The BBC

September 11, 2006 By

Visiting New Orleans was one of the most profound events of my life. Flying home into NYC, directly over Lower Manhattan, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11, made the emotions brought about by our trip all the more intense.

Given the day, I thought I would share a story I wrote. It’s about the nature of tragedy and it’s both funny, absurd and very sad.

“The BBC,” Fourteen Hills, Spring/Summer 2002, pgs. 36-40.
© 2002 by Cara Davis

Read it!

(I couldn’t get it all in one pdf document. The Fabulous Bookish Girl merged the documents together for me! Thanks Wendy! I hope you don’t have any trouble reading it. You will need Adobe Reader to view it. Thank you.)

Filed Under: Life

Walking To New Orleans

September 7, 2006 By

This time, I’m walking to New Orleans.
I’m walking to New Orleans.
I’m gonna need two pair of shoes,
When I get through walking these blues,
When I get back to New Orleans.
I’ve got my suitcase in my hand.
Now, ain’t that a shame?
I’m leaving here today,
Yes, I’m going back home to stay.
Yes, I’m walking to New Orleans.
You used to be my honey
Til you spent all my money.
No use for you to cry,
I’ll see you by and by.
Cause I’m walking to New Orleans.
I’ve got no time for talking.
I’ve got to keep on walking.
New Orleans is my home.
That’s the reason why I’m goin.’
Yes, I’m walking to New Orleans.
I’m walking to New Orleans.

Georgie’s been singing this for weeks. Fats Domino. Listen to a clip here.
See you next week. Have a great weekend.
L, C

Filed Under: Vacations

WTF?! It’s Wednesday!

September 6, 2006 By

Time to get random….

See this boy? Is he not the cutest boy in the universe? Today this sweet boy had tubes put in his ears. He’s on his way home now, everything went fine, but think good thoughts for one of my favorite kids in the whole wide world. THANK YOU!

The inaugural YARNIVAL is here!!!

Eve did a FANTASTIC job with the first issue – I encourage you all to head over and read it. Really nicely done. AND she’s accepting submissions for issue 2. So see what you’ve got and SUBMIT!

Crazy Stitchy not only has a new crazy book, but she’s come up with BLOGGER BINGO!!!


Are you going to Rhinebeck? Then you NEED to know about this. And what better way to fill up your squares then at the BLOGGER MEET-UP! That’s right. I’ll be organizing my now infamous (move to the other side of the grass damnit!) blogger meet up. Same time, same place as last year. Details to come, but keep it in mind. Saturday. 1ish. Side of the main barn.

I played tennis again with G and kicked his ass. Okay, really only on like two or three points but they were legitimate winners. REAL WINNERS. Not him half-assed running to the ball and saying “good shot babe.” He ran to the ball and tried to get it back and couldn’t. There was cursing. DUDES. I was FORCING ERRORS. I also twisted the same goddamn ankle again, but it’s okay and we won’t be playing at all this weekend. Although there will still be tennis: we’re going to the Open tonight. Oh and boo hoo hoo Gagassi. Never ever liked him. I’m a Pistol Pete girl. (C’mon! It’s well known I’ve got a thing for Greeks!) I’ve seen Agassi play a million times. Been thisclose to him when he was practicing at the hotel I was staying at out in Palm Springs. Eh. I don’t know who we’re seeing tonight, but I know I’ll be wishing I was playing instead of watching. Kind of new for me.

Remember those movies when the rats or bunnies or hamsters would mutate and become giants and take over the world? I SAW ONE OF THESE MUTANT RATS IN PERSON!

This picture doesn’t do it justice. We were at a small local zoo with the kids last week and we turned a corner and THERE WAS THIS GIANT FREAKING RAT! Scared the hell out of me. My nephew said look at the cute giant hamster, but this baby had RAT written all over it. It was one of those things that fascinates and terrifies all at the same time – you know? It’s technically called a Capybara and it’s the largest rodent in the world. They can get up to 175 pounds!!!!! Giving me nightmares.

