Recently in socks Category

Yes, I know this is a bit fuzzy and too dark, but hey, I gotta show y'all that I'm alive and knitting. Pattern is Dawn Brocco's Cable Clog sock and it's one of my favorite pattern. A good amount of twisted knit pattern, and yet enough sockinette knitting not to bore you to tears. I'm using Cestari Sock yarn - my first time with it. Appearance is on the rustic side. I'm eager to see how well it holds up under hard wear. I think I might have enough to make a triplet set, but we'll see.

I decided to go ahead and get the Schacht Ladybug Wheel because I want one that is portable, and besides, the church bazaar is coming up in just a few months and I need time to get familiar with it so I can be more at ease with demonstrating and answering questions. And I think I've finally found a nice home for the Majacraft Little Gem. I'll have to thank Knitting Banter in part for changing the think process regarding the MJ Little Gem. Now I need to apply this to my job search . . .

Still working on the Green Raglan Sweater, so no pics to show you yet. However, I'm in the mood for learning new sock patterns. In particular, Bordhi's twist on socks. I'm literally taking baby steps by working up the baby sock patterns so I can see how these shape up to be. I really like the shaping and can see as to how this could break up the monotony of knitting with variegated yarn.

For reading items on my Blogline account, I use NetNewsWire, which has now been made free for all. I like it because you can read offline, and there's lots of things you can do with it.

NetNewsWire and other desktop apps: your RSS router
One of my favorite features of NetNewsWire is how it works with a bunch of other desktop apps.

The idea is this: news comes in to NetNewsWire, and then you route stuff to wherever it should go

[From inessential.com: Weblog: 'NetNewsWire and other desktop apps: your RSS router']

There's a lot of really good tips on how to make the best out of this nifty application. How do I use it with Bloglines? Simple - I just go into New Special Subscription > Bloglines and add the new blogs that I've subscribed to.

So . . . what's up with my job search? Well, I've learned that job fairs are not a good place if you expect to get a real, honest-to-god interview on the spot. It's just to gather information on you (the job hunter), and them (to see if the company has anything worth considering). Of course, the companies I'd have liked to speak with were inaccessible to me because I don't have any clearance at any level. If you live in the Washington, DC area, this is a very coveted resume enhancement and it's a catch-22 situation - jobs you qualify for require it but they won't take you without any clearance. And you can't just go around asking for security clearance. I guess that's my job tip for the week . . .

So, I'm going to try to get the socks that I've done finished up this month. One or two I may rip back to the beginning because I'm not in love with the patterns anymore. Can't promise that I'll hae a nice basket of completed socks by end of the month, but I'll try, nonetheless.

Since I finished the shawl, I'e been freed up to move on to other projects. So, I restarted my sock knitting, with Back to Basics socks. The directions are different enough that I just had to try it, and this will keep me going until the 2nd edition of Cat Bordhi's new sock book is available (it seems that 1st edition sold out quickly and I haven't been able to find it locally). I had actually gotten up t the gusset shaping, when I realized if I kept going on as directed, the foot would be longer than my actual foot length. So I measured the gauge and it turns out that I'm 1 stitch more in rows and stitches per inch. Auuuuggghhh! I had to rip back almost all way to about 2 inches above the toe section and there I'll get the shaping started. If this doesn't work, I'm going to have to go down a size in needles. Not really looking forward to this.

And it seems that I've been suckered into helping out at the bazaar in the craft section. I'm supposed to be bringing my spinning wheel and you know, demonstrate or something. I'm concerned about my ability to explain all these to visitors and having them be able to understand me, but I'll worry about this later. It occurred to me that my fleece sample book would be good to take along. It also occurred to me that I still haven't assembled the pages from Exchange 2 and Exchange 3, even though the Exchange 3 package was concluded in 2001. Life sure has a funny way of interfering, doesn't it? I found the box for Exchange 2 in the other bedroom's closet, still unopened. Wow . . . a package for me that arrived in the mail 8 years ago! Since I've been out of work for too long and can't just go off buying fiber and yarn and checking the mail, it felt good to have an anticipated delivery. And I found the boxes for Exchange 1 and 3 in the garage (whew - that means there's a little more free room for junk).

Now, my job is to get all those samples washed up, put in the washed locks next to the in-grease locks, and spin up some of those samples. I'm going to be combing some of these, but it seems silly to use my big combs for such a tiny bit of samples. I'm looking into getting mini-combs. I'm shocked, shocked at how some of these cost. The cheapest costs $75. Why the high prices? Know where I can score a set of used mini-combs?

Turkey Day's over and we survived two dinners. Whew . . . delicious food, great company, good time to be had by all. Today Hubby and I are chilling out, just taking it easy and watching Firefly. We thought about going to the movies, but there's no good movies to be seen and the only one that looks remotely interesting is at Arundel Mills Mall (The Queen), which will be packed to the gills with shoppers looking for a bargain. Umm . . . no thanks.

My third attempt with No Knead Bread finally turned out terrific. The key was to reduce the amount of liquid to 1 1/2 cups to start; you can add more if the kitchen is dry. The other key, it seems, is to use as fresh yeast you can get. The yeast I used previously was Fleischmann Rapid Rise bread machine yeast and I've had it quite a while. I think I'm going to have to toss it. Sorry about the picture being a bit out of focus. See how "holey" it is? That's how it's supposed to be, and very light as well. The 2nd attempt bread was quite heavy. It's been tossed into the trash - too salty and dense.

Here are 3 pictures taken throughout the process. In the first photo, the dough is very bubbly and "wet", after an overnight rise in the spare bedroom. That's how the dough is supposed to look like. Also, at the bottom it's not supposed to be runny with quite a bit of liquid. If it is, you've got a problem, buddy. You'll be dealing with very, very sticky dough.

See the middle? That's after it's been folded and left to rest before being reshaped into a ball for 2 hours rise. And the final photo - look how delicious it is. There's a reason why the recipe says to put the bread in seam-side up you get that artisan bread look.

We used most of the rest of the bread leftover that we bought back home for French toast (delicious, I might add; later on I'm going to try using egg to get sweet bread - egg-based bread such as challah is great for French toast). There's only a couple slices left to munch on, so I'm going to have to mix up another batch later today.

Back to knitting . . . need to get that 2nd pair of Wildefoote sock finished off as we watch the Firefly videos that we borrowed last night from J and C . . .