Life as a Spectator Sport

Years ago, I used to make bead jewelry, and glue interesting buttons to earring backs to make simple earrings, but it was never more than a casual hobby. Recently, I realized that jewelry findings, and good jewelry components, are much more easily available than they used to be, and my long-dormant interest in jewelry making has revived.

When I asked Kate if there was any particular thing she'd like for Christmas, she mentioned a pair of green dangle earrings. It took a while, but I found the perfect glass beads, 24-karat gold earring wires, and gold head pins. It was a matter of five minutes to assemble them, one of the nice things about making bead jewelry. Once you've got all the pieces, the finished product goes together very quickly.

The hard part is not the construction itself, though that does require a certain amount of dexterity, but visualizing what you want, and going through an endless number of possibilities to find just the right combination of beads and/or gems, and the appropriate findings. So I appear to have found a new occupation to fill up my "spare time."

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Weird knitting question of the day

"Is that a sweater for a little doggie?"

I had finished the leg and was most of the way through the heel flap of the current sock, so I suppose it might possibly have resembled a dog sweater. A very small dog sweater. But I still think it looked a whole lot more like a sock.

The clerk in the automotive department of Sears, where I was waiting for an oil change and front end alignment (the car, not me), asked when I thought I would be finished with the sock I'd been working on the last time I was there.

"Good gosh," I laughed, "that was a Christmas present. It's long since finished, wrapped up, and given."

Her jaw dropped. "I thought it would take months to finish!" she exclaimed. "And how long have you been working on this one?"

I told her that I had started it on Christmas day, and worked on it at odd moments off and on since then. She was astonished all over again at how fast it was going.

That's a good thing, because I get bored quickly. Anything that takes months to finish is likely not to get finished. Socks are the perfect creative outlet for me---appropriate to work on any time of year, lending themselves to infinite variety in design and color, quick to finish---the nearest thing to an addiction that I'm likely to be afflicted with.

Maxed out the knitting bag, sigh

It seems to be an immutable fact that you cannot put nine balls of yarn, two WIP's (even if they are only socks), two needle cases, a knitting magazine or two, and a ziplock bag of markers, stitch holders, point protectors, etc. in a knitting bag, and still have room for the laptop. So all the yarn except what I'm actually using is piled up on my desk, and the knitting bag, laptop and I are at the coffee shop downloading all the back episodes of Brenda Dayne's knitting podcast so I can listen to them on the way to Alexandria this Sunday.

Download, and knitting, of course. I've finished the heel and am halfway through the gusset on the first chain link sock. It's going faster than I anticipated. This yarn is not blended with nylon, so I had to add a strand of Wooly Nylon to the heel. I should have ordered the caramel color that would have been perfect for this yarn, but I had arrived at the heel and was impatient to continue, so I used some of the dark green that I had on hand, and I'm very pleased with the result. It very subtly brings out the green undertones in the colorway.

More pictures soon.

Monday, December 25, 2006

And a good time was had by all . . .

Except possibly Greg, who had to work today. I finished Carol's socks about midnight on Saturday, wrapped them and stuck on a tag, and then realized I hadn't taken a picture of them. So when she decided to wear them today, I had to grab them back and take a picture of them, tastefully laid out on the top of her baby grand piano.



Yes, one is slightly shorter than the other. I realized after I had finished them that for some reason the toe decreases had worked out differently on the first sock than on the second one. The second one is correct, and I'm not certain now what happened on the first one. The toe turned out much shorter and wider than it should have, and if this yarn weren't so stretchy I would definitely have had to rip the toe out and redo it. However, Carol said they were extremely comfortable to wear, and didn't notice the discrepancy in the toes, so I decided not to volunteer it.

My Reynolds Swizzle socks have been postponed once again in order to finish a pair for the Six Sox Knitalong. Members knit six pairs of socks a year, one in each two month period, using patterns created by members of the group. I joined a month after the December-January pattern had been provided, so I'm just starting my pair when some of the others have already finished theirs. But I knit fairly fast,so I'm not worried about finishing by the end of January. I began this pair Sunday night, and have already gotten almost halfway down the leg of the first sock. It's a slip stitch design called "Chain Link."