Speaking of nightmares, last night G and I watched the first two acts of Spike Lee’s When The Levees Broke. You should all see it if you can. It’s heartbreaking and shameful. And so far I don’t feel an agenda being played out. Only once has Spike made his presence known and it was actually kind of funny. I’m not a big Spike Lee fan, but this is very well done – honest, stark, brutal. G and I are going to New Orleans tomorrow night for a three day weekend. I feel like I want to DO SOMETHING while I’m there, but I’m afraid being a tourist may be all I can do. Very scary stuff.

Thanks to everyone who purchased yarn yesterday in my stash sale!! I’m going to leave the few items left up for the day – if they don’t sell by tomorrow I’m taking them down and I’ll rethink the kit. If anyone is interested in any part of what’s left – send me an email (address at bottom of this page) and I’ll figure something out with you. THANK YOU!

Have a GREAT day!

PS – My site STILL looks like crap in IE. Anyone know a whole lot about CSS and IE compatibility? I tried changing the font codes to px instead of small, x-small, which I have now and it helped with the font size, but IE is still not recognizing the padding on my img borders and it messes up the fonts regardless when it appears after the image. Any and all help is appreciated. I generally use Firefox to view my site, but it bothers me to no end to know that it’s out there not looking how I wanted it to look. THANKS!

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Stash Sale!!!

September 5, 2006 By

This is my first ever stash sale, so fingers crossed nothing goes wrong.

ALL YARN HAS BEEN STORED IN PLASTIC BAGS IN PLASTIC CONTAINERS IN A SMOKE FREE, PET FREE, LOVING ENVIRONMENT.

PAYMENT THROUGH PAYPAL ONLY.

FREE SHIPPING TO ADDRESSES IN THE US, EXCEPT WHERE NOTED. ALL ITEMS SHIPPED OUTSIDE OF THE US WILL BE CHARGED AN EXTRA $5.00.

I’ve tried to be as explicit in my descriptions of the yarn as I can be. What you see is what you get. Right now I’m not splitting anything up – but we’ll see if there’s anything left. THANK YOU!

JO SHARP DESERT GARDEN

Jo Sharp Desert Garden

65% Cotton, 35% Microfibre

Each ball is approximately 60 yds, 50g

Color: 238 Dandelion (light khaki green) / Dyelot 100

19 BALLS FOR SALE: $70.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

Brown Sheep Cotton Fine

Brown Sheep Cotton Fine

80% Cotton, 20% Merino Wool

Each skein is approximately 222 yds, 50g

Color: CF-800 Prairie Lupine (light purple) / Dyelot 014

I used Cotton Fine to make my Flower Basket Shawl.

5 SKEINS FOR SALE: $18.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

Rowan All Seasons Cotton

Rowan All Seasons Cotton

60% Cotton, 40% Acrylic

Each skein is approximately 98 yds, 50g

Color: SH172 Tapestry (antique yellow) / Dyelot 27C2

Perfect for a gender neutral baby sweater!

6 SKEINS FOR SALE: $35.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

Brooks Farm Four Play

Brooks Farm Four Play

50% Fine Wool, 50% Silk

Each skein is approximately 270 yds, 4oz

Color: Hand Dyed mixture of reds, browns, golds, purple and gray

Perfect for Clapotis!

4 SKEINS FOR SALE: $55.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

Felted Flower Basket Bag Kit

I bought all of these materials to make the Felted Flower Basket Bag, which appeared in the Winter 2004/2005 issue of Vogue Knitting. The pattern is by Nicky Epstein. I’m putting everything together as a kit:

Cascade Magnum

100% Pure Wool

Each skein is approximately 123 yds, 8.82 oz

Color: 0050 Black / Dyelot 6682 THREE SKEINS

Color: 9431 Red / Dyelot 7011 TWO SKEINS

Color: 9430 Green / Dyelot 7014 TWO SKEINS

Color: 9415 Dark Green / Dyelot 6773 ONE SKEIN

TOTAL: EIGHT SKEINS

Addi Turbo Circular Needle Size US #19, 32″ cord

(Never been used.)

