JessaLu Knits (and Spins!)

…for the onslaught.

Grandma’s China (though I’ve been doing some research and I’m thinking it might have been Great-Grandma’s China)…out of storage, washed and ready.

Pies…done.

Stuffed Mushrooms…done.

Squash…done.

Taters…done.

Turkeys…brining.

Table…ready for final setting.

Oh yeah and porch…done enough for warmth.

Thanksgiving, here I come! (but first…a nap.)

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

…Birthday and then I’ll stop for a while, I promise!

Today is a most auspicious day. A day that will live in the hearts and minds of us all. A day that is more important than any other day all year - okay except maybe Christmas. Or Easter, that’s a pretty important day too. Oh and Thanksgiving, that’s up there on the list…or Arbor Day, that’s a day we shouldn’t forget or let pass by without at least one ‘Happy Arbor Day!’ you know, or all the Arbors will be hurt.

Wait. Where was I?

Oh yeah, Birthdays…

Today is RR’s, so I’m asking you all to join me in a nice round of well-wishes - the more the merrier since, you know, the blog has kind of taken away some of our ‘us’ time which has, at times, led to a cranky RR… ;o)

Happy Birthday! Love you - and don’t ever grow up, k? ;o)

…in pictures.

Thanks to Tina, who visited me on Saturday for some Sushi and CSM fun (see her post for pictures and more detail), I now have more up to date photos of how I go about making a pair of socks on the machine**.

Ready? (photo-heavy for those on dial-up):

First, I hang the setup bonnet on the hooks.

Next, a few rounds of waste yarn (an acrylic/cotton blend that’s easy to rip out).

Then, I begin with the ‘good’ yarn (in this case, I’m using Tina’s own Phoenix Fiberworks yarn).

After 10 rounds, I make a ‘YO’ row (by moving a stitch to the next hook).

Then, after knitting another 10 rows, I hang the hem by putting the stitches from the first row onto the current row.

This is the fun part - cranking 75 rows for the leg. Can you see my blurry arm?

Here is a close up of the picot hem.

Time for the heel - I lift up the hooks on the back of the cylinder to put them ‘out of service’ so I can knit the short-row heel.

I use bent forks with 1 lb weights attached to weigh down the heel and/or toe.

It happens to the best of us - dropped stitches. :o(

Picking up dropped stitches is SO much fun!

Finally (two hours later), a pair of almost finished socks. All they need is a kitchener on the toe. (You can see the finished pair on Tina’s blog)

I hope you all enjoyed the walk-through! It’s hard to show here but it really isn’t as easy as some might think. These machines are antiques (unless you invest in a NZAK), are very persnickety and you need to pay close attention at all times or you end up doing what I had to do in the 2nd to last picture. I was *very* lucky in that the machine I purchased on Ebay was in working order - and I did quite a bit of shopping before I settled on the one I purchased.

However, I’m not complaining. It may be a bit challenging at first but hell, a pair of socks in two hours? You can’t beat that with a size 1 needle (or a stick). ;o)

**All photos in this post were taken by Tina with my Pentax - thanks again!