitting at home, and that is that. Men, they just don't understand security knitting. What if he little guy is worn out and sleeps the whole flight? A mom can dream, can't she?



Today, it is all about the cautious anticipation.

Milestones

I love project milestones. Socks have several of them. Maybe it is because socks are so small (relatively speaking) to other knitting, but the milestones seems more special. Ribbing completed, ball bound yarn (the yarn that you wound around the ball band after a big clump of it came out the center when you were looking for the end to cast on) used, heel, foot, toe. Rinse and repeat.

I passed one of those milestones this weekend with my Twisted Tweed Socks. I finished the heel. First sock officially is half finished. It knit on this so much yesterday, I almost got tired of it. Not tired of knitting, just tired of this particular project for the day. I was actually wishing I had brought a second back-up project with me to the family gathering. (Birthday party for my sweetie's youngest neice, then family bonding/Wii time before dogs and brats, complete with an hour drive time either way. I love long drives when someone else is driving.)

Today, it is all about the progress.