Very Fine Copy of Winter 2004/2005 Vogue Knitting with Felted Flower Bag Pattern

COMPLETE KIT: $160.00

$5.00 HANDLING CHARGE INCLUDED IN PRICE.

—————————————————————————————

Brooks Farm Duet

Brooks Farm Duet

55% Kid Mohair, 45% Fine Wool

Each skein is approximately 500 yds, 8oz

Color: Hand Dyed mixture of greens and browns

3 SKEINS FOR SALE: $87.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks

Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks

50% Tussah, 50% Merino

Each skein is approximately 28
0 yds

Color: Mary’s colorway – hand dyed teals, golds, pinks, orange, yellow

One skein is already wound and the other two skeins were purchased separately. The two unwound skeins seem a little darker to me than the one that’s wound. They were dyed separately. Perfect for Clapotis.

3 SKEINS FOR SALE: $75.00

SOLD

—————————————————————————————

Regia/Lanna Grossa Sock Yarn

Six Skeins of Sock Yarn – SOLD TOGETHER AS A SET

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Multiringel

80% New Wool, 20% Polyamid

One skein is approximately 420m, 100g

Color: 5050 (black, white, gray stripes) / Dyelot 46183

One skein makes at least a pair of socks.

Regia Cotton Surf

41% New Wool, 34% Cotton, 25% Polyamid

One skein is approximately 400m, 100g

Colors: 5417 (lightish blues and white stripes) / Dyelot 50382

5412 (purple, orange and yellow stripes) / Dyelot 50377

5413 (teal, gold and green stripes) / Dyelot 50378

5414 (purple, blue and orange stripes) / Dyelot 50379

5411 (red, purple and orange stripes) / Dyelot 50376

One skein makes at least a pair of socks.

6 SKEINS FOR SALE: $70.00

SOLD

THANK YOU! ENJOY YOUR DAY!

Filed Under: Stash Sale

What A Racquet!

September 4, 2006 By

School’s in session. And while some people have clearly got a thing for wood shop (what?! Is the teacher a cute Alan Alda type or something?), I’ve joined the tennis team.

I’ve said it a million times on this here blog that my darling boy is an ATHLETE. He was on the tennis team and basketball team in high school and college and once was recruited to play bball in Greece. Sadly, he’s given up basketball these last few years and concentrates mainly on tennis – bad hips and all. His hips are back to being really really bad lately so he can’t play the tennis he’s used to. Want to know how hurt he is? He’s begun playing with ME.

Back in the day, a long long long time ago, when G and I were dating, I used to travel out to Jersey (I was living in NYC at the time – still in school) on the weekends to the park where G played tennis. I would lay out in my little bikini while he played (oh my god I was so very young) and then we’d hang out after he was finished. One day, he asked if I wanted to hit a tennis ball with a bat. I said okay because I was madly in love and would’ve said yes to anything (well, almost anything – nah – really anything.) He got out the bat and the ball (because he has a sporting goods store in the trunk of the car) and started throwing the ball to me. It literally took me 20 MINUTES to make any kind of contact at all. AT ALL. The slightest of foul tips. I think on the next bat I got lucky and hit a nice line drive but by that time the damage was pretty much done. I could see the disappointment on his face growing deeper and deeper. He confessed to me later that he honestly considered whether or not to continue the relationship given my lack of hand eye coordination.

Lucky for him, I’m MUCH better at tennis.

So we’ve been playing a bunch and every time we go out I get better and better. I’m hitting harder and deeper and yet I’m still in control of the ball. Especially when I keep my eyes on it. Seriously. Who knew that when they tell you to watch the ball it actually works!!?! I think he’s been enjoying himself – watching me get better and put his lessons into action. But last night, well last night I’ve never seen my husband prouder. I was in the zone – working my low to high swing, watching the ball, grunting through the swing (he’s been trying to get me to grunt more), hustling to catch that ball no matter where he put it on the court. I chased down a hard forehand, and ripped it cross court landing it way in the back corner pinning G to the baseline. IN! And then I promptly turned my ankle and fell hard on my ass. G was so excited I think he would’ve jumped the net if it wouldn’t have landed him in the hospital afterward. He’s cheering at me that was my best shot yet! Way to hustle! The torsion knocked me on my ass! AWESOME!!!


