I’m a fairly normal person. Or at least I would like to think I am a fairly normal person. My nearest and dearest may disagree with that. But I can (usually) get myself ready to face the world with some semblance of normalcy. I can usually dress appropriately. I almost always have my teeth brushed and my hair beat into submission before I go out in public. I usually have on a matching pair of shoes. Usually.

So what’s my excuse here?

You need to know two piece of information as background:

1) I was a little late leaving to meet M for lunch. M and I, as you know, have been meeting for lunch since the late 70’s. A long time. M’s lunch time is a little restricted. I don’t like to be late because it cuts into our chat time.

2) When I get home at night, I often kick my shoes off in the closet by the front door because I never wear shoes when I don’t have to.

I was running a little late because I’ve been running a little late ever since the demise of the clock that runs my life my treasured mantel clock, and the phone rang. It was a short call, a call to let me know that my new (old) clock was ready to pick up. I was now a little further behind. I hurried from the kitchen carrying my purse, a knitting bag, the box to mail to my Sockapaloooza pal, and a jacket I had picked up but not put on. My arms were full. I could barely open the front closet door. I fished blindly around with my feet until I found a pair of shoes. Out the door I went.

M and I met and settled ourselves in to our accustomed table in our accustomed restaurant. Judy…, said M. Are you wearing a matching pair of shoes?

With growing horror I looked at my feet. Oops. It appeared I was not. (Notice how gentle M was. She could have easily said, you idiot, haven’t you learned how to dress yourself yet? My nearest and dearest are very patient with me.)

I was on a little bit of a tight schedule. In my mind I ran through all of the places I was going to have to visit before I could go home and put on a matching pair of shoes that actually looked the same. But I took comfort in the fact that I was not likely to meet anyone I knew in any of those places. For example, in all the years that M and I have been meeting for lunch, I’ve never seen anyone out there that I know.

Until now.

I left the restaurant, and there across the parking lot was someone I know from work. Someone in a higher position than mine. Someone who needs to see me as a competent, take-charge sort of person. We waved at each other across the parking lot while I attempted to keep at least one car between us. No go. We had parked next to each other.

I don’t think my feet were noticed. I hope not. And I hope the people at the post office didn’t notice. Or the bank. Or the clock repair shop.

I will hopefully be on time now. Or at least I have a better chance of being on time. The new (old) clock is now gracing my mantel, chiming out the hours. It’s a Gilbert. Made some time between 1890 and about 1920 (I don’t know enough about clocks to get closer than that). Lovingly restored in 1980 and sitting since forlornly on a shelf waiting for a new home. I loved it at first sight, even before I learned anything about it. I think it was waiting for me.

Note to self: Look at feet before leaving the house.

The Sockapaloooza socks will shortly be winging their way to their intended recipient. I gave them one last stroke and pat before packing them away with a few other little goodies. I need to mail them today because my chances of actually getting to a post office on Tuesday are non-existent. I hope my sockpal enjoys them. I hope they fit!

This is the African violet that sits on my desk at work. It blooms almost constantly since I moved to this location. It really loves the morning sun through the window.

I’m getting better at capturing the color with my camera. I did photoshop this a wee bit — but only to shift the color back towards red a tiny amount. The camera shifts towards blue. The little specks that almost look like digital camera noise are, in real life, the most amazing multicolored metallic sparkles. I defy any camera to capture them.

The socks are almost the deepest purple color around the edges of the violet petals.

Today I get my clock! Yea! I will finally know what time it is again. Yea!

#1 Son called last night. He and his cohorts have crossed the border into Canada. If all goes well they should arrive in Anchorage by next Thursday. He has promised to keep in touch. Think good thoughts.

I just wasn’t feeling the love with the embossed leaves sock toes. I couldn’t knit the same lace backwards, but I liked the star toe. Couldn’t get the lace knit frontwards to fit with the toe. Not wild about the colorway with this pattern. Blech. To the frog pond they went.

Last night I saw what Alice did with her socks — same pattern, same colorway, toe up. Her yarn looks quite a bit darker and richer than mine. Hand-painted dye lots can be so different! I think Alice’s looks great and I might try again with a different colorway. But not with this colorway. For some reason I’m still not feeling the love there. I have some Lorna’s Laces, though, that might be fun to play with in this pattern.

Anyway, I started a new pair of socks. Once again, this is Socks That Rock in Red Rock Canyon. Double circs. Inox Gray US#2. Magic cast-on. Two at a time. The usual. I started with a 6-part pinwheel toe.

