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.

Bus stations are such interesting places in the middle of the night, aren’t they? You can see from the expression on #1 Son’s face that he certainly thinks so.

We sat in the waiting room with all of the other bus riders and those there to see them off. And we waited.

#1 Son is off to hook up with a band he is touring with. He started later than the rest of the tour because he needed to finish recording with his other band. He purchased his own bus ticket over the internet. I skipped reminding him that he always gives me a bad time when I do that. (Mom, why don’t you just go there and buy it? Why do you have to do everything on your computer?) It was he that chose a 12:15 AM departure time. Midnight bus stations being such fascinating places, and all.

I do not send him off without the proper equipment. See? Down on the floor between his right foot and the guitar case? Alpaca fair isle fingerless gloves. His hands, at least, will be warm.

#1 Son will be gone for almost a month. He will be back for about three weeks and then turn around to do it again.

My house is very quiet.

I have heard from him. He made it to his destination and hooked up with the rest of the tour. Tonight they play Sacramento.

It was very cold driving home from the bus station last night.

The garden thinks it is spring even though the weather has turned so cold and rainy. Even so, the trillium is trying to bloom.

Sometimes I think the garden looks only at the calendar. Other times I am sure it is the warmth or the returning light. I hear the song birds out looking for dates. But it seems like a cold, wet world to bring little ones into. I want to tell them to wait a week, or maybe two.

I am knitting. I am working on a scarf pattern. Pics tomorrow if I get anything worked out that I like.

Sharp-eyed readers will note that there are two items crossed off the things to do list! I don’t recall ever finishing two things in one day before. It was a very good day!

First up are the replacement Fair Isle fingerless gloves for #1 Son.

I finished the last finger in the morning and then wove the ends in while waiting for my oil to be changed. There was another woman in the waiting area also knitting. I think she was working on a pair of socks, but since she was very heads-down with her pattern I didn’t want to intrude.

Next we have the Beehive Cabled Sockapalooza Socks. I finished these up while watching a little TV on Saturday night. (Don’t I lead an exciting life?)

I just love these socks. The finished product is so soft and cushy. And I love the cables and the heel and the toe and the bind-off. It’s one of those finished objects that I look at and have a hard time believing that it actually came off my needles.

If my sock pal doesn’t like them, I will take them back in a heartbeat!

The particulars about both projects can be found on their own permanent project pages. You can get there via the link in the right side-bar, the FO-2006 gallery, or by clicking on the links in this post.

One of the reasons why I keep my home phone land line is because the voice mail offers a wake-up call. I’m a sound sleeper. While the alarm clock rarely wakes me up, the phone always will. Every morning voice mail calls me. My radio comes on right afterwards.

Last night #1 Son was not home when I went to bed, but he was expected shortly. I left the kitchen hall light on for him and went to sleep.

This morning the radio came on. There had been a terrible accident. A car traveling at a high speed had hit a curb, a lamp post and a fence, then went off an overpass, rolled several times and landed upside down in a stream. The driver and passenger were both killed. Names were being withheld pending family notification.

This was a block from my house.

This was the exact place where two weeks ago #1 Son hit the curb hard enough to split his tire sidewall and dent the rim.

Instantly very wide awake, I looked down the hall towards the kitchen. The light was off. #1 Son was home. I got up and looked out front. His car was there. It was in one piece. I opened his door and peeked in. He was peacefully asleep.

I sat down on my bed, feeling shaken.

In the 10 years or so that I’ve lived in this neighborhood, I don’t ever remember another fatal accident on that road. But the road used to be a lot scarier: narrow, windy, dark, with a sharp drop-off on the north side down to the stream. People drove carefully. Then the road was moved north away from the stream, flattened out, made wider, lighted. It seems safer — safe enough, apparently, to drive very, very fast.

A couple of weeks ago, when asked what happened, #1 Son said that it was late at night, dark, rainy, and he just wasn’t paying close enough attention. This on a road he’s driven on since they built it.

He said, “you know, Mom, they told me in driver’s ed that after I’d been driving for awhile you tend to become complacent. Guess they were right. I could have been killed.

It was a good wake-up call.”

OK. I meant to finish the Sockapaloooza socks. But I got just a little distracted.

#1 Son, you see, will be traveling to cold climes in a couple of weeks. He lost one of his gloves awhile back. But I can’t let him go off with cold hands, can I?

So I started a new pair of gloves. You can see them towards the back of the basket. Same snowflake pattern, different colors. The yarn is Frogtree Alpaca sportweight. The colors are natural and undyed.

Don’t worry, sock pal, it really doesn’t take that long to make a pair of gloves. I promise. There’s still plenty of time left to finish the socks.

And you can see from the picture that I’ve turned the cables on the socks for about the bazillionth time and I’m well up the ankles. About three more turns should do it. Then the ribbing. And done!

In the other good news department: Kidd has been de-Borged (i.e. no more feeding tube), lost his accoutrement (i.e. a lovely blue Elizabethan collar), and is back to being a real kitty. He looks pretty sad, since one side was shaved when the feeding tube was put in and the rest of his fur is very skimpy due to stress and malnutrition. In fact, he sort of resembles a very large naked mole rat. But he’s eating like a pig and yesterday I caught him guarding “his” food dish (there are three that are available to anyone) from Phoebe (who could stand to lose a pound or two). He hasn’t done that for quite some time. I think he’s on the mend.