Dude! I so need a pedicure!

Today, as much as I’d like to play, I think I’ll stick to more knitterly pursuits.

The Koigu knee high. From the stash! The solid color at the ribbing (which will also be used for the heel and toe) is color 1160 and the first sock yarn I ever bought. I was out with Cassie one day last year and she insisted that I could knit socks, so I bought this rather dark and tame Koigu. I got about this far and gave up. It was the dpns.

The handpainted Koigu in the delicious purple is colorway P214. I don’t remember when I bought it but I really like the purply goodness. It’s been in the stash for a bit and every now and again I take it out and play with it and wonder what it will become. When I decided I needed another pair of knee highs I remembered the original yarn. I thought, huh. These two might look really good together.

HEJ was here when I started them (actually the second pair I started while she was here – the first pair did NOT work out) and she agreed that the colors worked well, so off I went. I LOVE THEM. LOVE THEM. I added an extra five rows of ribbing because I was a tad concerned as to how much yarn I had with the purple (I have three skeins for two socks – and a bunch of the dark color) but I really shouldn’t have been worried. I’ve got plenty of the first purple skein left and I’m done the decreases. I’ve got about fifteen rounds to go and then I start the heel. No problem. I’ll probably have to just break into the third skein for a bit on the foot. Beautious!!

STASH SALE TOMORROW! 8AM EDT! 1PM EDT!!!!
BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!!!

Filed Under: Knee Highs

Everyone is so untrue.

September 3, 2006 By

The kids and my sister are gone. HEJ‘s been home for a few days now. It’s just G and me. It’s GREAT having company, but it’s also nice to be alone. 😉

First of all, DAYUM that’s a lot of lurker love!!! Where the hell are all you people on the boring days, like when I’m not giving away free stuff? Right here and right now I’m declaring that each and every one of you lurkers must choose a day of the week to DELURK. Pick Monday. Or WTF Wednesday. I don’t care but ONCE a week you MUST make yourself known. Seriously. Don’t be a stranger. I want to know everything there is to know about you. In a good way.

Okay. Here’s the lowdown on the LIES. Honestly, I’m a terrible liar. I’ve got like Truth Disease or something because when I try to lie I get all fidgety and twitchy and start dancing around like a have to pee. It’s the truth. I swear.

1) Once upon a time, we were invited to spend July 4th weekend in London, England. The trip included flying there and back on the Concorde (DUDE I saw SPACE!) and seeing The Three Tenors at Wembley Stadium. We had crappy seats at Wembley (although they ended up being good when it started to pour half way through the show and we were under the tin roof) and the sound was totally off so the Tenors sang and we heard it a week later. On the way back to the hotel from the Stadium, we were sort of car jacked. A man walked up to the car and opened the back door (I was in the middle between G and a woman who worked for British Airways) and the man tried to take her purse. I screamed at G to get out of the car get out of the car but he couldn’t figure out how to open the door. Meanwhile the woman sitting next to me was totally fighting with the would be robber and managed to save her purse at the expense of her Rolex. Her husband, who was sitting in the front seat with the driver, ran after the theif. G ran after the husband. I stood in the middle of the road in a foreign country screaming, “Come back. Come back.”

ALL TRUE. First and only time I’ve been to London. The Concorde was COOL as SHIT but loud. Very loud. You do get a five course meal though so it kind of makes up for it. And they give you swag. Lots of swag with like a certificate signed by the pilot that says YO! I flew the CONCORDE. Otherwise the trip kind of sucked in a not so funny I freak out anytime anyone walks up to my car even ten years later kind of way. Scary shit. It’s always been my theory that the car service driver was totally in on the whole thing. He was a little too reluctant to take us to the bobby stand. (WHOA! First time I ever wanted a cop to have a gun. I so did NOT feel safe.)