What I'm doing here is a definite no-no, unless you're doing it on purpose, of course. The main color is a 100% merino in fingering weight (Red House, by Fearless Fibers), and the contrasting color is a wool/cotton blend from Joann Fabrics, in worsted weight. Not a combination one would normally use together! But the colors went together so perfectly that I decided to try it anyway, keeping the tension very tight for the worsted weight yarn, and I love the result. The socks have a puckery texture that the original design, made with identical weight yarn, did not, and I think it gives even more of a chain link appearance. The contrast color is not as pink as it looks--it's much more of a pale salmon color.

More pictures when they are finished.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

The good ol' days

Back in 1997, I would take off for an inspection trip with a file box, a camera and a clipboard. The work came in by fax, with multiple stores listed on each page, so for a 30 store trip I might have six pieces of paper. I carried city and county maps that folded up and got re-used, and if neither of those was sufficient, I stopped somewhere and asked for directions. Occasionally, I had to find a pay phone and contact the store, but most of the time I managed all right. I had a packet of 7 sheets of paper for each store, which I filled out and mailed (or delivered) to the appropriate field office, along with the pictures I took with my film camera. All that was left for me to file was the original fax listing the stores.

Sigh. Now I carry a cell phone, a laptop, a digital camera, a battery charger and a GPS. Plus the file box and clipboard and seven sheets of paper for each store, which because the work is turned in online now, I have to file, or throw out. Until recently, I also carried at least one map for each store, and sometimes more. The GPS is supposed to be taking the place of the maps. We'll see. So far it has told me that Main Street in my own little town is actually located 5 hours and 11 minutes away, somewhere in southern Maryland, and on another occasion that it would take 1,119,046 hours to travel the next half mile. Its anomalies are amusing at the moment, but may be less so when I actually have to find something.

I'll find out on Thursday, when I go to Fredericksburg, the field office having decided that if they couldn't take it easy at Christmas, I shouldn't either. Or at least that's how it feels--one store here and one store there, all over the blasted state. But it will be a good test of the GPS, especially since I don't really need directions to this store.

No new knitting to report, though I did organize all my leftover bits of yarn into individual freezer bags with the name of the yarn, the type of fiber and the weight written on the outside of each one. I feel so virtuous.

Monday, December 18, 2006

One down, one to go

I finished the first of Carol's socks, took much longer than it should have because of the interference of actual income-producing work, but the second one should go more quickly. The black and silver laptop seemed like an appropriate backdrop for the aggressively black and white sock.



If no one in the field offices gets really energetic and sends out all kinds of work this week, I'll have the second one finished quickly and I can start a pair for myself, yay!

That isn't as egocentric as it sounds. Most of what I've made over the years has been a gift for someone else. I decided it was time to start making things for myself for a change, though I do still have two pairs of gift socks planned for different people.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Turn left . . . turn left! In 500 yards, make a U-turn . . .

Or, how to frustrate a computer.

I informed Clarence that his Christmas present to me this year was going to be a TomTom GPS satellite navigation system for the car. Since he likes that kind of toy as much as I do, and since I was paying for it anyway, he was perfectly happy with the idea. I'm less than perfectly satisfied with the product, but that's as much a matter of mistaken assumptions on my part than any real shortcoming in the system. It was my impression from their website that I could view the maps on my computer, plan my route there, and then transfer that route to the GPS itself. That appears not to be the case, but the itinerary planning on the GPS is adequate for most of my needs. It doesn't have some of the addresses that I visited on this last trip, but then neither did Microsoft's Streets and Trips, nor Mapquest. So its maps appear to be at least as up to date as everyone else's.

I installed it in Greensboro with the idea of letting it talk me home. Unfortunately, it and I disagreed almost immediately about the best route, so for nearly half the way back, it kept trying to steer me back to a different highway. Eventually, its route and mine converged and from that point on, it gave me flawless directions. Next time I'm in Greensboro, I'll take its route and see what I think of that, but last night, driving back in the dark, I wanted a route I was familiar with.

One thing this will do for me is to record the coordinates of some of these places way back in the boonies, so the next time I need to go there, I can enter the coordinates and be steered straight there. I've written directions for many of the out-of-the-way places, but my notes haven't always made it into the information that gets sent back to me. With the TomTom, I can enter the data directly into the GPS itself, and it will be there the next time I need it.

