Another busy weekend, with lots of running around to do. I did manage to work in a little knitting, between other project.

I finished the sock scarf! 😀 It’s a bit shorter than I might have liked. But I used all but about 2 yards of my yarn, so I guess it’s as long as it was going to be! And it’s long enough to go around my neck, so I guess it’s OK. I’ll post a pic after I get it washed and blocked.

After trying really hard to like the addi Naturas, I found that I was still having problems with the yarn snagging. And, the difference in needle size (2-1/2US rather than 2US), did make a difference. Fortunately I’m surrounded by wonderful knitting stores: The Yarn Garden right across the bridge from work, Woodland Wool Works in Carlton if I feel like an expedition, and almost right on the way home there’s Northwest Wools.

Since I’d already bought needles from both The Yarn Garden and Woodland Wool Works, I decided it was Northwest Wool’s turn. I gritted my teeth, tried to put aside my feelings about non-wood needles, and snagged a pair of addi Turbos in 2.5mm (size 1 to addi, size 2US to the rest of the world), and started the Wildfoote socks over again (again).

Yeah. OK. I love the addi Turbos. They are very smooth and fast, never snag, have wonderful non-twisting cables, don’t split my yarn, should have bought them years ago, yadda yadda yadda. But I think I’ll stick with my Clover bamboo needles for sizes above 3US.

I’ve almost finished with the toe increases on the Wildefoote socks. I’ll post a pic of them, also, when I get a bit further along.

The Yarn Garden is so conveniently located! Just a hop, skip and jump across the Hawthorne Bridge from work. So yesterday I paid a little visit to The Yarn Garden after work, just to see what kind of needles they had in stock. I was getting desparate to replace the Crystal Palace needles I started the Wildefoote socks with.

I picked up a pair of addi Natura 16″ circular needles in 2US. And here’s an interesting observation… The Crystal Palace 2US are 2.75 mm. The addi Natura 2US are 3.0 mm, which my needle guage calls a “small 3US” or maybe a 2-1/2. The Clover 3US that I have are 3.25.

Rather than starting over, since a pair of figure-8 cast-ons were a bear to do, I decided to just go with the flow and see if the extra .25 mm made that much of a difference in my gauge. So far, after about 10 rounds, it doesn’t appear obvious to the naked eye. The gauge is slightly looser, but that can be handled by adjusting the number of toe increases. I think I’m OK.

I’m almost finished with the toe increases and trying to decide whether to use a pattern on the instep. I’ll try to get a pic up tomorrow.

I’m liking the addi Naturas. The cable never twists and the joins are smooth. So far I haven’t had any problem with snagging. The needles themselves are quite a bit shorter than the Crystal Palace needles, and that makes it easier to work in tight places.

So I guess I’ll be putting off my excursion to Woodland Wool Works.

Darn.

Last week I had some sort of awful flu-type thing that made me feel as though a truck had run over me several times.

On Friday, my cousin died after a years-long and hard-fought illness.

Sunday morning, bright and early, I met my brother at his house and we drove together to Lewiston, ID for the funeral.

If one drives like my brother does (fast, with few or no stops), it takes about 6 hours from Portland to Lewiston. And 6 hours back. I figured on 12 good hours of knitting. I didn’t think that the sock scarf had 12 hours of work left in it, so I decided to start another project. I’ve been wanting to try knitting two socks at once on circular needles. I had the two skeins of Wildfoote handpainted yarn in the “Brown Sugar” colorway and the pair of US # 2 Crystal Palace needles picked up on my last pilgrimage to Woodland Woolworks, so now seemed like the time.

Saturday night I spent a couple of frustrating, but eventually successful hours figuring out how to do two separate figure-8 cast-ons on one pair of circular needles. By the time I went to bed on Saturday, I had the first several rounds knit on each toe, and I was off to a great start. I have to admit that getting started wasn’t easy, and I’m glad I had that finished so my brother didn’t have to listen to me swear a blue streak in his car.

I don’t see my brother all that often, so Sunday we did a lot of talking and I didn’t get much knitting accomplished. But I did do several rounds somewhere between The Dalles and Pasco. I’m not really very happy with the Crystal Palace needles. There’s a groove on the metal part that catches the yarn.

Sunday evening there was a vigil service at a church — actually more of a roast, where people shared stories — followed by a cheese and wine gathering in the church social hall. By the time I got back to the motel, I was exhausted. I stayed awake just long enough to touch bases with #1 Son in Portland and make sure he was settled for the night, and then I was out like a light.

Monday morning we joined the rest of the family for breakfast. The funeral was held at my cousin’s church and was one of the best attended funerals I have ever seen. Even though it was at a larger church than the vigil service, every seat was taken, an overflow room was also full, and people were standing in the back. After the service there was a luncheon back at the first church in the school gym. I think that almost everyone who attended the funeral also attended the luncheon.

