For anyone who tried to write to me at any of the mommymonster.com addresses… there’s been a bit of a mix up.

My host, who ordinarily I love and who usually does things quietly and unobtrusively behind the scenes with nary a ripple… my host decided to upgrade the mail servers.

Now, this is a good thing. Really. And the upgrade went not too badly.

But… as it was explained to me… for some reason mommymonster.com mail got pointed to the wrong place, and so all incoming mail made it to the server and then went… into a black hole. I could send mail, but not receive it. Eventually my mail was pointed to the right place, and now is delivered without a hitch.

Bottom line: No mail reached me between approximately midnight last Friday (10/06) and yesterday (10/09) morning at around 8:00 AM (all times PDT).

If you sent me any mail… I’m not ignoring you. I have no way of knowing who you are or what you sent. Please, please please resend!

Unless you’re a spammer. Then don’t bother. I have plenty of replacements in my inbox.

[ed. to correct date]

See? I haven’t knit so very far on #1 Son’s blanket. Just a short way. Just enough for a little bit of a sock breather. This is Karabella Aurora 8 Space Dyed in colorway 18. Pretty stuff, isn’t it? I love how this knits up, too — very soft and springy. Sorry for the flash pic. There’s no light yet today.

I tell you, after all of the socks I’ve been knitting this year, US#9 needles feel like broomsticks.

I have made some progress on Socktober Socks #1. Another inch or so. It comes by slow degrees. I don’t know that I’m ever going to love these socks. But what matters is that the recipient does.

Alice had asked awhile ago if #1 Son likes his socks. He does indeed, and I am happy to report that they fit perfectly! I bow down to the long, long ago knitster who invented ribbing. It just cures a myriad of ills, doesn’t it? I’m hoping the socks will keep his feet warm on tour – he leaves next Friday and won’t be back until just before Thanksgiving. This tour is with what I think of as his other band – i.e the one he joined second. If you’re interested in the tour dates, this page has a map (loads really slow in IE, but OK in Firefox). For some reason the outbound trip is to the south, and they are coming home across the north. I would have planned that the other way. But what do I know?

~Kristie likes #1 Son’s socks (thanks!) and asks:

I’m interested to know how you go about changing a pattern from cuff down to toe-up.

Well… sometimes I don’t. I have my own tried-and-true toe-up pattern that I call my sock non-pattern, and which I knit using a variety of toes and heels and stitch patterns. But, assuming that I wanted to deconstruct a cuff down sock, I would start with the stitch pattern and see if it can be worked backwards (some can) or must be worked as written. Ribbing, cables, and wavy stitches like feather and fan can often be worked in either direction. Lace can only be worked in one direction.

If I’m not sure if the stitch can be worked both directions, I might swatch it both ways. To work it “backwards,” I start with the last row in the pattern and work to the first row.

I will often just look to see if I can impose the stitch pattern (backwards or forwards) over my own sock. If that looks like it would work, I might not go any further. I would just choose a toe and a heel and go for it.

If the cuff-down pattern has some tricky construction (read that: I want to figure out how they did that), or looks a lot different from my standard sock, I start reading the pattern backwards, just like with the stitch pattern. I start first with the toe construction — does it have a wedge toe? Or a star toe? Does it decrease every other row or every row? Sometimes the toe can’t be worked backwards, so then I substitute a toe from my own bag of tricks. I do the same thing with the heel.

One thing I have to be careful with: I have narrow feet. Many commercial patterns will be too wide as knit. I usually have to adjust for a better fit. Sometimes I’m so taken with a stitch pattern that I let the size of its repeat dictate the width of my socks. The results are usually not as good as when I let the size of the foot dictate the size of the sock. 🙄

Sharon Hurlbut reports that the cow I saw wandering around The Streets Of Tanasbourne was none other than Maggie Moo. Whodda thunk it?

I’ve made a little bit of progress on the sock toes.

A little bit.

I’ve started a thick/thin rib pattern on the instep. I’m almost finished with the increases. I’m slogging along. The yarn seems to be happy enough now. But I’m just not loving these socks.

I’m thinking I maybe need a short, engergizing sock break. And so I think that, rather than actually knitting some other project that’s already in progress, I think I’ll cast on #1 Son’s blanket.

You knew I couldn’t stand it, right? That yarn has been whispering to me. In the wee hours of the morning I hear it call me… Judy… Judy… why aren’t you knitting me?

sigh

Just a short hiatus. Just one square, maybe, and then back to the socks, eh?

Alice suggests:

Maybe something in a complex cable pattern – just to make the job of finishing more challenging – what ever it is I know they will be beautiful and done on time!!

Obviously great minds think alike! I’m doing the thick/thin rib on the foot, but I’m planning a little cable action on the ankle. They might not make it for Socktober, but they will be finished by Christmas. That and their companion pair, designated as Socktober #2.

