For Non-Knitters

A friend just spent a long weekend in Vermont, and came across these socks. Because she is not a knitter (in spite of my best efforts), she LOVED this place and bought two pairs of socks. I look at them and think that even though I love the colors and the fact that they are not identical, I would miss the knitting of them! So I will look at them for inspiration, but for all you non-knitting sock-lovers out there, this may be the site for you.

Why I Hate Having Surgery

Yes, I know, no one likes having surgery. But today's activities made me remember more reasons why I don't like it. It took four hours to go through all the pre-op routines at two different places. The surgery will take about a half an hour. There is no logic to this.

And I had to sign a whole bunch of forms saying it's ok if they somehow maim, paralyze or kill me. I had to say that it is ok for them to do whatever they want with any body parts, including limbs, that they take during surgery. I hope they don't need any organs or limbs for transplant that day. Maybe that's not what they had in mind...

All of this for what is supposed to be quick, minor routine surgery to fix two tears in the mensicus in my right knee. At least I have lots of knitting projects for the recovery period. :-)

@#$%^& Noro Sock Yarn

Well, that's it!!! I am working on my second pair of Noro socks, and just as with the first pair, I've come across a knot. Grrrr. In the first pair, the knot was at the bottom of the leg of the first sock and that meant no chance for identical socks. But I love the colors that Noro uses in their yarns and I grabbed a new skein that caught my eye at my LYS.

I love, love, love the colors, but not the unexpected knot, this time in the gusset of the second sock. I had even unwound the skein so that both socks started with the same color and I really thought I was on my way to almost-identical socks. Nope.

No more Noro sock yarn for me.

On Scrapbooking and Good Intentions Abandoned

When I told my daughters that I was going to make scrapbooks for the grandchildren, they laughed---with good reason. Both girls have albums with odds and ends of pictures and various awards taped to crispy, yellowing pages. Of course these scrapbooks were put together before the scrapbooking craze, and I didn't know anything about using acid-free paper and non-yellowing tape, cutting and pasting all sorts of designs on the pages, and stamping. When older daughter was little, even getting photographs was tough. We used film cameras, the film had to be sent off to a processing center someplace far away, and we just crossed our fingers and hoped that the film or pictures would not be lost in the mail. By the time I made second daughter's scrapbook, I had lost some enthusiasm for the project, and a few years ago she pointed out to me that I had labeled some of her school pictures with the wrong grade and age. I told her to scratch out the incorrect information and write in whatever was correct. She was moved...

After my first two grandchildren were born, my neighbor started working as a scrapbooking pusher representative. My older daughter's neighbor was a stamping pusher representative. The perfect storm!!! I bought all sorts of supplies, and put together a beautiful, complicated and elaborate scrapbook for grandchild #1. Then I made a somewhat less beautiful, complicated and elaborate scrapbook for grandchild # 2. Grandchild #3 is a little over eighteen months old. I am two years behind in scrapbooking, so imagine grandchild #3's scrapbook: Oh look! There's his birth announcement and a photo! Grandchild #4 is expected in November. That poor child will be lucky if I don't lose the birth announcement before I remember to buy the scrapbook!

Half a Project Completed, But New Yarn Beckoning

I have half of a pair of socks finished, i.e., one sock. But when I went in to the LYS yesterday, new sock yarn shouted out to me, "Take me home!" And I did. And I want to start knitting with it, but I have NEVER started a second pair of socks before I have finished the pair OTN. The problem with starting the second sock is that I will have to unwind the ball to find the proper color to start with in order to have even remotely identical socks. But I'm lazy, so maybe I will just make fraternal-ish socks. Decisions, decisions.....

The new yarn is Paca-Ped H-T, color: Carribean Chocolate---YUM! It is a superwash Alpaca sock yarn (100g hand-dyed) with 25g. of co-ordinating heel & toe yarn for reinforcement. The yarn itself is from Peru, but it is dyed in the US. It is so soft that it is now my new favorite sock yarn---until the next new yarn at the LYS shouts out to me.

Huh?

I do not understand the people interviewed on television who say that they supported Clinton, but since Obama, not Clinton, is the nominee, they will vote for McCain. If my choice isn't running, nyah, nyah, nyah, I sure won't vote for another Democrat???

There are issues: war or peace; universal healthcare or no universal healthcare; good energy policy or crummy (or no) energy policy; and so on and so on.

Politicians have positions on these issues.

If they are elected, politicians can turn their positions into policies and these policies can affect us all.

This isn't American Idol. Good grief...

Noro Colors

I love Noro colors. The sunlight was bright when I took this, so just how deep and rich the colors are isn't as apparent as I would have liked. I think these will be my favorite socks so far. This is Noro Kureyon sock yarn, 70% wool, 30% nylon, and it is color S40. There are 100 grams and 420 meters in the single skein, so there is enough for a standard pair of socks.

The Sounds of Silence

Most of us live in a noisy world; traffic, cell phones, Ipods, television, radio, and so on fill our days with sound. Some of us apparently don’t remember “quiet” and are uncomfortable with time filled with silence.

I was at my orthopedist’s office yesterday. His waiting room is a quiet one, overlooking woods and large planters filled with flowers. There is no television blaring drug infomercials or showing talking heads warning us about diseases we might have and not even know about. I had about a half an hour wait, and was quite happily enjoying the quiet while I knitted.

Suddenly the woman across from me picked up her cell phone and called her parent’s number. “Hi Dad. Is Mom there? No? Oh. Well, I wanted the recipe for the cookies we had the other night…….” and on and on she talked. This gave the woman behind her the idea to call someone, and then the woman behind me called someone. So suddenly the silence was gone, and the rest of us had to listen to three halves of conversations. Why people are willing to have personal conversations in front of complete strangers is a mystery to me, and why anyone on a cell phone has to shout is as well.

There is a sign in the waiting room asking people to please take cell phone conversations outside into the hallway, and the daughter of the woman behind me noticed it and whispered to her mother that she shouldn’t be on her phone. The woman took her call outside, and the other two people quickly ended their conversations.

Silence!

Finished Socks!

I have just finished the socks that gave me such a hard time and they are almost identical. I don't really get too fussy about identical normally, but after the not-even-fraternal Noro socks (because of a knot in the yarn, resulting in a sudden color change), it's fun to have something come so close to working. These are made from Online Supersocke 100 Holiday-Color.

Now I'm on to another skein of Noro. :-)