When I die, I will be happy if a couple of people get together and lift a glass and say “she was a good sort.” That about 1/2 the town of Lewiston showed up for my cousin’s funeral is indicative of the exemplary life he led. He will be missed.

And I’m not fond of funerals, but I saw people there that I haven’t seen since I was a child. And it was fun to see all of the scattered family that I usually see once every 5 or 6 years. I wish we could get together for happier reasons.

My brother and I left right after the luncheon to start the long drive back to Portland. And I decided I would get knitting! I got about 3 or 4 rounds completed and was in the middle of the next round when the metal cap holding the cable fell off one of the needles. I pressed on to complete the round, but it was a real pain because I kept dropping stitches off the end of the needle. Now I’m really not happy with the Crystal Palace needles. 😡

I wish that Clover made needles in US # 2, but their smallest size is US # 3. I think that addi Natura needles come that small, though, and I’d like to try a pair of those. In the meantime, when I arrived home I super-glued the cap back on the needle and it has stayed put. But the yarn still catches and the needles don’t seem “fast” enough.

I’ll post a pic when I get past the toe increases.

Here’s an update on my blatant rip-off of Jerry’s version of the sock scarf.

The yarn I’m using is a Peruvian wool by Cascade. The color doesn’t show very well in the pictures, but it’s a heathered green, with flecks of rust and tiny touches of turquoise.

The big pictures shows how far I’ve made it. I started at the toe end, and I’ve gone up one foot, around the heel, and up the leg until I ran out of yarn, at which point I started a new skein down the other leg. I’ve just completed the ribbing and started on the fish-tail cables.

The foot turned out a bit larger than I had really planned, but I kinda like it so I decided to leave as is. It won’t be as long as Jerry’s version. The part that I’ve finished is maybe 2-1/2′, so I expect it will be between 4-1/2 and 5′ when finished.

This picture shows a close-up of the fish-tail cables. They’ve been fun to do. I search around a bit to find a not-quite-ordinary pattern that would look reasonably the same “upside down” so that I could work the scarf from toe to toe.

I’m working it in fits and starts, it seems. Some days I’ll go a long way, and other days I only get a few (or no) rounds done. But I have hope that I might have it done before spring completely arrives!

As always, click on the pics to get the larger version pop-up.

I can only assume that there must be millions of families out there in Television Land who have TVs with broken power buttons.

Today from the Washington Post:

The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a dramatic increase in fines for indecent programming, rejecting criticism the penalties will stifle free speech and homogenize radio and TV broadcasts.

Supporters said stiffer penalties are needed to give deep-pocketed broadcasters more incentive to clean up their programs and to help assure parents that their children won’t be exposed to inappropriate material.

The measure — H.R.310, titled the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 — passed The House 389-38. It increases the maximum fine for “indecent programming” from $32,500 to $500,000 for a company and from $11,000 to $500,000 for an individual entertainer. The fine applies when a

violator is determined by the Commission under paragraph (1) to have uttered obscene, indecent, or profane material.

Although The House did not stoop to actually defining “obscene, indecent, or profane,” they did strongly suggest that reimplementing a “family viewing hour” would be a desirable thing.

“This is a penalty that makes broadcasters sit up and take notice,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee that sent the bill to the full House. “This legislation makes great strides in making it safe for families to come back into their living room.”

The reason that I’m assuming that there are so many broken TVs out there in America that can’t be turned off is that hitting the power switch is such a simple and effective way of making sure that your family is “safe” from whatever it is you don’t want them to watch. Many TVs and cable services also come complete with parental control features that make it possible to block certain types of programming. While they may not have blocked a split-second glimpse of Janet Jackson’s pastie-covered nipple, I’ve always found parental constrols to be pretty darn effective (just ask # 1 son).

Voting with my pocketbook — i.e. turning the damn thing off — has always seemed a lot more effective to me than having some bozo in Congress tell me what I can and can’t watch. And it seems “safer” besides.

We can only hope that either (1) The House and Senate cannot agree on a combined bill (as last year) or (2) it will be struck down as too broad anyway.

It’s Monday. But today is Valentine’s Day, and it was a free coffee day, so it’s a good day. I like Valentine’s Day. I don’t expect to have a lot of Valentines, and that’s OK. It gives me an excuse to go around smiling at people and eating chocolate. Not that I don’t do that anyway… but today I have a good excuse.

Not much accomplished over the weekend except a lot of knitting on my sock scarf. I’m about 1/2 way done. How do I know? Because I’ve used about 1/2 of my available yarn. 🙂 I started at one toe, and I’ve turned the heel and gone up the leg and done the top ribbing, and just started down the other side. The instep and leg are worked in fishtail cables. I’ve been looking for an excuse to use that pattern and this looked like a reasonable one. I’ll post a pic soon.

I also managed to get “my stuff” cleaned out of the Outback, henceforth designated as “#1 Son’s Car” even though he can’t yet officially drive it without me. I promise to warn the greater Portland Metro area when that day arrives.