I found my socks!

I found my socks!

I found my socks!

I’m doin’ the happy dance, oh yeah! 😎

You know my sock drawer. The one that I cleaned completely out in the fruitless quest to locate my tangled socks? Yeah… That one.

Well, there’s this one dark corner where non-sock unmentionables live that I didn’t reorganize. Because I’d reorganized it not long ago. Today while looking for aforesaid unmentionables that were on the bottom of the pile, I spied a hint of bluish green in a cotton knit…

They were hiding.

Ah… I feel so much better now! The order of the universe is restored.

Guess I’d better forgive #1 Son for stealing them, eh?

That describes my mind as I try to come up with a witty title for today’s post. I’m not sure why the switch to DST should wipe me out this much. But it does.

Gentle reader, I am thinking that you may be growing somewhat weary of the somewhat obligatory UFO draped across a chair in a vain attempt to catch a little bit of natural light photos that have graced PI lately. Especially since most of those have been socks in progress, and how many ways can one display a sock?

And we all know, don’t we, how well I’ve been doing on my knit no socks resolution. Two finished objects this year. Both socks. One unfinished object holding all my attention. It’s socks. Yeah. What can I say.

At any rate, I don’t want to turn this into a look where my sock is today a la the Yarn Harlot. I could never do anything more than a poor imitation of Stephanie’s wit and humor with her traveling socks. For me to attempt it would just be lame.

But let’s face it, boys and girls… even I’m bored with my photography.

And it’s not like the weather is decent and I can run around outside and take pictures. Taking pictures outside is a serious risk to my camera. Camera + water = bad idea. This is Oregon. The rain will stop some time in late June. Until then there will be only brief, shining moments..

This is Captain Kidd. He’s a rather wonky sort of cat. He always has been. I think it’s safe to say that his parents were very carefully inbred, resulting in what we at chez PI like to refer to as a cat of very little brain. We love him anyway. But he’s a little strange. He has fortunately completely recovered from his illness last year. Physically. Mentally… I think he’s become even a little stranger.

His illness may be a good example of his interesting personality. My vet stopped carrying the oh-so-special kibble that Kidd needed to have and that was worth it’s weight in gold (or that is what they charged me). Instead they offered a perfectly reasonable substitute. It cost me a large sum of money to find out that Kidd wanted his prior brand of kibbles back and if he couldn’t get it he was quite willing to starve himself to death while tearing out his fur and eating it. The other two cats in the house loved the new kibble and grew quite fluffy while eating their share and Kidd’s.

I now travel 1/2 way across town simply to buy his special brand. Other cat parents will, no doubt, understand. The rest of you probably think I’m nuts. (probably did anyway) But he’s now a (fairly) reasonable weight, although still very slim, and all the fur he pulled out (or the vet shaved because he had to have a feeding tube for awhile) has grown back.

Kidd likes to sit on the bookshelf by my desk while I work at my computer. I have no idea why. It’s his spot. He sleeps there, sitting up. If I have placed another object there, he scolds me until I move it — note the stacks of CDs pushed carefully out of the way. When he gets tired of sitting on the shelf, he goes under the desk and curls up in the corner.

I don’t think he was very happy wearing the socks. But, if you hang around while I’m looking for something to amuse myself with… well… don’t be surprised at what happens. 😀

The socks are up to the gussets and proceeding nicely. I like Dave’s Sea-Camo-Weedy remark, and I think I will name them that.

I had lunch yesterday with #1 Son at Nicholas’. It’s a tiny little hole in the wall in an unattractive area of Portland. It’s so tiny that, after your name is added to the always-present list, you have to wait outside. There’s no room for people to wait inside. No room even to knit at the table. The proprietors have thoughtfully provided space heaters under the roof overhang, so although I had to stand on the sidewalk looking like I was maybe lookin’ for a good time (hey, sailor… wanna party?), at least I was dry (mostly) and warm (sort of) and had plenty of company. Seating is at such a premium that, although my name came up on the list, I was not actually given a table until #1 Son finally arrived. Trust me on this — it’s well worth the wait. Every time the door opened the scent of wonderful Middle Eastern cuisine wafted out. I have 1/2 of a falafel sandwich left over for dinner, along with a very creamy hummus and pita that was so fresh when served that it was too hot to pick up.

The Tangled socks still have not shown up. #1 Son professes innocence (but has yet to prove it). I did not take them anywhere out of the house unless they were on my feet. (Good thought, ~Kristie, but I have a sample sock named Bob that I use when I need to demo.) I have checked the legs of pants and sleeves of shirts, just in case. I am afraid this mystery will not be solved. I am bereft.

On a techie note, a week or so ago I completely rewrote the PI theme from the ground up. I was pretty careful to make it look the same, so you may not have noticed. I tested it in as many browsers as I could to make sure it looked reasonably OK and was stable. But I have no access to either Linux or a Mac. If you see something that looks weirder than usual or really doesn’t work, please let me know.

Judging by the number of hits I’ve had the last few days (thanks, Dave, for the shout-out), most people are not concerned with spoiling their Rockin’ Sock Club surprise. (My ball band says “Sure Footed” inside. Alas, if only that were true!)

So this is what I’m doing with my skein of Monsoon.