2) G won an all expense paid trip to Maui, first class – super deluxe suite at the Four Seasons – by winning a tennis tournament for travel managers. I woke up the morning of our flight with a killer sore throat and ended up being sick pretty much the whole trip. Which was fine with me because hallucinating in paradise is kind of fun. The first two days I barely got out of bed, watching the birds chirp along the lanai trailing rainbows behind their feathered asses. The room, if you could call it that, had two separate entrances, two bathrooms, two kitchens and a wrap around balcony bigger than my apartment. When I finally ventured out of the hotel I ran into David Spade at the restaurant near the pool. It was all I could do to keep my breakfast down.

ALL TRUE. I was sick as a dog and the “room” was bigger than my own apartment, which is pretty big. And I didn’t hang out with David Spade who I think is kind of gross and squirrley and not really funny at all, but he did sit at the table next to us at breakfast and we did see him around the resort while we were there.

3) One of the first trips G and I ever took was to the Balearic Islands in Spain. We hit Mallorca and then Ibiza – land of house music – and had a fabulous European vacation. That was until I decided to go topless and ended up with a hideous ITCHFEST all across my chest. The hostel we were staying in had no air conditioning and I was in agony, begging to cut the vacation short.

ALL TRUE. I was so totally in Ibiza – one of the most beautiful, crazy, fascinating places I’ve ever been and I would go back in a heartbeat. And I totally layed out topless (I was 21 and had the bod for it) and would do it again in a heartbeat (only this time with A TON of 45 sunscreen.) And I got an awful rash and begged to go home. And that’s where the truth ends and the truthiness begins.

There was no well intentioned stranger in the pharmacy. We did head up to visit Hotel Hacienda and witness the GINORMOUS shrimp they had at the buffett, but alas we didn’t stay there. Although we’ve always said we’d go back. There was actual talk of getting married there. We went with Vermont instead.

So, all you smarty pants that picked number 3, you were in the pot to win this:

That’s a black sheep tape measure from Lantern Moon, an Orange Chibi with my beloved SMALL bent tip needles and a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Wild Rasberry. And the winner is:

Lyssa (the Freak)

Thank you all for playing!!!

I’ve got some extremely exciting stuff coming up for you this week. A new pair of KNEE HIGHS!!!! Now before you get all oh my god she’s crazy with the freaking knee highs – I swear to you this is the prettiest pair of knee highs you’ve ever seen. One word: Koigu. AND!!!! I can barely contain my excitement. MY FIRST STASH SALE!!! Coming in a couple of days. I promise to give fair warning when it comes. I’m putting up some really beautiful stuff that sadly I just know I will never ever knit. Something for everyone.

Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.

Filed Under: Contest, Memememememe

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

August 28, 2006 By

Julia tagged me for two truths and a lie.

Today is the anniversary of Katrina and it just so happens that G and I will be traveling to New Orleans in a couple of weeks, so my truths and lie are all about vacations we’ve taken.

1) Once upon a time, we were invited to spend July 4th weekend in London, England. The trip included flying there and back on the Concorde (DUDE I saw SPACE!) and seeing The Three Tenors at Wembley Stadium. We had crappy seats at Wembley (although they ended up being good when it started to pour half way through the show and we were under the tin roof) and the sound was totally off so the Tenors sang and we heard it a week later. On the way back to the hotel from the Stadium, we were sort of car jacked. A man walked up to the car and opened the back door (I was in the middle between G and a woman who worked for British Airways) and the man tried to take her purse. I screamed at G to get out of the car get out of the car but he couldn’t figure out how to open the door. Meanwhile the woman sitting next to me was totally fighting with the would be robber and managed to save her purse at the expense of her Rolex. Her husband, who was sitting in the front seat with the driver, ran after the theif. G ran after the husband. I stood in the middle of the road in a foreign country screaming, “Come back. Come back.” Jolly good fun but at least the trip was free.

