The Never-Ending Socks & An Inventory Story

The Chocolate Cake Socks aren't finished yet. And I'm bored. Oh my GOD I'm SOOO BORED!

Now, don't get me wrong....they're exquisitely beautiful and I love them, but Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock for TWO, count 'em TWO, Size 12 Double-Wide men's feet is killing me. For those of you who are wondering, that's 385 little teeny-tiny cable crosses in deep. dark. brown. microscopic. yarn. at. night. I'm past the second heel turn and into the gusset and I've meticulously written down every little change I made to the pattern so that they would fit my exceptionally fussy handsome husband's feet perfectly. That means I've only got 35 more rows to go once I finish the gusset and then another 20 to finish the toe. The END IS NEAR!! But damn; I'm bored.

So, last night, to break up the boredom I opened my Personal Sock Yarn Index. PSYI for short(it's got some other stuff in it, too, but it's mostly sock yarn). I played around matching patterns to yarn and added all my new Socks That Rock acquisitions. While I was sitting there, laptop in my lap, going through my spreadsheet with it's tiny print and it's many many lines, Husband happened to look over my shoulder.

Holy Crap! What the hell is that??!! Is that your Yarn Inventory??!
No. (Cause technically it isn't)
(Puzzled pause, scanning the screen) Is it your manufaturer inventory?
No.
(with infinite patience) OK, Dear. What. Is. It?
(in my smallest voice possible) It's my sock yarn inventory. [insert manic grin & hold for 10 counts]
Sigh...
Look, I've been a lot better this year than I was at this time last year. I've spent like 8 times less.
It's March!
I KNOW!
Scroll down. (scroll, scroll... It's about 50 some lines) Oh, it's not too bad.
Yeah, most of these are just single skeins. (This was my fatal mistake)
Wait a minute. Where's the sum line?
(Shit. I tabbed over to the # of skeins column and hit the Sum button and up came the fatal number: 94)
94?! think you've got enough? don't you think you'd be better to make something with the yarn you've got than buying more?
Dude, don't even start with me. What the hell do you think I'm doing here night after night? Have you seen how many things I've finished since Christmas?? Just don't even start with me. (He can get exceptionally a tad preachy sometimes if I don't nip it in the bud )

Apparently he decided this wasn't a battle worth fighting cause he turned his head back to the TV and didn't even sigh or make a face. Let's not tell him that I still had another 8 hanks of STR in the bedroom closet that needed to be inventoried shall we....

I present my new-ish love: It's Koigu KPPPM in a lovely lemon lime color with a little peach thrown in for good measure. I want to make the Embossed Leaves Socks from the IK Winter 2005 issue. Won't they be loverly?

Also, yeah, I got my STR kit. It's OK. I'm choosing to call the colorway Rainforest rather than Monsoon, since we've already got enough dreary here in Chicago in March (as Franklin so eloquently attests to here).

Finally, I won't be in GROUP tomorrow since I've got one of my last two Operas Cosi fan Tutte so please bring your STR skeins next week, for show and tell, too!

Chocolate Cake Socks

I'm knitting a new pair of socks for hubbo. You see the last pair (a.k.a. the first pair) of socks I knit for him were too big by about a mile. Also, he's used to Costco cotton socks that squeeze the life out of your toes there's so much elastic in them.

So, shortly after the new year, in a fit of UFO work, I added a significant amount of elastic to the cuffs. They stayed up while we were out to dinner with some friends, but when he put them on the next day, they promptl slumped around his ankles.

Now, while I tried to explain to him the physics of handmade socks and how they don't stay up forever, they stretch while you wear them, they're bigger cause they're made specifically for his feet and what have you, the subtleties were lost on Darling Hub.

So, I'm knitting him a new pair of socks that will F.I.T.. They will fit because
1.) I'm a little more experienced
2.) I don't have to hide them from him while I finish the toes because they're not a X-mas present
3.) I can regularly take his foot hostage while he watches TV and slide the in-progress sock over his big gunboats just to check my progress. (BTW, why doesn't anyone in my family have small feet?)

I call them the Chocolate Cake Socks because the color of the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock I'm using looks just like perfect chocolate cake. You know how the little bubbles in the crumb are sometimes light and sometimes dark, but always look yummy.... yeah, that's it. Actually, the little wound balls look like little chocolate cupcakes to me but you're just going to have to take my word on that one...

I'm using the Cable with Seed Stitch from Sensational Knitted Socks, of course. I let hubby pick from the patterns and choose the yarn color. He calls this red, but we know it's really brown.

Finally, while I was taking a few shots in the brief afternoon light, the sock had a near brush with death... do you SEE the talons on that beast? They're like the claws of a Velociraptor!! I had to swoop in and save the sock from certain death!

OK, yeah, Mr. Whiskers needs his claws trimmed.

Doesn't it look like chocolate cake????