Friday, December 08, 2006

So much for that idea

I've been soaking up this unaccustomed inactivity--only two out-of-town trips in two weeks, some kind of record. Making plans for some repairs to be done next week, take the old car up to the transmission guy to see what's wrong with it now, maybe make an overnight trip to Richmond to shop and go to the Science Museum.

Silly me. I checked the prime contractor's website this afternoon, and one of the agencies I work for had uploaded a new job, thirteen stores, some of them in places in West Virginia that I've never heard of before. Places that Microsoft Streets and Trips has never heard of before. I'm going to have to call half the stores to find out where they are, considering that Rt. 5, Box 220 (Hwy 629), Upper West Far Gone, is not an address that my mapping software has any idea how to find.

But I've done all my Christmas shopping. Or rather, I've ordered all my Christmas gifts off the net. Wow, that was easy! Why didn't I do this before? My Christmas shopping has always been on the order of running around like a crazy person the last shopping weekend before Christmas, grabbing things that I think I could get away with giving. This was so much better. Of course, it helped that for once I actually had enough money to give the things I wanted to give. All those late hours last summer and fall are making a real difference in our lives now.

Carol's first sock is finished down to the beginning of the heel flap, and I'm eyeing that Reynolds navy blue wool with the narrow bands of yellow and red and green, just itching to get my hands on it.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

More socks

I've finished Shelley's socks (no, they are obviously not identical), and worked the first cuff on Carol's pair. I've never knit with a spandex blend before--this is Cascade Fixation, 98.3% cotton and 1.7% elastic. I find that I'm swinging back and forth between consciously loosening up the gauge, because it's so stretchy that I'm afraid I'm going to knit way too tight, and then tightening it because the k2 p2 ribbing feels too floppy. It may take a while to get used to this.

This is a black, grey and white yarn with a short enough repeat that it isn't going to stripe the way Shelley's socks did. It's very comfortable to knit, very soft in the hand, but I wish it wasn't so busy! I have a feeling that when I'm finished with this pair, I'll look at them and say, as I did with Shelley's, "Well, they sure are pretty but they weren't all that much fun to knit."

Never mind, when I finish these I can start on a pair for myself, from the Reynolds Swizzle waiting in my yarn basket.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Random observations

If you're reading this for the knitting, be patient. I'll get there.

I've been listening all day long to comments about the Iraq Study Group report, and I'm very encouraged to hear one oft-repeated observation, that it is possible, after all, for Americans of differing political persuasions to sit down together and work something out. I hope they turn out to be a model for others to do the same thing. We've been told for six years now in this country that "Either you're for us, or you're against us." I think most Americans know better than that, but it was hard to go against a media that mindlessly repeated the administration's talking points. Now that Daddy Bush appears to be running the show, perhaps the grownups will be allowed to do some real work.

On to knitting. I finished another couple of inches on Shelley's second sock while sitting in Clarence's doctor's waiting room today, aware that I was being watched by a woman on the other side of the room. Finally she came over, and remarked, "You must have the patience of Job! How many years have you been working on this?"

I wasn't certain whether she was serious, or sarcastic, or genuinely joking, but I replied, "Just since last Sunday, and only in odd moments when I wasn't doing anything else."

Her jaw dropped. "But the stitches are so small! There must be thousands of them!"

I never really considered how many stitches there are in a sock, but yes, thousands is probably correct. When I showed her how fast a round goes, she was quite impressed. I doubt I've made a convert to any kind of knitting, as she was dressed expensively enough that she probably doesn't feel the need to do anything for herself (yes, I know that's judgmental, but it reflects what I've experienced). But it was refreshing to talk to someone who didn't think I was (a) nuts, (b) too cheap to buy my socks, or (c) "just so crafty!" All of which make me cringe and think uncharitable thoughts about the speaker.

I think I'll add a sidebar of pictures of finished objects, since for once I have more of those than unfinished objects.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Dum, dee, dee, dum, dee, dee . . . oops!

I was working the heel to Shelley's second sock tonight, a standard slip 1, knit 1 Dutch heel, humming along with a Christmas carol on my iPod, when I realized I was no longer knitting slip, knit, slip, knit. The carol was in 3/4 time, and I was knitting right along with it: slip, slip, knit, slip, slip, knit. So I unknitted back to the first goof, and consciously made myself count slip, knit, slip, knit.