2) G won an all expense paid trip to Maui, first class – super deluxe suite at the Four Seasons – by winning a tennis tournament for travel managers. I woke up the morning of our flight with a killer sore throat and ended up being sick pretty much the whole trip. Which was fine with me because hallucinating in paradise is kind of fun. The first two days I barely got out of bed, watching the birds chirp along the lanai trailing rainbows behind their feathered asses. The room, if you could call it that, had two separate entrances, two bathrooms, two kitchens and a wrap around balcony bigger than my apartment. When I finally ventured out of the hotel I ran into David Spade at the restaurant near the pool. It was all I could do to keep my breakfast down. Hula-va good time but at least the trip was free.

3) One of the first trips G and I ever took was to the Balearic Islands in Spain. We hit Mallorca and then Ibiza – land of house music – and had a fabulous European vacation. That was until I decided to go topless and ended up with a hideous ITCHFEST all across my chest. The hostel we were staying in had no air conditioning and I was in agony, begging to cut the vacation short. We were in the pharmacy trying to find something to help with my rash when an older woman in the store heard us asking the pharmacist for help. She started talking to us and took pity – you see – she said, her son-in-law was the manager of a hotel not far from where we were staying and she said she was sure he could get us a wonderful air-conditioned room. He did. It was the phenomenol Hotel Hacienda where every room overlooks the sea and the shrimp they serve at brunch are as big as dolphins. We stayed there for the rest of our trip – two nights. Best rash I ever had; at least the room was free.

Let’s make this a contest. Everyone who leaves the right answer in the comments gets a spot in the proverbial hat to win a skein of Mountain Colors Barefoot in Wild Rasberry and some other stuff to be named later. One entry per person please. I’ll close comments on Wednesday.

And I’m tagging some new to me blogs for this meme: Rar Made This and Through the Loops and of course, anyone else who wants to knock their socks off.

A very special, very high energy guest(s) is coming to visit, so blogging might be sporadic for a little bit. And as soon as she leaves, my sister and the kids come, so please don’t expect great things on the blog this week. Have a good one!

Filed Under: Memememememe

MT Stylesheet HELP!

August 27, 2006 By

Can anyone tell me why my stylesheet has gone wonky in IE? Today when I was on the laptop, I noticed that my font is too large and the borders around my pictures have dropped off. Everything else seems okay. The site looks perfectly fine in Firefox and Netscape. I usually view it in Firefox, so I have no idea when things stopped working – although Ann asked me the other day if I changed the font size. So maybe for a couple of days?

Any and all thoughts are appreciated! THANK YOU!

Filed Under: blogging stuff

I got SKILLZ…they’re MULTIPLYING!

August 27, 2006 By

Let’s add some new items to my knitting resume, shall we? I have made a toe-up sock.


Before we get into the knitty gritty of the construction, this sock was made with Socks That Rock, Pebble Beach colorway, in the OLD put up, so half of 325 yds. See that weird ridge right at the beginning of the toe? I’ve had some questions about it – that’s my odd purl row to delineate the start of the toe decreases. I HATE the way a stockinette sock looks when it goes straight through to the end of the toe. I call it Gold Toe Syndrome. So I decided to put a purl ridge in there to break things up. It’s only on the top of the foot and it’s just one purl row. The next row is when I usually start my decreases (or in this case, the row after I finished my increases.) Oh and the shoes? I’m not sure where I bought them, but they are Naot Sea. If you google it I’m sure you can find them.

Okay. The sock. When last you found me, I was getting ready to throw away all my deeply held beliefs and make a short row heel. THANKFULLY, Deb, in the comments (GET THEE A BLOG DEB!) saved me from that woeful fate. She gave me a bunch of links to a FOURTH choice in the toe-up heel. Let’s reiterate. There’s the short row heel in all of it’s incarnations – wraps, PGR, and a million others listed here. You’ve got your traditional heel flap heel as seen here and here and a million others here. And we can’t forget the Afterthought heel.

I don’t like the way the short row heel fits and I’m not really a fan of the method and the other toe up heel flap stuff seemed really really really fiddly. (Thanks LA!) And as far as the afterthought heel goes – I’d kind of like the socks to be all in one. There’s something deeply satisfying about finishing with only two ends – one at the beginning, one at the end.

In stepped Deb. Deb of the comments. Deb who desperately needs a blog if only so I can link to her and tell everyone how amazingly helpful she is!!! Deb fielded like 80 emails from me Friday and was a saint about answering all of them and even asking her teenage daughters (who also make socks this way) their opinions on my options. Thank you ALL! Deb’s suggestion is best illustrated by this pattern.


Did you look real fast? Looks almost exactly like the traditional top down heel flap doesn’t it. Get this: IT IS!!! So, I knit until the foot met my leg and then I ripped a few rows, and I should probably have ripped a few more. As I usually do when working from the top down, I started my heel flap – only this time the heel was on the BOTTOM OF MY FOOT. The directions say that you can do a standard s1k1 heel flap (only it’s a sole flap – way cooler) but I decided to do a stockinette flap – so I did s1 k to the end, s1 p to the end until the flap met with the edge of my heel. Then guess what I did? I TURNED THE FREAKING HEEL!!! Just like you do top down. I did my normal 32 stitch heel turn (which no matter how many times I do it I still have to check with Charlene Schurch to see how many stitches I need to knit before the first turn) and then I PICKED UP FOR THE GUSSET just like top down. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?!



Click for a bigger view.

Once I started knitting the gusset (decreasing the same way I always do!) I knit the 32 stitches on the back of the heel in s1k1 so I could get the extra padding I love so much on my top down socks. I did that for all the of the decreases and a couple more rows until I had my normal “heel” flap. Want to see how it fits on my foot?



No. I don’t bend that way. Picture taken by my lovely husband.

Want to see it compared with a regular top down heel flap?


Neat, huh? Once I was done with my pseudo heel flap, I knit and knit and knit and then STILL had angst because I didn’t know when I was ever going to run out of yarn and when should I start the ribbing? I know I know it’s not like anything bad would happen (like running out of yarn at the toe) if I started it late and I could just rip until I got it right but where’s the fun in that? Anyway, I guessed right and managed to get fifteen rows of ribbing in and then I did Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Sewn Cast Off. I also used Julia’s innovation of doing the cast off inside out to make a nicer edge on the front side. But guess what? The cast off edge is like a tourniquet! I don’t know – maybe I did something wrong, but I don’t think so. And I know that I’m known for my tight cast off (wait – you didn’t know that? Yeah. I cast off pretty tight. I think it looks neater.) So I might rip it out and do something else, but for now I’ll just leave it as it.

This is how much yarn I had left:


So, the toe-up method works for getting the most yarn out of your yarn. But, I’m not convinced. There’s something off about this sock. I don’t know if I can rightly identify it (besides the tight bind off) but it just feels different. I’m glad I did it, and I’m glad I did it the way I did it, but I still really really like the fit of my top down s
ocks. I guess I’ll do the mate to this one, and then I’ll see. Now that I know how far up I can go with my 325yd skeins, I’m thinking the next pair will be top down.

Filed Under: Toe Up

Don’t be such a heel!

August 25, 2006 By

Thank you all so much for your sock heel suggestions. I’ve had a lot to think over in terms of these new-to-me toe-up socks. This is what they looked like this morning:


Please excuse my weird looking ankle. It’s usually got a lot more shape than that. Funny angle probably.

And this is what the sock looks like now:


I’m going to take a bit of La‘s advice in the comments yesterday and go in a different direction. I’m so thrilled with my toe up toe – why not try the traditional toe up heel, no? Trust me if it works, I’ll be asking for this recipe.

What’d ya think? Maybe a wrap for lunch? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I crack myself up.

PS – Happy Birthday Sandy!

Filed Under: Toe Up
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