The stitch pattern is called Tipsy Knitter in the Socks Socks Socks book and Tilting Ladders in Barbara Walker’s Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. In the picture, I’ve finished 1/2 of the first repeat. In the last part of the repeat, the cable will become a ladder and the ladder will be a cable and they will tilt left. It’s hard to tell from this picture, but the ladders and cables in the first 1/2 of the repeat tilt right.

The colors are pooling in strange and interesting ways. The blue, unfortunately, seems to be ending up mostly on the sole side of the socks. I think, though, that with this pattern the pooling is OK. It’s just another tipsy part of the sock. The blue is peeking out on the front side, now, so I have hope.

I’ve been working away on the silk/cashmere leaf scarf, also. It’s coming along nicely and is about a foot long. I worked a couple of repeats last night at Tangle knitting night. Alice had a great idea for how to end the last leaf, if I ever get there! I have a feeling this scarf is going to be one of those long-term projects. I can’t work too many repeats before I start to lose concentration and mess up the pattern.

I went back to sock knitting while sipping on a glass of wine. (Friends don’t let friends drink and knit lace!) The tipsy knitter socks seemed much more appropriate under those circumstances.

Well, this is about the 5th attempt at working the Embossed Leaves pattern backwards (toe-up).

It turns out that the lace as charted doesn’t do too well when worked backwards. Or at least it doesn’t look like leaves.

I ended up swatching 1-1/2 repeats of the pattern so I could see what it was supposed to look like. Then I could turn it upside down and knit the actual appearance. Hopefully.

The jury is still out on how well I did. I should know more in about 20 rows or so.

I did follow the start-toe pattern backwards successfully. I sort of like the way it looks. I might use this toe again. Whether or not the leaves will flow down into the toe remains to be seen.

I’m not sure what I want to do with the heel yet. I might knit it as specified in the pattern, just for the heck of it. Who knows, maybe I’ll actually follow this pattern. Stranger things have happened.

Oh… wait… I’m already not following the pattern because I started at the “wrong” end. Oops.

[ed. 11:28 am PDT] For those of you who care (I know you care deeply!), the yarn is Socks That Rock in colorway Red Rock Canyon. It appears that the blue is going to make a swirly spiral stripe around the foot. That might be cool.

Last weekend my brother told me, I read your article in knitty.com. I really got the feeling that, if I knew anything at all about knitting, it would make sense and I’d be able to follow it and actually do something cool with it. But I want you to know that’s never going to happen.

I do appreciate the compliment, which was very sweet. But, c’mon Bro… Men knit! Really!

Got to see #1 Son for a brief while this morning. Later today he heads north for the second leg of the tour. Way north. Think good thoughts for road conditions.

I have heard the as yet unmastered results from his regular band’s studio session a couple of weeks ago. They’re good. And I don’t think it’s just a proud mom talking, there.

Rock, and knit, on!

Is this not the perfect jam for a fiber junky? Eweberry Farms raises sheep and berries. Yarn and jam. Yum! And it’s right here in Oregon.

Am I the only one who has always wanted to send a jar of marionberry jam to the former mayor of Washington DC?

I love my state.

In knitting news, I read the Embossed leaves pattern wrong and ended up frogging out the toes. Oh well. I almost have them knit again. I’ll try for pics tomorrow. I decided to try to knit the leaves the way the pattern shows because the ridges on the toes finish the ends of the last leaves. I’m not sure if this lace will knit backwards or not. Some will, and some won’t. If not, then I’ll probably frog the toes (again) and re-knit without the ridges.

#1 Son breezed home in the wee hours of the morning. The path of the tour just happened to come through Portland. I think he leaves again tomorrow. It’s great to have him here, even if only for a little bit.

I was right. Today there are leaves unfurled on the trees and they are growing thickly enough to block my view of both Mt Hood and the river.

All is not lost, though. This is the view from the parking lot roof.

True, I’m not up there all that frequently during the day. And I’m seldom up there when it’s still both light enough to see and clear.

But on the infrequent occasions that I get to view Mt St Helens… what a magnificent sight. Our mountains have such presence. They just stand there against the sky, right in your face. Hills with attitude.

I finished the socks for Tangle and cast on for the Embossed Leaves Socks from the Winter ’05 Interweave Knits. Except I’m knitting them toe-up. I know someone else who also knit this pattern toe-up, and I really liked the way that the leaves grew up instead of down.

I continue to work on the lace leave scarf also.

But today I forgot to grab my knitting on the way out the door, and I’ve felt lost all day. Ack!