The Sock Black Hole

Okay, I consider myself to be at least average or better in math. So my question is this. If I start with just under 110 grams of sock yarn to make a pair of socks and knit 80 grams worth, shouldn't I be farther along than this?


Actually there is a fully complete sock waiting to be frogged after knitting the entire thing in denial and then discovering that the cuff wouldn't fit over my heel. So I pulled out a ruler and a scratch pad, measured and figured, pondered and contemplated and cast on again. I got a couple repeats into the foot and discovered that the sock would fit over the outside of my sneaker. Then I cast on fewer stitches and tried again. I got as far as I got on version 2.0 and tried it on. It was pretty close, but a little big. After this much knitting I decided that this sock was, for the love of all that is good and wooly, going to fit. So this is the third try for this particular 8 grams of sock yarn and I am finally happy with it, so it should go faster from here on out!

Especially for Molly Beez

Beeb, rockin' the skivies world:

Should I be worried?*

Why yes, those are his big sister's underpants he's wearing. I was trying to help Bean get dressed and was holding out her underpants for her to step into them when she decided it had been too long since the last major conniption fit. Beeb came over and demonstrated good cooperation skills.

And here is the reason for the relative shortage of cute Beeb shots:

Can't you just see the swirling air currents in his wake?

* Asked with tongue firmly in cheek, of course. Bug is wearing pink nail polish on his big toes. We roll with the punches here...

Signs of Spring

It's green! Three of the daffodils we planted last fall are peeking through. After having lived with some neurotically early daffodils in Iowa City, I was starting to think these hadn't survived the winter. My IC daffs were facing south and probably an early variety anyway, but they always came up during a rogue week of warm and sunshine in the middle of the winter (like early February) and then got snowed on and frozen and generally abused for the next couple of months until spring really arrived. The flowered when spring really arrived and generally flourished, but the ends of the leaves always looked like the losing side of a rough boxing match.

Not only do I have three up, there are also lots of cracks in the soil at roughly the spacing that the bulbs were planted, so I am optimistic there are many more on the way:

Fortunately, the forecast 3-5" of snow this weekend failed to materialize. We had a dusting on Sunday morning, but that was gone by mid-day.

And it's green! Tomato seedlings are coming up:

They will need to be thinned once they get some real leaves. I am also planning on potting up to yogurt containers before putting them outside.

And, finally, it's green! Okay, technically not a sign of spring, unless you count the fact that I am just perverse and twisted enough to start a sweater just as the weather is warming up. My (March) February Lady Sweater continues apace:

I got a big whack done at Late Night last Friday. I was just a few rows shy of splitting off the arm holes on Friday morning and (barely) managed to get them divided before heading of to Late Night. I was pretty sure I would have better luck with the whole knitting a seven-stitch lace repeat while counting off number of stitches before casting on extra armpit stitches at home. But I made it, and knit gull lace until my brain was no longer capable of keeping track of a four-row, seven stitch repeat. For a late Friday evening, I was fairly impressed with how far I made it. After that, I worked on the toe of my second attempt on the Raspberry Charade socks. After misjudging the amount of pulling in from the pattern, I finished one sock that wouldn't fit over my foot. After carefully measuring, computing, and pondering, I started the second one. After getting a few repeats into the pattern on the foot, I finally accepted defeat when it became clear that version 2.0 fit over not only my foot but also my sneaker. Version 3.0 has been started with a number of stitches between the two. If that doesn't work, I will accept that the pattern and or yarn are clearly cursed and put both in timeout and start a new pair of socks.

On Saturday we went to the Mackenzie Nature Center for their Maple Syrup Festival. We had fun looking around, but only saw about half of it. I didn't realize that one of the flyers we got when we arrived had a map on it and left it in the car. One of the kids was too tired and crabby to go with the flow and just wander around and see what we could find. After a while, Bug, Bean, and Beeb started getting restive (and hungry), so I gave in gracefully and we went to find some lunch!