Socks for the boyby*

L, better known as the boyby, has been secretly admiring socks made from the self striping sock weight yarn that I've been knitting for a couple of years. I made him and RL some worsted weight socks knit on size 6 needles because the were quick, warm and they liked them. Then L started dropping some major hints that he would like some 'sock weight' socks. I didn't have a pattern, or so I thought, and started asking around. Then I got into my patterns and found a 'Beginner's Lightweight Sock' pattern by 'Knitting Pure & Simple'. Perfect! The needle size was 2, not too bad. The pattern called for approximately 416 yards. I told him I would make them but he would have to go in to the yarn store with me to pick out his yarn and not sit out in the car waiting for me. He agreed. Of course R is always up for a trip to the yarn store, so she went along too. After looking over the selection for a few minutes he found the above colorway. It's Lana Grossa and cost $15.85. Expensive socks, I know, but there is way more expensive sock yarn out there. I started knitting....and knitting....and knitting. They called for an 8" cuff. I normally do a 6" cuff for R and me. I also cast on 72 stitches instead of the usual 60 some odd stitches, so it was going to take some time. Luckily the needle size was bigger than I normally use, so these babies were turning out faster than I thought they would. The first one was finished in no time. Dreaded Second Sock Syndrome threatened, so I cast on as fast as I could. However, my yarn was dwindling rapidly. I did NOT want to buy another skein at $15.85! That would make these socks a little too expensive for my blood. I love the kid, but gee whiz! I happily knit my socks out of Knit Picks! I panicked. Back to the yarn store. Luckily they had at least one more skein in the exact dye lot I needed. I sucked up my thoughts of not spending that much money on a pair of socks and bought it. The pressure was on. He started asking a little too often for my liking just when those socks were going to be finished. I knit on. I told him probably by the end of the weekend. Who was I kidding? I was burnt out on those socks and wondering when I was going to have to join that new skein.
I never had to join that new skein. This is what I was left with. Can I return the new skein?
Not when it's been wound into a yarn cake! Oh well. L is happy. I am happy they are finished. I have given him the lecture of a life time of the proper treatment of his socks. He is so incredibly tough on socks that I'm glad I have that other skein. I might just be doing a lot of darning! (By the way, I bought an antique sock darner on e-bay last week. When it comes I'll share pictures with you!) I did finish them last night around midnight, so they were finished by the end of the weekend. What to knit now??????

Here's another pose. Do those look like proud feet or what?

Ginger saw the camera and had to get in on the action. It's hard to take a picture when a cat is head butting your hand and demanding attention.

*Boyby = Boy + Baby This is a word coined by my nephew. I asked my sister about it and she said that when her youngest was about four she called him her baby. He informed her he was not a baby - he was a boyby. It stuck and at 22 he is still her boyby - just like L will always be mine. We had to adjust the term for R - she's my girlby.

Happy Day Lights Savings Time

Yeah right! What's so happy about getting one hour less of sleep? Nothing I can think of. We did get some good news from Florida. It looks like things with RLs dad aren't quite as bad as we had feared. For that I am truly thankful. Some more tests and a biopsy and we'll know more. Keep praying!

L was devastated earlier this week when he heard of Gary Gygax passing away. Now, if you aren't very, very, very familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, you don't know much about him. However, if you have a D&D junkie in your house like we do, you know who he was. He was one of the creators of the best game of all time - according to our 17 year old. He even had R make him a black arm band to wear to his weekly game night. Gary Gygax passed away from an inoperable abdominal aorta aneurysm. Kind of hit close to home with all we've been dealing with the past few months. We were all so glad that RLs Dad was able to have surgery. So sorry to hear that this man was not.

I started knitting a pair of socks for L. He's been nagging me to make some out of sock weight yarn for years. He has two pair made in worsted weight, but wanted sock weight. Of course it takes twice as long to knit in sock weight. He is thrilled and I am thrilled that they are almost finished. I'm used to knitting a woman's size 8 - not a man's size 11. Sure does take a whole lot more yarn! I'll post a picture as soon as they're finished - hopefully very soon! I'm ready to start on something else.

R got an order for a cake this past week. Colorful and with an 18 on it were the only requests. She was very able to handle that. I think it looks kind of like tie dye. Very pretty and her customer was thrilled with the outcome.

Happy Birthday Rachel! Hope you like LOTS of icing!

A Birthday and Fourth Place

RL is the dapper dude closest to the VW. His younger brother is other dapper dude.

Yesterday was RL's birthday. Why didn't I blog about it sooner? Well, I was busy celebrating a birthday with him and the kids! We had such a nice weekend - which did not last long enough!

We normally ask him what he wants and he says clothes and we shop for boring clothes. This birthday he wouldn't tell me what he wanted. I kept asking and asking and we were getting down to the wire. Finally I asked on Thursday night. He got real quiet and looked like he was thinking very deep. I couldn't tell if he was thinking about what he wanted or how to tell me what he wanted! He never, ever, ever asks for anything expensive. He never, ever, ever indulges in anything expensive like ATVs, hunting, fishing, sports, tickets to big games or concerts - nothing. He's the most unselfish man alive! He finally spoke up and said he wanted a Compound Miter Saw and they were on sale at Sears. So, Friday night we ventured out to Sears and he picked it out. If it had been left up to me to buy, Heaven only knows what I would have come home with....probably some yarn! (You know, the LYS is just across the street and around the corner from Sears......) Now he is planning all the wonderful things he wants to do with it and I'm excited! I'm not allowed to use it. L already informed me of that. We had borrowed one from a friend and I had never used one before. I was cutting some wood and dummy me didn't realize you had to hold the wood in place. Down came the blade, the wood was cut and the piece I didn't want came flying and hit me in the neck. L sprang into action to make sure I was still alive and hasn't forgotten about it since - or let me forget either! That is why I am not allowed to use this one. Geez, you make a little mistake and nobody forgets!

Mr. Potato O'Head bids you all adieu. He came in Fourth Place over at Mason Dixon Knitting. We were hoping for a better spot, but he was in stiff competition with all those women. A guy just can't compete with two monkies, a rat, and a frog. Geez, how does a potato stand a chance? He's just lucky he didn't get eaten alive! If you voted for Mr. O'Head, thank you from the bottom of his heart. If you didn't, well, you should have! Yes, I am a little biased! I know his designer personally, having given birth to her.

See ya later, tater!

Today is the day!

Mason-Dixon Knitting is having their Teeny Project Runway today and R has entered her design. The kid worked on this almost all weekend, except for a couple of hours of sleep Friday and Saturday nights. I would love to see her win, but it looks like some other designs are starting to pass her up. To everybody that has already voted for her, thank you. If you haven't voted - what are you waiting for?????

All Good Things Must Come To An End

What an eventful time it has been around here. Well, it's rare when it's not eventful! Spring is slowly 'springing' even though it's February. The daffodils are starting to bloom and are gorgeous. I just hope we don't get an ice storm. It normally happens just when they start blooming and reminds us that it's still winter out there people! Today I went down to cut daffodils so we could at least enjoy some of them.

R has entered the Mason-Dixon knitting contest. Their blog address should be over on the right, so you can go check out her entry as well as many others when they are on the blog. I think you're supposed to vote for your favorite - and I know you'll love hers, so go ahead and vote for hers. I would post a picture, but I don't know if I'm supposed to yet. If the contest doesn't start on their blog tonight, I think it will start tomorrow. We'll keep you posted. I will tell you that her model is Mr. Potato Head. Somehow I don't think he got asked to model too many designs.

Now to the title of today's blog....I went to the doctor for my regular blood work the week before last. It's so routine I just don't worry about it too much. When you're on medication, you just know they are going to check your liver function from time to time. Well, the doctor was checking me for all kinds of things and had been for the past few blood tests. Turns out the old Thyroid is giving up the ghost. Yep, it's dying. I was in shock. I would have cried - I'm a big time cry baby, especially at the doctors. I didn't though. I just sat there and asked just when did this happen and how did he know and why did it happen....yada yada yada. He said he had been testing for at least a year or more and each test was getting worse and worse. This last test showed what he thought, it was on its way out. It just happens. No, I'm not too young - I asked! So, another prescription at the drug store for me. My Dad also has this problem, so I guess I should have expected it. Does my Mom? No. Does my sister? No. I have high cholesterol like my Dad. Mom? No. Sister? No. I told the doctor if I developed prostate problems, I was making an appointment with him and inviting the National Enquirer along for the visit! He assured me that I would NOT develop prostate problems. He had better be right! :-) I told the kids when I got home about ye olde thyroid. My son offered to play taps on his trumpet and my daughter said, "rest in peace." Such sweet, caring kids.

Here's a picture R took last week or the week before. The sky was a gorgeous Carolina blue and the moon was just visible enough to look this pretty.

New Stuff

I got onto Patternworks website the other day and found their sock of the month club. Some of the things I like are: you can buy month by month and not commit to the entire year and it's really affordable if you consider how much this yarn costs per skein and it comes
with a free pattern. Well, it's supposed to come with a free pattern. They forgot to ship it to me, but said they would when I called. I'm anxious to try this stuff out, but I'll wait until the pattern gets here.

Here's a pair of finished socks. I love finished knitting! I used my same old sock pattern found in the Yarn Harlot's book 'Knitting Rules'. I love the pattern because it's almost mindless. The sock yarn is from Knit Picks and was a Christmas gift from my family. This was some of the yarn I was told to knit into socks for myself. So far I've knit two pairs and I really like them. I did these a little different than usual because I knit the cuff on one and then the cuff on the other. The leg on one and the leg on the other and so on. I like to do it that way because when I'm finished, I'm finished...no second sock syndrome here! It does tend to get monotonous when you are just knitting and knitting the legs and the feet, but, like I said, when they're finished, they're finished! (Oops, I started to say 'done' instead of finished, but my sixth grade teacher came back to haunt me. Mrs. Bryson used to say, "Cakes are done. Your work is finished." Somehow you just don't forget things like that!) I could have worn them today, but I wanted to take a picture before they got on the feet!

I really, really wish you could see this picture all blown up. R decided that she needed to shake Ginger's hand. I don't know why she felt the need. I don't know why she feels the need to do half of what she does, but it's not up to me to make sense of it all. Sometimes we just let her do whatever it is and then it makes sense to all of us. However, this didn't make sense at the time....doesn't make sense now....probably never will. Ginger however, enjoyed it as much as she could - which, as you can see, was not much! That poor, long suffering cat!

Today's blog is brought to you by the letter 'K'

My sister and I were talking yesterday about the high price of everything! She was on her cell phone calling from 'a major discount store' and I was asking how much this or that was and she and I would compare prices. She lives in Florida so the prices are a little different. I mentioned that I had seen a 10 pound bag of huge potatoes the other day at the grocery store and they cost $8.99! Then we got to talking about the price of eggs - no, not in China - but where she lives. She lives in a rural area and one of her neighbors sells eggs....a dozen for $1! Naturally she buys them from her neighbor! Yesterday she e-mailed me and the title of her e-mail was: One of these things is not like the others......

First of all, I think it's cool that they are all different colors. But look at the egg on the bottom left. Wow! She said it was HUGE! She asked the lady if she was raising ostriches now! Can you imagine the squawking in the henhouse when that egg was delivered? Unbelievable.

So, thank you, Kelly, for providing us with our blog today. 'K' is for Kelly. This blog was brought to you by the letter "K" and the number 'four' and the colors 'brown, white and green' and by one poor, sore chicken!