FI-nally

Friday, July 28, 2006

I can hardly believe I'm posting this but my orange socks are FINALLY done. Truly and completely done and finished and wearable and everything.



They look long and skinny and like they wouldn't fit an adult size foot in a hundred years but I have long and skinny feet. I also like my socks a bit snug. These turned out perfect and I can't wait for cooler weather to try them out. It's been so hot here that I've been wondering if I've somehow been transported to another dimension. A dimension where it actually gets up into the 90's for several weeks at a time in North Dakota. I mean, I'm usually the first to defend my poor, forgotten state when people start talking about how cold it is here all the time. We have seasons just like everyone else: it's hot in the summer and freaking freezing in the winter but, you know, it's not usually this hot for this long. I could definitely do without it. I mean, why else would I live here through the insanely cold winters if I didn't expect a nice 70-80 degree summer?

The heat and no rain has been bad news for my garden too. Well, that and my putting off watering because I've been so busy. I found out the other day that a ton of my tomatoes had blossom end rot. Despite what that site says about calcium, the more likely reason for it is the unpredictable watering sessions they've been getting. I pulled off all the bad tomatoes and have dedicated myself to watering more regularly. Meanwhile, we're eating lots of purple beans and cucumbers! The purple beans turn green when placed in boiling water so they're fun for kids (and adults, I'll admit it). I took a picture when I cooked some last night but I don't seem to have transferred it here. Oh well.

Back to knitting. After finishing the orange socks, I immediately cast on for my Baudelaires. While knitting and realizing they were definitely Too Big I was thinking about this blind faith I, and many other knitters, seem to have in patterns. I mean, this isn't the first time I've started a project, rechecked the gauge and listed sizes several times, and still plowed on thinking that the author must just know what they're talking about. The pattern says she made the small size for a size 6.5 foot. I figure a 6.5 foot must be pretty similar in circumference to mine since they're so skinny and I measure my foot and start according to what the pattern recommends: the medium. Whoa boy, these suckers are HUGE!



And I'm almost exactly spot on with gauge and refuse to go down to size 1's so I frogged and restarted as a size extra small (not listed in the pattern, I sized it down myself). I know this is risky since she states in the pattern that the lace isn't stretchy but so far it feels perfect. I got through the lace chart twice on the big sock and boy is it pretty. I can't wait to get farther along and get a better picture for you!

(sorry for the blurry picture.)