A pardon for a sock

I came "this close" to frogging my toe-up sock over the weekend. It wasn't the second-try heel that bothered me. I was afraid they wouldn't fit. The first pair of socks I knit are a little tight. Okay, they were almost uncomfortably tight, and that was before I accidentally put them in the dryer.

Since I was using the same number of stitches, with the same yarn, on the same needles, this one should have been too tight, too. I was just about to rip it out and start over when I decided to try it on. No small task given I'm using double points, but I managed to get it on without dropping stitches or breaking any needles, and guess what? It fit! I think the main reason for this is that the toe area isn't nearly as pointy as with the other socks. So Sunday while we were watching crack (aka "24:Season 7"), I finished it and cast on the second.



It wasn't completely without problems. About 3/4" into the ribbing, there was a knot in the yarn. And you can't really tell from the picture, but there's a round or two of yarn near the top that had next to no dye on it. Oh well, it's Done. I would have done the toe of the new sock, but it's really hard to concentrate on knitting while watching crack. :)

In other news, my local quilt/knit shop changed locations last week, so I stopped in to check it out. And while I was in the area, I had to stop in the yarn shop near their old location....



That's Fiber Trends Leaf Lace sock pattern and some Crystal Palace Panda Wool, a pre-dyed Happy Choices knit sock flat and some Trekking XXL sock yarn in a subtle blue/purple colorway. The Happy Choices thing is pre-knit-then-dyed sock yarn. You can wear it as a scarf as-is, or undo the crochet cast-on and knit socks out of it. The top and bottom halves are dyed the same, so if you mark the center when you start, you can have identical socks. They apparently sell blank flats so you can dye your own, too. Pretty cool, huh?

Must knit faster!!!!

On Saturday, I quilted the two lap quilts I'd basted on Monday. Did I mention Max helped with the basting?


"No, put the pin over there, Mama!"

As I was quilting the second quilt (the one pictured above) I realized a few things. First, if I'm going to use polyester batting and try to quilt curves without free-motion, I need to use more pins. Second, it would probably have looked better if I'd free-motion quilted the thing, even though I suck at it. And third, I'm not a big fan of Mountain Mist polyester batting. I might have to re-think what I'm going to use in The Ugly. I wanted to use polyester since it's meant to be a picnic quilt. Cotton would be really heavy, especially if it got wet. Time to do some batting research. And I have to measure The Ugly to see what size I really need.

I had intended to give the curvy quilt to community service, but now I'm not so sure. It looks pretty bad to me. I wouldn't want some sick person to get it and feel worse..... I'll probably go ahead and bind it anyway and see how it looks.

The other one I quilted looks a lot better. It had more pins in it, and I quilted it in straight lines. I got the binding sewn on the front, but haven't finished the hand stitching yet.

Doesn't it look like Max and Emma are fighting in this picture?


"I wanted to help Mama by myself!" " Too bad!"

And finally, I tried to get a really cute picture of Max and Runt curled up on the couch, as they like to do. Instead, I got this....


"Whatcha doin', Mama?"