Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Socks and distractions

As I am sure you have figured out/remembered/whatever-you-want-to-call-it, I have been making socks so Vet-Girl can keep her feet warm and cozy while working/studying hard in MO. (Not that I think it is as cold there as here, but she still needs warm toes. A person can't concentrate on the important stuff while distracted with cold toes.) Anyway, I had them all knit and ready to bind off the other day. I had chosen to have these socks full of learning, just so they can be "all practiced up" and ready by the time they are pressed into service by their owner.
They were knit toe-up, but with a new-to-me heel/gusset application. To add to the "getting in practice" for the socks, I decided I should also learn a new bind-off method. All went well with the first sock, and as you can see, it looked beautiful. Well, almost all went well. The process went fine, but apparently I did it a bit tight, as when I tested it, there was no way it was going to go over my heel. (Good thing I tested it, right?) So the socks were then also filled with my learning how to unsew a Kitchener bind-off. (As it happens, I did the bind-off and test late at night, and decided to deal with it the next morning in the light of day; which of course, is also the time I choose to take the picture of the pretty bind-off job.)
Since it was sunny and nice outside, my favorite chair was pressed into service for the learning to be done, but I was faced with some distractions along the way.
 

But I muddled through long enough to get all the unsewing done,
 

and enough pictures were taken to have Someone decide that she was getting annoyed with being bothered.
 

I managed to get all the stitches/rows frogged back to the proper place,
 

but I guess hiding was too much trouble,
 

and I got to practice picking the stitches all back up on a slightly smaller needle.
 

Pink wasn't one of my favorite colors when I was a child, but some pink things can be very distracting,
 

but I did manage to stay focused long enough to get all the stitches back onto the proper size needles, all in the right order, going the proper direction, and the missing rows re-knit.
 




 

As you can see, I was still being distracted (as well as annoying) by pink, plus little feet (which will not be getting socks of their own).
 

Then I decided to go with my normal sewn bin-off in the interest of needing to get the socks done in time. (As in I didn't want to have to undo them again if I messed a up a second time, plus I was pretty sure that by then the socks were to the point of needing to process what they had learned so far.)
 



 

Who knew that so much sleeping could get one so dirty?
 

But apparently a bath
 

can be rather exhausting!
 

I managed to keep sewing socks,
 


despite Someone catching my attention every time she made herself (more) comfortable,
 

until both socks were all done.
 

The socks are fraternal twins, which I believe are the more common verity (I should ask the biology major Vet-Girl about that),
 

though if you stand one of the socks on its head, the stripes match up perfectly.
The socks have been delivered and are well loved already!
 

(Did anyone notice that today is Wednesday?)
(Just in case anyone is wondering, this brings me to 10 of 12.)

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Yea! Those are lovely - thanks for the tut with the kitty sprinkled in. Can we hope to have dogs on Thursday?

g

emicat said...

great socks - I like fraternal socks!

What a cute cat you have - I'd be distracted too :)

Anita said...

Love the photos of Miss Oribel! But I kept getting interruped by photos of socks... LOL!! Good looking socks BTW. That closeup of her face is just precious. :)

SissySees said...

GREAT photos. I'm sure I'd pay in blood, but I desperately want to rub Lady O's toe fur...

Maybe if I love socks again one day, I'll try that bind-off. The Knight actually likes his cuffs to be snug...

momlee said...

Beautiful socks, a beautiful (and sleeping!)cat - what more can one ask? OK, D's, hubbands, dogs - but these pics have made my day. I'm about to try the kitchener bindoff - I may call for advice.

momlee said...

Did anyone notice that the bath seemed to be accomplished while still sleeping?

Unknown said...

The socks are loverly. I should knit socks . . . well, I should get past my heel fear.

Your cat is very fun and I would find her distracting too.

Jayhawk said...

I take it there is some heat going on there (weatherwise), judging by the third law of feline thermodynamics, "The temperature of a location can be measured by the length of a sleeping cat."

Bubblesknits said...

Love the lazy kitty pics. She looks like she's thoroughly relaxed. lol

Anonymous said...

Looking interesting...

Your swap partner is currently combating a mountain of bubbles and was unable to write. She will resume her duties tomorrow :)

Monica (aka monnibo) said...

I love all the pictures! Two of my favourite things, kitties and knitties!