I turned the heel a couple days ago, then started swatching for the Knitty Project and am now back to the sock. (I know I wanted to finish the Steeked Jacket by next week, but I find myself curiously unmotivated about that second sleeve awaiting me.) So this morning, I had to measure my foot to see what I decrease down to, after picking up the gusset stitches.
Instead of what I did last time (namely, screwing up), I STOOD UP when I measured my foot. It turns out this was a darn good idea, because when I sat down and measured my foot again out of curiosity, I found that there was a difference of over an inch. I am afflicted by a Hawaiian condition known as 'foot spread' - the result of going barefoot for ten years. (It can also be caused by wearing shoes that don't 'hold in' your feet, like sandals, slippers/thongs/flip-flops, or in my case, Birkenstocks.) I was once declared an 'honorary local' by the kids I went to school with, after I showed up for class without shoes on; I'd completely forgotten. While it is not okay to go barefoot at school any more, strictly speaking (back in the day, most kids went to school barefoot - many told me that the thing they hated most about starting kindergarten was having to wear clothing), no one commented on it except in an amused tone. One professor sighed and shook her head. In Ohio, where I also went to college once upon a time, I'd have been thrown out.
Anyway. When measuring your feet for socks, stand up. Especially if you go barefoot or wear loose shoes a lot.
Yesterday, I dyed some yarn. (Gee, that never happens around here.)
On the top, another go at the element of earth. (Much more successful than the insipid camouflage yarn I produced last time.) On the bottom, some lace weight. I was attempting to copy the color of Sekhmet's eyes; they're a pretty sea green shading toward blue on the outer edge and shading toward yellow on the inner edge. Not bad, but I haven't quite got it yet.
The Baby, six months away from the age of two, has decided that the Terrible Twos should begin now. She has been pushing the envelope on rules for the last week. We had firmly established that climbing on top of the coffee table was not to be done; who was found sitting there watching TV last night? (I was trying to cook dinner. Silly me.) When told 'no' or pulled away from any non-baby area, she lays on the floor and howls. Why she does this, I do not know; we certainly don't cater to her or give in, and often laugh at her. But she's a baby, she's not meant to make sense. In between howling and climbing furniture, though, she's been pretty happy.
New Blogger is fucking up the posting of another picture. Gee. I'm shocked. New Blogger not working. Wow. Alert the media. We never saw this coming.
Amazon.com, in their infinite wisdom, lost my book order (no record of it anywhere). In the last year, every single goddamn order I have made with them has either been lost and had to be re-done, or even better, books they said were in stock suddenly moved to out of stock status and took two months to arrive. This was sort of my last go with Amazon, and now that I've confirmed they have their heads up their collective ass, I will not be ordering from them again. Ever. Someone else, somewhere, anywhere, has got to sell any book I want.
On the other hand, my ten pounds of books from Schoolhouse Press were shipped the other day and got as far as Chicago yesterday. I hope to find it on a plane to me by this evening. I do so love being able to track packages on the internet.
We won't discuss the yarn orders coming in. Nope.
10 comments:
:) I'm always barefoot, but the wide feet run in the family. My mom has a picture of me and a bunch of my cousins at a pool party at her brother's -- it's amazing how our "Dutch foot", wide at the ball and narrow at the heel, all look so similar in that picture.
(Narrow-footed Dutch people all sunk in the mud trying to go polder-walking, obviously.)
Coincidentally, my verification word: "sowckzc", pronounced "Sow-k-ssss".
I still don't see the ugly you see in that sock. Barefoot is the way to be. I obviously come from hill billy stock. As for the baby, so happy and cute. And that terrible two thing is a misnomer. It starts before two doesn't go away when they turn three.
When that darling, cute thing starts pitching a fit - walk away. Leave the room. Let her have her fit all alone. I had to do it exactly twice - once in the dining room, and once in Walm*rt. When mine figured out that she didn't have an audience, she stopped. (In Wally World, BTW, I just went around the corner - she couldn't see me, but I could see her just fine - she had the funniest, most disappointed look on her face when she realized that I wasn't paying any attention to her. It's one of the best memories I have!)
i've never had the experiences you've had with Amazon - the only thing is that once my address had become illegible so they had to resend it and thus the order took a freakin long time. But whatever, I suppose it happens sometimes. I do order from .ca not .com perhaps that is the difference. I don't know.
If I recall correctly, my mom said I didn't have terrible twos... I'm an anomaly in many ways I suppose. My husband was a terror as a kid so I just know that our kids will be too - we've had the dreaded "I hope your kids are just like you" curse placed on us via him.
powells.com is a great place to order from. They're slightly more expensive from Amazon but will ship used books (in really good condition) with only one shipping fee (as opposed to amazon where used books are shipped by the individual seller, resulting in multiple shipping charges if you order more than one used book). Anyway, check out powells.com
Kids need limits. They also need a lot of repetition, so be prepared to be the broken record your parents complained you made them into. ;)
BTW, it kills me that you haven't knit a sock before and are working out the measurements yourself rather than following a pattern faithfully. I guess I'm just one of the masses who does what I'm told to do without questioning. ;)
At the risk of someone hiring a hit on me... I thought this was how everyone knit socks. Figured out how they wanted it to fit, did the math, and knit the sock. At least for regular old socks. I didn't think anyone followed patterns unless it was for fancy socks.
I am following a pattern, sort of: the Yarn Harlot's generic sock pattern in her "Knitting Rules!" book.
Uhm. Why don't I just go knit, now?
never had any problems with amazon myself, except for things taking forever to reach Australia. But I'm used to that.
That photo of The Baby is just pure joy.
I love the new "earth" yarn. I think you've hit it exactly!
As for the Baby...Honest, I'm not nagging, but, have you considered food color in her diet? My Elder Son once threw a complete fit in the grocery store including "I hate you, Mommy!" We cut out all red foods (except the organic stuff) and he was his own sweet self for a loooonnnggg time after. Also, yellow #5 will set off an asthma attack in me every time (something about it being chemically related to asprin). Just a thought.
Hard to picture that sweet little face in tantrum mode. I'm taking your word for it, though. I swear to you my nieces were swapped out with some sort of demon spawn around age two.
I'm liking the new yarn. Of course anything that is modeled on pretty kitty eyes will probably be a winner in my book.
Sometimes the problem with Amazon, isn't Amazon. I've ordered mucho mucho many things from them (including over $900 of books for a volunteer program last year) and got every single one.
Your babe is cute. Enjoy the toddler tantrums now . . . they are not much fun when they are 16!
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