The other day I started knitting on my “Take out for Two” long socks.   All I have so far is this small not very long tube of 2×2 rib.  Unfortunately, I made the mistake of leaving it on the couch in the living room.  Alone.  Along comes Davey which I didn’t realize could be such a dangerous thing.  I came back into the room, and the knitted tube was on the floor behind the couch.  The needles were scattered across the floor in front of the couch.  It was a mess.  I looked at Davey.  Was he part cat?  I am allergic to cats, but don’t they also have a love for yarn?

Davey has run off with my yarn before.  He will grab the ball which is attached to the knitting in my hands and run for his life.  It seems to be irresistible to him.  He has no impulse control at all even when I am vaporizing because my project is rapidly disappearing.   He finds it very funny.  I think this behavior is along the same lines as him turning the hose on me to hear me (or anyone) squeal.

Oh and I am down to the toe on the 2nd “Two for Tango” sock.  I will finish it today!  The fair isle portion of the second sock is still a little tight – it finally occurred to me that it may be the fit on me – maybe it is just a little too small.  I am going to check the gauge and see if it’s close.  I haven’t done that yet.

Yesterday was a great 4th.  No fireworks for us (Davey was fast asleep by 7:30) but we cooked out, played in the river, and went to the waterpark.

Davey is very excited to celebrate the birthday of the United States of America.  Again it was, “will we make a cake?  decorations?  balloons?  games?”  He helped me make a cake.  He did most of the decorating.  Then we put candles on the cake and sang Happy Birthday to the United States of America.

Happy Independence Day!

How’s that for a catchy “come read me” title?  It’s not a major confession.  It involves my first Two To Tango sock and it may partially explain the fit problems.  As I am knitting the heel flap on my second sock, well- I realized that it was getting really long compared to what I remembered about the first one.  I looked at the first one:  Heel Flap = 1/2  of Total Length Needed.  (Putting it into a semi-mathematical equation makes me feel a little less dumb about it.)    Where was I when I was knitting that?  Good grief.  That poor first sock seems to be riddled with mistakes.  Fortunately to look at it – you’d think it was fine.    I will re-evaluate when I finish the second one – I think I should rip back and reknit.  I say I am about the process, but that’s quite a rip out!  Just 16 rows short of a full heel flap.  Dumb dumb dumb.

Sock 2 is progressing well though:

I am working on the foot of the Take-out sock too.  I needed some mindless knitting when we went to Hot Springs yesterday.  I haven’t gotten too far yet.

Think we are going to go to the lake today and grill some hot dogs.  I found a new recipe for slow cooked pulled pork and sweet slaw that I will make tomorrow.   Maybe we will go watch some fireworks!

Tried to get a picture of Davey this morning.  He’s playing with my measuring tape and watching some Saturday morning shows.  I couldn’t fully get his attention – this is him saying “cheese” without actually looking at me:

Knitting my fishies has reminded of that song “Two Little Fishies and Five Loaves of Bread”.  We sang it in Bible School when I was little.  I haven’t heard it in a long time.  I googled it though and quickly found several versions.  I don’t know what I did before google!

So the fishies section is progressing on the second sock.  I knitted away while I watched The Blind Side last night.  We really enjoyed that movie!  I think I just have one fish section left.  I am hoping things are looser with this larger needle – I am trying to stay loose!

Yesterday we went to the lake for awhile. It wasn’t too hot out and we always go to this area there where it almost always feels breezy and comfortable.  We were wishing we’d brought stuff to grill.  I did bring along my red yarn to start the next sock “Takeout for Two”.  I just thought I would get it cast on and started.  I think it is going to be a simple k2 p2 rib for the entire thing.   The finished product in the book extends all the way over the knee.  I am thinking about maybe stopping at or right before the knee.  I’ll see when I get there.

That’s about it on a Friday morning.  Time for another trip to the library today.

Here’s Davey one year ago! – out at the lake:

Finished my first “Two to Tango” sock.  First problem I encountered:  Couldn’t get it on.  The fair isle fishies part was too tight.  So there I sat — sock half on my foot.  Davey came to the rescue:  “Mommy, I have a tiny foot!  I will put it on for you.”

Then it occurred to me to wet it and block it.  I began the process by getting it wet and stretching it out some, and now it went over my foot.  (It was abit like being in high school again, on the bed, trying to cram my jeans on.)  It did stretch pretty well though.

