Brrrrrr. . .
OK - it's cold here. And it got cold like overnight on Sunday. Winter is here - my Christmas decorations are up! I had to fire up the snowblower yesterday! And man was it cold today. I'm wearing pajamas. Because I'm cold. I actually had to turn the heat up to 68 on both furnaces.
We had our first real snowfall on Monday. This is usually when people start in with the "I'll bet you miss Southern California now, don't you?" line. Just so you know: No, I don't. I love all four seasons, and I wish I could have captured the snow in my backyard yesterday in the dawn light. Quite surreal, actually. And so very beautiful.
Chicago is always a beautiful city to me - no matter what time of year it is, but at this time of year, I think it steals Paris' "City of Lights" crown. Every tree on the Magnificent Mile is covered in Italian lights (for those of you not from here, they call them twinkle lights in a lot of other parts of the world) - and not just on North Michigan Avenue, pretty much all over downtown you can find trees and shrubs covered in Italian lights. The gigundous tree in Daley Plaza is lit, and everyone is bundled up. That's what you do here in the winter - you just wear a lot of clothes :-)
And for my friend, Michelle, who envies my life right now . . . they say the grass is always greener - although here right now, it's . . . um . . . .whiter. I know in your heart you would not trade your son, your sheep, your chickens and your man for the single life in the Windy City. Maybe for a day or two, but I imagine you would soon tire of my daily commute to the city and my desk job, and coming home and trying to cook healthily for one, and sleeping single in a double bed. I could be wrong, though - perhaps you need to come to the city for a visit to see what life in the big city is really like. :-) . . . . :-D sorry, I'm just laughing at the thought of me on your ranch . . . and those who know me in person are really laughing, because I'm such a city girl. I'm exactly where I'm meant to be - and I suspect, so are you :-)
Finally the Saxony Socks are done. I made these in the largest size and then decreased down to 64 stitches when I switched to stockinette for the foot. These photos will biggify if you click
on them - I'm sorry they are not better, but I don't seem to have the knack for indoor photos that KniftyRed has with hers. Better light would help, I'm sure. These have, once and for all, cemented my dislike of variegated yarns for stitch work. I wish I would have figured this out sooner because I got an armoire full of gorgeous variegated sock yarns with which I will be making plain stockinette socks. Oh well - they'll be easy to do on the train. Live and learn.
The cables are much more visible in person than in either of the photos. These are going to my cousin, B. She insisted she didn't care about the obvious biasing that's going on. I suppose you won't see it under her jeans anyway, but it really bothers me and I've never had this problem before.
I don't know why this happened, but it was consistent with both socks. Working the seed stitch I was constantly "un-twisting" the yarn. I don't know if this biasing is inherent in the pattern, or if it was the pattern coupled with knitting in the round (i.e., never purling back on the seed stitch). At any rate - I'm not happy with them, but B will love them. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Wild Iris colorway - not one of my favorites, truth be told. And for some reason, in the first photo it looks like there is blue in the yarn. There is no blue - it's purple, green and brown. I'm happy these are done ;-D
We had our first real snowfall on Monday. This is usually when people start in with the "I'll bet you miss Southern California now, don't you?" line. Just so you know: No, I don't. I love all four seasons, and I wish I could have captured the snow in my backyard yesterday in the dawn light. Quite surreal, actually. And so very beautiful.
Chicago is always a beautiful city to me - no matter what time of year it is, but at this time of year, I think it steals Paris' "City of Lights" crown. Every tree on the Magnificent Mile is covered in Italian lights (for those of you not from here, they call them twinkle lights in a lot of other parts of the world) - and not just on North Michigan Avenue, pretty much all over downtown you can find trees and shrubs covered in Italian lights. The gigundous tree in Daley Plaza is lit, and everyone is bundled up. That's what you do here in the winter - you just wear a lot of clothes :-)
And for my friend, Michelle, who envies my life right now . . . they say the grass is always greener - although here right now, it's . . . um . . . .whiter. I know in your heart you would not trade your son, your sheep, your chickens and your man for the single life in the Windy City. Maybe for a day or two, but I imagine you would soon tire of my daily commute to the city and my desk job, and coming home and trying to cook healthily for one, and sleeping single in a double bed. I could be wrong, though - perhaps you need to come to the city for a visit to see what life in the big city is really like. :-) . . . . :-D sorry, I'm just laughing at the thought of me on your ranch . . . and those who know me in person are really laughing, because I'm such a city girl. I'm exactly where I'm meant to be - and I suspect, so are you :-)
Finally the Saxony Socks are done. I made these in the largest size and then decreased down to 64 stitches when I switched to stockinette for the foot. These photos will biggify if you click
on them - I'm sorry they are not better, but I don't seem to have the knack for indoor photos that KniftyRed has with hers. Better light would help, I'm sure. These have, once and for all, cemented my dislike of variegated yarns for stitch work. I wish I would have figured this out sooner because I got an armoire full of gorgeous variegated sock yarns with which I will be making plain stockinette socks. Oh well - they'll be easy to do on the train. Live and learn.
The cables are much more visible in person than in either of the photos. These are going to my cousin, B. She insisted she didn't care about the obvious biasing that's going on. I suppose you won't see it under her jeans anyway, but it really bothers me and I've never had this problem before.I don't know why this happened, but it was consistent with both socks. Working the seed stitch I was constantly "un-twisting" the yarn. I don't know if this biasing is inherent in the pattern, or if it was the pattern coupled with knitting in the round (i.e., never purling back on the seed stitch). At any rate - I'm not happy with them, but B will love them. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Wild Iris colorway - not one of my favorites, truth be told. And for some reason, in the first photo it looks like there is blue in the yarn. There is no blue - it's purple, green and brown. I'm happy these are done ;-D
Comments
Don't despair over the variegated sock yarn in your stash. There are many things you can do to break things up so that you don't get pooling and biasing if you don't like it. Slip stitch patterns work really well. Or in another vein, I recently did a pair of Cookie A's monkey socks and they looked fantastic. Or things with tent stitches, like our Oh So Beautitul Socks. http://lornaslaces.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-spent-weekend-little-under-weather.html
Just do things to really mix up those stitches.
Sorry if this seems like shameless self promotion. I don't mean it to be. I just want you to make socks you love!
Beth Casey
But I do like your socks. The colors are so cheerful!