JessaLu Knits (and Spins!)

….it can be good for the soul - until your wheel annoys the hell out of you, that is ;o) Apparently now my plying head has issues. I swear I didn’t put a sticker on the thing…ohsh*t I did. I put a piece of Velcro on it…sweet sticker sandwich can’t a girl decorate ANYTHING?!?! *sigh*

Anyway, I did do spinning with my regular head (er regular spinning head, that is…okay maybe my own regular head is spinning a bit these days…I may have made another somewhat large purchase. NOT roving so don’t get you’re hopes up. Ya vultures. You all have to wait just like me for another week or so to find out what it is…) and finished spinning the 4oz of autumn color merino/tencel that I purchased at the Vermont S&W fest. The picture doesn’t show the shiny as much as I’d like, hopefully once I have it all plied together I’ll be happier with the pictures of the finished product. This stuff is soooo shiny and soooo soft and soooo pretty! I’m double-plying it and am hoping to have enough for a scarf or small shawlette. Keep yer fingers crossed!

I also finally received my very own copy of Favorite Socks which I will be perusing very soon - can you believe I haven’t cracked it open yet and I got the mail at 9pm tonight (after going out to dinner)? Actually, now that I think about it…I gotta go.

But first, I have big news! HUGE news! Life-altering news! I can’t believe I haven’t already told you guys! Dobby passed Driver’s Ed!! You know what this means, right? Let me know if you’re traveling through Western Mass and I’ll let you know if she’ll be on the road at the same time…I mean, she’s gotten better at using her brakes…kind of…so you don’t have too much to worry about…I think. ;o) The best part?  This means that RR and I won’t have to pick her up from work at 9pm anymore! How awesome is THAT??!?!?!

Also, I feel I need to clear up my last post just a teensy bit. Apparently I wasn’t clear enough in describing how I fixed the hole problem. I did try the darning, I truly did. However, I couldn’t make it look like anything less than complete ass so I ended up ripping and reknitting the toe. Thankfully, the hole was above the pattern in the plain part of the toe so it wasn’t a big deal at all. I’m really sorry if I mislead anyone - I didn’t mean to be unclear about it… if you want to know the truth, RR is a little upset since I made him take like 40 pictures of me ripping it and I didn’t use even one of them. Good thing I’m knitting him a pair of socks, eh? ;o) (pictures of those coming soon!) G’nite all!

I didn’t think she’d do it but indeed she did… (my apologies to Frederick Loewe). So, the big news is… I fixed it! Witness:

I tried to darn it - but just ended up swearing (I think I figured out how it started being called ‘darning’). I just couldn’t wrap my brain around duplicate stitch from left to right. THEN I read the directions again - slowly this time - and found the step I missed: turn your work upside down so you continue to work right to left. *smacks forehead* ow.  Someday maybe I’ll learn how to read directions…

So, next time I find a hole in my sockage I might be able to do the darning (after the screaming stops, that is). Thanks to Deb and Alison for sending me in the direction of the HJS Studio site - and to everyone else who told me where to go…er, I mean told me where to look for directions on the darning and for all the moral support ;o)

“7F89C19F” (ignore this - trying to claim the feed…again) A couple of nights ago I was sitting on the (new!) couch watching TV when my Left toe started to feel…a breeze.  This was not good since I was wearing socks.  Handknit socks.  My Pomatomus socks, to be exact.  As we all know, you are not supposed to feel breezes through your handknits.  Unless it’s lace…but usually, since it’s lace, that’s a planned occurrence…*ahem* anyway…back to my nightmare.

I didn’t want to look.  But I had to look.  You know that sinking feeling you get when you know you’re about to find out something not-so-good?  Yeah, I had that.  Times one hundred.  Since, in case I hadn’t already mentioned it, these were hand. knit. socks.

I removed the sock and inspected the damage:

The first thought that went through my mind was, “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”  The second was, “F*CKING ORIGINAL WOOD FLOORS.  I HATE. THEM.”  Then, “WE ARE GETTING CARPET.”  Then I calmed down and realized that #1 we can’t afford carpeting and #2 I can probably fix this (okay and the floors are really pretty.  Not as pretty as my SOCKS but pretty nonetheless).  I don’t *want* to fix it, but I can.  Fortunately, one thing I haven’t been able to perfect in my sock knitting is the ability to use up every inch of yarn from the skein.  Thank God.  I searched through my leftovers and managed to find this:

(lip stuff included to show actual size) Do ya’ll think that’s enough?  I’m thinking since the hole starts after the beginning of the toe I can rip back and re-knit it.  I don’t know if I can do the darning thing…I have a darning egg and I’ve seen my grandmother do it but that doesn’t give me the ability to actually do it.  I also do not, under any circumstances, want to FUBAR this sock.  They’re one of my top five favorite pairs.  They’re also only one month old.  WTF?