What's Wrong With This Picture

This is the first of Mom's Christmas socks. What's wrong with this picture?



It's subtle, and I didn't notice it until I'd started up the leg. Did you catch it?
Yes, indeed! I worked the heel on the side (half instep/half sole) instead of just the sole. And I even know why I did that. It's because I automatically center the in-the-round join in the middle of the heel flap on Cuff Down socks, which is what I normally knit. Problem is, these are Toe-Up Socks (why? I don't know, I just felt like it). Also, I was turning the heel while chatting at our weekly Craft Night, so add in distracted and on autopilot and we have this week's recipe for a knitting boo-boo.

At 3AM when I discovered this I thought about ripping out the toe and redoing that instead of the heel (less stitches in toe), but ripping back from a cast on is always a major pain in the butt. I even considered (for just a second or two) leaving it as is on the chance my Mom might not notice, but decided even she'd likely notice a heel on her ankle bone. In the glaring light of day, however, I realize it's time to firmly grasp my knitting and dip my toe, or rather my heel, in the frog pond and RiiiiipIt.

I Haz An FO

Yay! I finished something:

Buccaneer - this was my fractal spinning experiment on some superfine merino in the Buccaneer colorway from The Unique Sheep. It's mostly gray and white with some brown. 2ply, semi-woolen spun (attenuated longdraw from faux rolags from com'l top). I ended up with seven mini-skeins. The first four skeins (from left to right) are fractal 2ply and the last three are traditional 2ply. I think I like the traditional 2ply better than fractal because traditional gives me larger sections of solid color in addition to shaded, blended and barber pole sections.

This picture was taken before their twist setting bath:




Also finished spinning braid #7 of Rasputin. It's resting to make it easier to pre-chain and rewind on another bobbin. Then all I have to do to ply is add twist. Makes for very travel friendly Navajo/chain plying. I will probably start #8 tomorrow.

Started spinning the second bump of New Moon earlier this past week. New Moon is the colorway name for the yak/merino blend I spun during the Tour de Fleece. This will be a 2ply spun semi-woolen to match the first bump. Mostly I've been spinning this while visiting Mom at the nursing home. I'm a little more than halfway through the first half, so it's progressing.


On My Needles:

I've been good. I've been concentrating on just my two projects that I picked last time: the Woolgathering socks and the Ohio Star pillow cover. Both are coming along nicely, although I did have to rip back almost four inches on the sock (boy did I made the sock too long!). It's striped sock yarn and I think I got a little carried away watching the stripes form. Nice thing about having to rip so much is those early stitches are fairly set, so I don't have to tink back. I can just rip without the stitches running.

The 2 1/2 inch pillow cover seaming edge has been ripped back and I'm replacing it with three needle applied I-cord bind off. Looks much better than the striped seam. I don't know what I was thinking with that...



2012 Yardage Goal: 17,600; Total to Date: 16,753; 95% Complete

Brought To Me By:
Audiobooks:
DVDs etc: How To Train Your Dragon; Mad Men; Dr Who end-S5;
Pod/VideoCasts:  The Knit Girllls; Cast On; Electric Sheep; Subway Knits; Sticks & String; Knitmore Girls; SpinDoctor;


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