Plan of action for 2nd sock:

1.  I need to get some sock blockers. (that would apply to first sock too).

2.  Address sizing issues.  The cuff is a little floppy(maybe even a lot floppy) and the fair isle fishies section is too small. From the fishies to the toe, the fit is fine.  The pattern called for a 3.25 needle, but since I knit kind of loose I went with a 3.0.  Why I did this with a fair isle sock though is beyond me.   I think I may go 2.75 on the cuff.  When I get to the fishies I will switch to 3.25.  That should give me just enough ease to get that sock over my monster foot.  Then back to 3.0 to finish the sock.  A good alternative would be to give the sock away to someone whom it might fit, but I am not satisfied enough with sock 1 to give it to anyone. (The person would need enormous calves and waifish feet in order to fit the cuff and fair isle properly.)

3.  I also made an adjustment for the toe.  The pattern called for going down to 8 stitches and then grafting.  By the time I got to 20 stitches, I felt like I was wrestling with the dpns more than I was knitting with them.  I also don’t like that pointy of a toe.  So I did like I usually do – 10 stitches each on 2 needles for Kitchener grafting.  That worked fine.

Also on the toe – I was a little iffy on the striping.   The striping got off when I decreased every other row.  I decided to just wing it, and I think (hope) I did it ok.

A couple of other observations:  The cuff involves a repeating pattern.  Where each repeat  starts it looks like a ladder to me.  (Like if you didn’t get your tension right between dpns). Not happy about that look.  Also, I am not thrilled with how I picked up stitches around the heel.  It could look better.  I thought about blaming it on the yarn, but I think I am fooling myself on that one.   So I learned a lot on this sock.  It’s like one giant swatch of a sock.    Now….sock 2!

Home again!  I have missed blogging.  We got in at about midnight.  Davey was asleep about 20 minutes after we left Tulsa.  He was worn out and is worn out today.  However, he had a wonderful time.

I finally get to blog about my presents for my nieces.  I knitted February Lady (young lady) sweaters for them.  I used the soft and squishy Cotton Supreme.  Great stuff.  Wonderful to knit with. I have been fretting over how the sizing was going to go.  I made the smallest size and then adjusted for the arm and body length using patterns for a 10-12 child size.  Here’s Mikayla.  I think it fits pretty well.  There’s some room for growing too though.

Here is Jaydn’s.  Ideally I would have made it a little longer.  I still could.

Overall, I think they turned out well!  Plus my beautiful nieces make the sweaters look better too! So fun to knit.  I had started one for me, and now I need to get back to it and finish it up!

I didn’t work on my little fishie sock hardly at all.  Instead I finished a sock with Plymouth Happy Feet in a dk weight.  It’s a basic sock with a 3×1 rib.  It is a wonderful pattern by Plymouth as well.  It’s a great first or second sock pattern.  I say second because I learned to knit a sock by following this wonderful tutorial by Silver Sock.  I didn’t have anyone around to teach me at the time, but this took me through step by step.  So anyway, these socks are so comfortable and were great to knit on while riding in the car.  I needed to finish the second sock because I need the needles soon for my next sock pattern in Joy of Sox.

I took so many pictures while we were at home.   Davey played with all his grandparents.  He played with his cousins.  He met new wonderful friends who are the children of my friends.  It was a great time for him.

Here he is playing doctor with his cousins.  I mean this measuring is SERIOUS business!

Here he is (post-chocolate cupcake) playing with his Aunt Karen:

We went to watch Mikayla and Jadyn play softball.  Afterwards Davey and Jadyn had fun running through the sprinklers!

I am still going through my photos and trying to weed out the good ones.  I take too many in hopes of a couple of nice ones.  I really like this one we took yesterday at the park.

We are having fun in Oklahoma!  Right now Davey is playing with his Pa, and in a few minutes we are off to see Oma and Opa.  It’s been a non-stop playing extravaganza almost since we crossed the border.

We stopped at a Dollar Tree in Northwest Arkansas where I bought him a few things to give him periodically to make the drive a little more fun.  He kept asking me, “What else do you have in that bag of junk?”  I admit, it’s not high quality stuff – but I just don’t know where he got the word Junk!

We played with our friends in Tulsa until about 9pm.  A splash park and then Shawna and Tony’s house.  He loved playing with Sarah and Lily.  When he woke up this morning (he’d been asleep when I brought him in) I asked him where he was?  He grinned really really big and said, “Lily’s house!?” 

So I have no pictures today, no real knitting news – I did get to work on an ongoing sock for awhile while David drove.  I couldn’t work on my fishie sock as it required reading and more careful study. 

Ok off to follow Davey in fun!  Happy Friday.