Forever Live and Die

"I never know, I never know
I never know why
You make me want to cry
I never know, I never know
I never know why
Forever live and die"*


And TJ was worried she would have no content to add here! She puts me to shame.
Since the original discussion that prompted me to start this website mentioned knitting, I thought I would fill ya’ll in on my latest project. Back in Sep, the Earthpigs, TJ, Fozzie and I spent a rather memorable day in Asheville NC. The purpose of the trip was to go to EarthGuild
a fabulous store I found one day when I was checking for spinning stores that might be close to us. Let me explain that “close to us”. TJ drove all the way from LA (that’s lower Alabama, also known as the Panhandle of Fl) for this day trip, and the Earthpigs came up from central SC.

Fozzie and I had gone to Earthguild once before in the spring, and I had bought some wonderful sock yarn, Trekking XXL 101. It was very expensive yarn, and so I limited myself to just one. I was also not all that sure my skills at sock knitting were up to Trekking, as I had only used the cheap Magic Stripes yarn at this point. Well, the 101 turned into a fabulous pair of socks, and so Our Gang went up to see what they could find. I splurged on 2 skeins this time, some lovely Trekking 104 (blue) and some 105 (not blue). My Evil Twin and TJ each bought Trekking, 106 and 110 respectively. I told them if they bought the yarn, I would knit them socks.

I am lousy with math, and so far I have only knit socks to fit the feet that are nearest me at the time I am knitting them (meaning all for me, except when TJ was here I knit her some Magic Stripes footies). Having taught myself to knit the toe-up method ala Denise Powell
I need to have the socks tried on as they are knit. Saves me from math, but requires a long wait for MET and TJ. Hopefully the wait will be worth it for them.

Immediately upon returning home from Asheville, I cast on and completed the Trekking 104 socks. Love, love, love the way they turned out. All knit, all the time, until a simple ribbing for the cuffs. Then I cast on for the 105 socks. It usually takes me a few goes before I can get the cast on working the way I like, so I was not at first concerned. I quickly worked my way to the heel, got it turned and headed for home. And then took a good at what I had achieved so far. It wasn’t pretty.

I had read horror stories on the net about different brands of yarn that displayed the dreaded pooling of colors when using a straight knit in the round. Well 104 isn’t exactly pooling, but the color changes are turning out looking more like mud. Not pretty. Fozzie looked on in horror after agreeing that the sock was ugly while I frogged the whole sock.

That hurt. It hurt so bad I wound it up and put it away for about a week. Then I realized that this close to the cruise, if I didn’t find a way to fix this yarn problem, I would not have a sock to knit while having the drink of the day on Lido Deck. SIGH. I searched all over the net, trying to find a pattern that I could do that would: A. fix the ugly color problem and B. be a pattern simple enough that I could do it and C. use the same number of stitches in the pattern as I had cast on to fit my foot. SIGH.

Enter Knitting Pattern Central . Go check them out, they have patterns for everything, including this ugly sock, which now looks like this :

(image deleted to free space up for other pictures)

Still not pretty, but will have to do. At least until my package from The Knitter.com arrives. I snuck out and ordered 2 more skeins of Trekking, in 18, 95 and my beloved 104. Shhhhhhhh, don’t tell Fozzie.


*Forever Live and Die, 1986, by OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark)