Back to Socks

With Hubby's Chunky Cabled Scarf done, but a few days remaining before the Olympics (and Ravelympics), I returned to working on the numerous pairs of socks I have on the needles.

These Green Step Socks are my plain stockinette stitch pair for waiting rooms and anti-fidget activity when I'm battling writer's block at work.

I finished the first one over the weekend.

I noticed the toe ended at just about the same point in the color pattern where the sock started.

Against my better judgment, but because a girl can dream, I went ahead and cast on.

As expected, I was too far into the color section. The pinky salmony bit came up around row 7 of the ribbing when I shouldn't have reached it until row 14 or 15.

Since the idea of unmatched self-patterning socks still makes me twitchy, I reeled out yarn until I found the same section. I used tied a little knot in the yarn under then new ribbing, unraveled it, then used that section to backtrack on the working yarn to find the correct spot to cast on.

I think that little method worked rather well. I'm probably one a row shifted at most. Of course, I'm not neurotic enough to do that all the time. I'm willing to just eyeball it and have those rows of ribbing actually count for something.

Tartan Argyles
In the evenings at home I've been working on the second Tartan Argyle.

At this point I'm through the first two diamonds and into the third. Then it is just the instep to go in pattern.

I think this time I'll stop before the instep, work the heel flap/turn, and then work the instep and sole simultaneously to reduce the counting I need to do to ensure they match.

That means I'll have to fish the rest of this set of double pointed needles out of the test sock I was working on a few weeks ago.

At the moment I'm going to pause in the knitting and start tackling weaving in the ends. That takes focus and is not something I can do while I'm watching TV.

Snow Day!
My office was closed today because of the snow. It started this morning between 6:30 and 7 (I was up at 6:20 and didn't see anything, although I didn't have my glasses on). Not a ton of accumulation so far, but it's supposed to get worse tonight for the evening commute.

I'm really happy the powers that be at the office decided to close. We were worried they'd have us come in, then close early, and that would have sucked.

Of course, I'm working on an article that was due like last week, so I can't take a true snow day.

Still, I've managed to slack off most of the morning.

We finished the bread I baked, so I'm working on another loaf. I mixed up the starter last night in anticipation of being home today.

I asked Hubby I if should make the sandwich bread instead and he said the Scali bread was good so I should make that again.

This time I was smart and misted the started with olive oil (we have an atomizer that we can fill with whatever we want, as opposed to canned cooking spray) before I put the plastic wrap over it. Didn't stick so bad.

Also, I remembered that I did change the recipe. It calls for a bit of dried milk and I don't have any so I skipped it. I think it adds protein and helps with the texture or something.

Anyway. Last week I pulled out my box of dried milk. It did not have an expiration date on it, but I distinctly remembered buying it when I was living in TX, which shows you how much I use it. That made it at least 10 years old. eeewww. So I tossed it (finally). The only boxes I saw at the store were massive emergency reserve sizes, which didn't make any sense since I never made it through a normal size box.

I guess if I stick with this baking bread on a regular basis thing I track down another little box of dried milk. Until then, I think I managing fine without it.

Now, I must go weave in ends on my Tartan Argyle while I mull over my article topic.

Stay warm!