Music goes almost subconsciously from my hands to my head. Apparently it's about as subconscious in the other direction too.

At any rate, I have the heel finished, so in another day or two, depending on the amount of "real" work that shows up and has to be attended to, I'll be finished with this pair and free to start on the Elite Fixation for Carol's socks.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Another night in the emergency room

I was getting ready for bed last night when I heard that horribly familiar crash of a body hitting the floor. I ran back to Clarence's bedroom, and there he was on the floor between the bed and the wall. He had fallen asleep sitting on the side of the bed. Amazingly, we did manage to get him off the floor without having to call rescue, but it was obvious he had broken something in his right hand.

I got him more or less dressed and drove him to the hospital, where it took almost five hours for them to x-ray him and decide he had broken two fingers. It didn't help that even in a rural county, Saturday night in the ER is a hectic time. But like most ER's (except the ones on television), everything moved in slow motion. It was 2:00am by the time we got home, arm and hand splinted, painkillers in hand and x-ray films on a CD to take to the orthopedist. By the time we were both in bed, it must have been close to 3:00.

Clarence has decided that it isn't safe for him to be by himself at all, with which I had to agree. So, no Jennifer. I was going to make a trip to West Virginia tomorrow with her coming to fix Clarence's lunch and dinner and give him his insulin. If we're not sitting in the orthopedist's waiting room tomorrow, Clarence will have to come with me.

All I can say is thank God it was his right hand, that he has virtually no use of anyway, instead of his left hand that he uses for everything. I'll have to bathe him for the time being, but at least I won't have to feed him and wipe his behind.

Back to knitting . . .

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Ho ho ho

I had the bright idea today of driving in to the coffee shop in town to upload the pile of images from my last inspection and to download a 15 mb. video codec that I needed. And then, I thought, I'd go on to Blacksburg and retrieve my Mamiya C33 from the camera shop.

On impulse, I asked Clarence if he'd like to come along, and of course, he said yes. By the time I had him dressed and the car loaded, it was almost 2:00. By the time we got into town, the Christmas parade, which I had forgotten was today, was in full swing, blocking Main Street completely. We sat at the traffic light downtown (which in this town is literally "down" town, at the foot of a steep hill), for almost half an hour, while all the ambulances and all the fire trucks in the county went by. Finally, half way through the parade, the deputies held up the line of cars and trucks and horses and floats so traffic could go through, and we managed to get uptown to where we could park. I manhandled Clarence's wheelchair down the steep Main Street hill to the coffee shop, and we ate lunch while I uploaded one set of files and downloaded another, and worked on the second of Shelley's socks.

I have this fantasy that if I sit in the coffee shop often enough with knitting in hand, one day someone is going to sing out, "Oh, another sock knitter!" So far, I've gotten reactions from two people. One of them was a knitter, but thought socks were far too difficult, and the other wasn't quite sure what I was doing, but she thought it was way more complicated than anything she was interested in. I feel like asking sometimes, when I get that dismissive kind of remark, "What are you going to do if one of these days you can't just buy whatever you want?"

I don't, because the few conversations I've had on that subject have been so depressing that I'm not interested in having any more of them (most people say either "The government would never let that happen," or "I guess I'd just die"). And anyway, that isn't why I knit socks. I knit them because they are so pretty, and so wonderful to wear, and because they knit up fast enough that I can go on to the next project very quickly. I'm already at the point where I just want to be done with Shelley's pair so I can start on Carol's. And then I can start on another pair for myself, with the Reynolds Swizzle I just bought. It knits up into a navy body with narrow stripes of red and yellow and green, and I'm dying to get my hands on it.

At any rate, by the time we finished eating and the parade was over, it was too late to go to Blacksburg, so we just came home.

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RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email to liz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me INTERNET TRAFFIC REPORT SOCIAL SECURITY CLOCK Which one has the Crisis ?! Plastic bags consumed this year: KNITTING BLOGS A Stitch in Time Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-SUFFICIENCY and INDEPENDENT LIVING -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Food Storage Made Easy The Modern Homestead Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 BUTTONS Join | Previous | List | Next