The Turn

This is one of my favorite parts of the sock knitting process. You start off with a tube, and then you knit a flat flap on it that goes on the back of the heel. That's not the good part though, that's kind of boring.

Then there is some knitting hocus pocus...

Then you have a cozy little cup ready to wrap around your heel.

It's like a magic trick.

Sock Madness Strikes Again

After taking a year off, mainly because I thought about signing up too late and missed the deadline by a couple of days, I am back in for Sock Madness this year. This is going to be the 6th year of Sock Madness and the 4th time that I've participated. I think SMII was my favorite so far. It was the first time that I was involved and there were a lot of fun pictures taken for the creative prize category. Between the adrenaline rush of new challenges, and cementing my love of sock knitting, it was such great fun that I keep signing up each year. But when I look back at the socks I knit each year I think SMIV has been the most my speed. I especially loved the Cool Beans I made.

As always I have no idea what patterns we'll be given as challenges this year, but we have recently received our list of supplies needed. One of the new ones to me are beads. I have made beads and used beads in jewelry, but I've never used beads on a sock before. At least I already have a decent collection of seed beads ready to go. I'm going to order a couple new colors of sock yarn, make a beading tool (I'll show you that later I'm sure), and keep knitting on Jeff's socks to try and finish them before the competition starts.

Poor Jeff, I complain about the size of his feet every time I knit him socks. It's not his fault that I have smallish feet and he has largish feet. You'd think that if you like knitting then having a sock that lasts forever would be a good thing, but one of the reasons that I like to knit socks because they are Quick. I did some rudimentary math and found that the reason it seems like Jeff's socks take forever to knit is that for each one I knit for him I could knit a pair for myself.

Not counting the cuff, heel or toe stitches, but just the main leg & foot rounds:
Jeff = 15,360 stitches
Tara = 8,192 stitches

On the bright side the competition socks ought to fly by, right? And all these extra stitches will get my wrists and fingers nice and limbered up by the time we get started in March.

Sprouts

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The More Things Change the Less They Stay the Same

One of the things about parenthood fascinating me this morning is the constant state of learning and evolution that is involved. I'm not talking about all the cool stuff that Max is learning how to do, or how he's suddenly become quite the adept little parrot. I mean that every time I think I've found a comfortable place in my life, all of a sudden I realize that something has become discordant and needs to change again.

What might be appropriate one week is suddenly not the next. The catalyst for this train of thought this morning was Max in the pantry / laundry room. We kept a baby gate up to keep him out of there, because I didn't feel like dealing with fights over what he can and cannot play with. Today I realized that we probably don't need it there anymore. While he may get into mischief it won't be the nightmare that it would have been two months ago. That's when I saw the old basket for washing baby stuff in the dishwasher. While I have used it to wash other small items this year, I certainly don't need it with any regularity. There is no reason for it to sit within arm's reach on the counter. It is time for it to be put away, in the pantry, where we don't need a baby gate any more.

This morning I am sitting downstairs relishing this gorgeous cup of tea while typing these words and Max is upstairs playing with something or other (probably not breaking anything I care about) while Jeff takes his shower. I can hear Max's happy chatting and I know that he is having a good time. His independent play was another change to get used to. Sometimes he wants a playmate and other times I need to stay out of the way and let him do his thing, it's a balancing act but I'm getting better at reading his cues.

As a creature of habit that abhors change I've found this constant change to be unnerving at times, but it shows no signs of stopping, so I best get used to it.

Swimmin Hole

Max has really enjoyed his backyard pool today.

Backyard Hose Chase

Yes, I almost immediately lost control of the situation. He was conveniently positioned between me and the faucet.