Merry Christmas! (again)

Today is Dec 25 on the Julian calendar, which is the one the Orthodox Church follows.
The calendar you are used to, which most of the secular world follows, is the Gregorian calendar. It was created by Pope Gregory. The Orthodox Church doesn't follow the pope.
Which makes today Christmas!
Yeah!

One Sock Done
Let's have another cheer for the first of my New Year's Socks.
I finished it last night while we were watching Heroes (remember, we have the first half of the season saved on the DVR).
Believe me when I say it is much cuter in person. Apparently I'll need lots of good sunlight to get a flattering picture of the cable in this yarn.
I've cast on for the second one, but haven't gotten very far.

Speaking of Casting On
Remember the other day when I was babbling on about tight cast ons and the space between stitches?
Well, here is my attempt to document it.
(I like the little arrows you can add to Flickr photos using Picnic, but I also tried to circle the area.)
I used a traditional long-tail cast on.
As you can see, and perhaps know, the little loops on the needle are the stitches.
The areas I've highlighted are the slack between the stitches that I was babbling about.
Usually when people are learning to knit and complain about a tight cast on they will be told to cast on with a bigger needle size than the one they intend to use, or to cast on holding to needles together.
Both of these tricks will make the loop of the stitches bigger, but don't directly address the space between the stitches. I suppose it is that lack of space that makes the cast on feel tight.
So Lucy's point was making the loop bigger doesn't get you anywhere. You have to increase the slack/space between, which can be accomplished by paying attention as you cast on and consciously spacing the stitches further apart.
Now, I have never studied the construction of a cast on closely enough to determine whether or not the extra size in the loop of a bigger stitch constructed through one of those other methods eventually works its way into the slack between stitches.
I also have never used one of those methods. If my cast on is tight I usually yank it all out and cast on again—leaving more space between the stitches. Or charge ahead pretending the problem doesn't exist. :-)
Of course, there are other cast ons besides the long tail you can use and they vary in stretchiness, but other venues have discussed them more eloquently than I would so why rehash it here?

Back to Work
Ok, gotta go. I'm working from home today. There was an ice storm where I live overnight. Despite this school and work were still open.
Hubby took the SUV since he takes small, local roads to school.
I was left with the sedan. First I barely got out of the driveway. Next my preferred highway was closed because of accidents and downed trees. Then the traffic was all backed up to get onto the other highway, which I usually avoid like the plague.
I was sitting in traffic and freezing rain fuming and wondering how much worse the weather would get and when I would finally make it to the office. So I called Boss Man and said I was going home and promised to be productive.
So far I've done an interview for a story due next week that was totally off topic. I sent out interview requests for two other items I'm working on. And I'm still managing to send myself lots of spam. (I hope the IT guy gets that last one sorted out soon.)