Obviously I’m not following the lovely pattern that was included in the February shipment. There are a couple of reasons for this. As a general rule I’m not very good at following directions anyway. But I also have narrow feet with high arches. Short-row heels just don’t fit my feet very well. So I am concerned that socks that fit my feet would be pretty tight to get on with those cables on the legs.

I was going to work a stitch pattern that Barbara Walker calls Seaweed, but after seeing the yarn I discarded that idea as not what I was really looking for. My next thought was to work the Tipsy Knitter stitch pattern over the sock. But about an inch into the toe I realized that just wasn’t going to work. So I fell back on plan A. This is Seaweed. It does look sort of seaweedy, eh?

But what it really looks like is… camo. You can see as it poses with my little camo project bag that it blends right in. I will have to be careful not to lose them.

Like I lost the Tangled socks, which still haven’t shown up! I have quizzed #1 Son for a second time, and the conversation went something like this:

Mom: Are you sure you haven’t seen my socks?

#1 Son: Why would I have your socks? When would I have seen them?

Mom: Are you sure they didn’t get mixed in with your laundry?

#1 Son: Did you want me to look? I supposed I could do that

Mom: YES!!! Looking would be a good thing!

#1 Son: OK. I’ll get back to you on that.

sigh

On a totally different note, don’t forget that we (in the USA) spring forward to Daylight Savings Time three weeks early this year. I’m not really looking forward to (1) losing an hour of sleep and (2) having it dark when I wake up. But unfortunately the powers that be did not consult me when this decision was made. So remember when you wake up this coming Sunday, the time has changed and your clock needs to also.

You should also visit the web site of the operating system for your computers and hand-held devices. Apple and Microsoft have both published patches so that the hour changes automatically on the right date. And Palm covered my brain (aka Judy’s Palm), with an easily applied patch.

Download the fix directly from the manufacturer. Don’t believe the emails from unknown third parties that promise to fix all your problems. In most cases they will cause other problems that you didn’t expect, like virii and phishing. Please compute safely.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled knitting blog…

My mind, that is.

It’s official.

I have finally and possibly irrevocably lost my mind.

Along with it I have lost a pair of socks.

These socks.

My Tangled Up In Blue socks. These very socks that were the prototype for this pattern. These socks that I wear all the time because I love them.

They are nowhere to be found.

There are only so many places that hand-knit socks live at chez PI: On my feet, in my sock drawer, in the dirty laundry, in the clean-but-unfolded laundry.

They are not on my feet (I checked), so that can be ruled out.

They are not in my sock drawer. I went as far as taking the drawer out and looking to see if they’d fallen out and gotten wedged behind. Nope.

There is no dirty laundry — I washed it all today. There is no clean-but-unfolded laundry because I put it all away.

I remember a week or 10 days ago putting them in the dryer on a rack so they would dry flat along with the other hand-knit socks. The Tangled socks are cotton, and always take longer to dry, so chances are good that I didn’t take them out at the same time as I took the other socks out. The other hand-knit socks made it to my sock drawer.

I’ve looked everywhere — even in my stash, just in case. I’m stumped.

My one remaining hope is the they somehow got mixed up with #1 Son’s laundry and ended up with him. Stay tuned.

Yes, I did start a pair of socks with the STR club yarn. I’m trying really hard not to lose them. It might be tough because… it’s knitting up as camo.

Pics later when there’s a reasonable chance that most cub members have received their package.

I’d been to Tangle knit night, then to the store. So it was late when I finally pulled up to the mail box on my way home.

I share a… what do you want to call the thing?… mailbox cluster? with my neighbors. There are several in the neighborhood. The one where my mailbox lives is around the corner and just down the block. There are nine small mailboxes for every-day mail, and two big compartments for packages. When a resident gets a package, the mail carrier puts it in one of the package compartments and puts the key to the compartment in the regular little mail box.

I opened up my mail box… and there was a key! A package! For me! From Blue Moon! (Is that enough exclamation marks?)

For those of you who are wondering… there are no socks on my needles yet. Even I don’t think that it’s a good idea to start winding yarn (by hand – I have no ball winder or swift) at 11:00 PM. That’s when my chores were done. So it’s Clapotis for one more day at least. Kat suggests singing an ode to Clapotis. But for me, it always sounds like… It’s the Clapotis that never ends… and it goes on and on my friends… someone started knitting it not knowing what it was, and she’ll continue knitting it forever just because… it’s the Clapotis that never ends…

yeah. You get the picture.

~Kristie — couldn’t resist. The package was opened. I think Cindy’s vision will come true soon.

Spoilers and pictures are below, so if you are a a Rockin’ Sock Club member and don’t want the surprised given away, don’t click on the link.

I received not one but four emails yesterday that the first Blue Moon Rockin’ Sock Club shipments have been sent.

I guess the lovely ladies in Scappoose wanted to make sure that I was well and truly notified!

It’s not that far from here to there. Less than 30 miles. It can’t take that long for my shipment to get here. Right?

So… What do you think the chances are that my attention will continue to be held by Clapotis #2? Will I be able to stick to my “socks only with my classes” resolution when the next class is over a month away? Any bets on that?

What do you think, gentle reader? 😆