A whole lotta sockin' going on (and a mysterious beastie)

It's been quite busy at Chez Casa Liz. We've been all about doctor's visits and the outlaws have come for a visit and gone again. Now that I have my house back, I have time to post! The doctor report was fabulous! Bean's eye alignment is spot on and, now that she's had some time to adjust to not wearing super thick glasses, her vision is incredible. Seriously, we're talking super-hero - 20/15. I couldn't even identify the letters with my glasses on and she was reading them like they were right next to her nose!!!

I seem to have taken Socktoberfest quite literally, as I have been knitting nothing but socks. Sadly, there has been alot of frogging going on as well, but I've learned that, as I stated in the last post, I really prefer a sock with some ribbing in it. They fit my foot and leg better and I seem to have much fewer gauge issues.

Let's face it, gauge matters for different reasons on different projects. In shawls, I really don't care about the finished size, as long as it's not too small and I don't run out of yarn. So, gauge matters, but only in regards to yarn quantity. In sweaters, I can usually get at least stitch gauge and, if I can't, I can always go down a sweater size to compensate.

Socks are another matter. Socks have to fit. Floppy socks aren't very comfortable. Too small socks are flat unworkable. So, my thought is that, out of all the types of knitting we do, gauge can be hardest to get in a sock and it matters the most because a very tiny difference in gauge can really screw you up. I find that knitting a sock swatch does me absolutely no good at all. I have to knit the damn sock to find out if it's going to work. That can be pretty frustrating.

So, ribbed sock Number 1: Jitterbug Socks.

I have no idea why my legs look like big 'ole columns in this picture and can only hope that they don't really look like that!!!

Love these socks. The yarn is soft and squishy. I could have knit these quite a bit taller, even with the skimpy yardage, but I kind of like having them as short, flirty socks. They'll be great with some clogs, peeking out from under my jeans when I sit down.


I knit a picot edge and then a 60 stitch sock with a rib pattern of K3, p2, k1, p2, k2 - of course, the k2 at the end of the repeat and the k3 at the beginning end up turning it into K3, p2, k1, p2, k5, etc.

If you click on the picture you get an accurate color representation. My camera isn't very good at close-ups of knitting details. It doesn't do subtle.




So, now we get to play Name That Beastie. OK, it's really Name That Birdie. Over the past several days, there has been this very large and very weird bird hanging around the end of the block. Google was no help at all, so I called Wild Birds Unlimited who knew exactly what bird this is. Bean decided it was a Duck Duck Goose.



























It's a Black Muscovy Duck.

Duck, it's what's for dinner! (Perish the thought - the creek down at the end of the block is just nasty. I see people fishing down there and all I can think is that I hope they aren't eating what they catch because God only knows what's in there.)

More socks to come. I didn't really end up with finishitis per se. More like sockitis.