Alice earlier queried if #1 Son liked his Trekking socks.

I had dinner with #1 Son last week and delivered the finished socks to him. He looked at them with surprise on his face and said, These are nice!

And you were expecting what? I wanted to ask him. At any rate, I hope they fit (I have not heard yet) and they keep his feet warm. He said that the last pair I made him were a little big in the ankles. Those pair are cotton and have less “give” and these are wool and have more ribbing. So I hope they will stay up OK. I will report back.

If not, next pair I’ll decrease more on the ankles. Is it my fault he has wide feet and skinny ankles? No… It’s not my fault. But I can knit with that in mind.

Sometimes a particular skein of yarn just doesn’t want to be knit in the pattern that one had planned. I don’t know why this is so, but I know from experience that it is. And I know that trying to force the yarn to conform to a pattern it obviously doesn’t want to be knit in is an exercise in both futility and frustration.

It doesn’t pay to argue with the yarn.

After frogging out the Socktober Socks #1 toes for the gazillionth time, I looked at the poor, tattered shreds of toe yarn that remained and said to myself, Self, you need to try something else. The yarn is not happy.

Since I always sometimes listen to my own advice, I started knitting my standard, no-frills, this is a sock toe without rules, sock toe. Two of them, of course.

The yarn is now happily winding itself around my needles, without complaint and without argument. I don’t know what I’ll do when I reach the foot. I’m totally winging it.

I’m hoping that the yarn tells me what it wants before I end up frogging the foot out a gazillion times, too. (Maybe I should put in a lifeline at the top of the toe, eh?)

I have no pictures. The % completed on SS#1 has not change.

I have 9 days left to finish these socks.

Today Lolly posted a few questions for Socktoberfest participants:

When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?

I started making socks when #1 Son was learning to drive. I needed a small, portable project that would keep my hands busy. I had recently returned to knitting (from the dark side – crochet), and socks seemed like just the thing. I’ve been knitting off and on for 40 years, but it’s been about 30 since I knit a sock. I picked a free pattern off the web and went for it.

What was your first pair? How have they “held up” over time?

In January, 2005, I finished these bed socks. I still wear them around the house.

What would you have done differently?

I would have made socks that fit! 😆 These are ginormous. And I would have chosen different yarn. My thinking was that acrylic would be washable — this was before I had heard of superwash wool. Actually, my whole sock-making technique has changed since then.

What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?

Socks That Rock and Koigu.

Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?

Knit two-at-a-time on two circs. Toe up. Magic cast-on. You probably could have guessed that, eh?

Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)

Flap and gusset. They just fit my feet better. I have high arches, and short-row heels are too shallow. My favorite flap stitch pattern is Eye Of Partridge, but I try to make the flap fit in with the rest of the sock.

How many pairs have you made?

Sixteen pairs. Eighteen if you count the two sock scarves. 31 if you count all of the teeny tiny sock bookmarks.

And speaking of socks… You’ll note that I’ve added a countdown for the planned Socktober sock timeline over on the right-hand sidebar.

According to the countdown, I have 12 days to finish the first man-sized pair. 12 days. 12. And I’m barely into the toes.

I’m barely into the toes because I’ve frogged the #$@* things out at least three times. For some reason I’m just not happy with how these are turning out. Three times now — three times — I’ve gotten half way up the toe only to look down and see this humongous hole. There is no explanation for this. It’s not like I don’t knit sock toes all the time! But this yarn is a very dark gray, and it’s blasted hard to see what I’m doing. AARRRGGGGHHHHH

I think I finally have a good start going, though. At least I hope so.

12 days.

As LT and I sat, drinking coffee along the Streets Of Tanasbourne, a cow wearing a red and black dress and a string of blue pearls walked by our table. I have no idea why.

Disturbingly enough, I think it was a guy in that costume.

I think this one will have to be filed under the keeping Portland weird heading.

I blame the blurry, bad shot on surprise. OK… and maybe too much coffee.

And yes, Alice, the Trekking socks are done. (C’mon… I know you’re checking.)

I didn’t get them finished before midnight, that’s true. I made a valiant effort, but fell asleep in my chair and woke up to hear the bell tolling the witching hour. Unfortunately it was one of those times when I didn’t continue knitting in my sleep, and there was still about an inch of ribbing on the top to do.

I finished them up this morning.

They’re a simple 4×1 rib, with a 1×1 rib at the top. The heel flaps are in heel stitch, with garter edges. I used my standard sock no-pattern.

It might be better that I didn’t keep knitting. Sometimes when I do that I wake up to find that I’ve been knitting an entirely different object than I was knitting when I nodded off. But ribbing… maybe I could have handled that.

I have cast on the pair of men’s socks that are next on the Socktober list. I think I might do the Father and Son Socks in the Fall, 2006 issues of Interweave Knits.

Except backwards, of course.

15 days to finish this pair… and the race is on!