The Tale of the Traveling Sock Part 1

Crossing over the Mississippi into Illisnois. Just into Indiana. Coming into Ohio.

Coming into Pennsylvania. Coming into New York. And finally into Vermont.

Somewhere in New York I decided to start doing calf shaping in order to use up all of the yarn. There isn't much of the colored stuff left but still quite a bit of black so we'll see. I really didn't think I'd get this much sock knit. Crazy!!!

June Socks

The June Socks are finished. They seem so big. I really hope they fit my dad. The measurements are right. This was Opal Fantasie on size 1s toe up. The stripes don't match. When I split the ball I didn't realize how weird the striping was. Ah well. They are still pretty neat looking.
For July I will be doing some traveling socks. The Plan is to only knit on these socks in the car. We have a few long drives ahead of us and I'd like to believe I can finish at least one sock in the car. It started this past weekend when I rode with a friend and her two kids to Columbia MO for the MO La Leche League Conference. What you see is the toe and was knit on the way to Columbia. Coming home I had a migraine and couldn't knit.

Very Berry

I've been busy doing things with all of those Strawberries and Raspberries.

I made five jars of Strawberry Jam, three jars of Raspberry Preserve and one odd Strawberry/Raspberry Jamserve because there was extra from both.


I tried out a recipe for Raspberry Stuffed French Toast. This was the breakfast that almost wasn't, we lost power while it was baking. Yes, baking French toast, odd but it was very good. Also a Raspberry Sauce on top that was later used in a smoothie.

I made the yearly Strawberry Corn Muffins. So yummy in the morning with some butter or cream cheese or just by themselves.

Strawberry Ice Cream. I haven't made homemade ice cream in a while. Mostly I've been fearful of making my own dairy free ice cream. Mr. Gnome said it was very good Before he found out it was dairy free.

And last but certainly not least Strawberry Shortcake. Mr.

Gnome's mom makes Strawberry Shortcake so this is a childhood favorite for him.

This is only some of the things we've done with the berries. There have been berries on salads, in cereal, in smoothies and mostly just in our mouths.

It's not me

When I finished the sixth repeat of AeRang I decided to do some math to make sure I'd have enough yarn for another repeat and the edging. After much math I came to the conclusion that, no, I would not have the yarn for the seventh repeat. Full of pride for thinking so far in advance I started the edging chart. It looked weird. Not at all good. Weird and wonky and, really should that be there? Then after working across the row there were too many stitches, or too few depending on your state of being. I did more math. There was no way the number of stitches in the edging repeat was going to go into the actual number of stitches on the needle. The stitches on the needle were in fact correct.
All of this took almost two nights and an entire page a paper. Finally I got online and looked on Ravelry. Everyone who's done this pattern says the edge repeat is screwed up. The designer says it's screwed up. All that patting myself on the back for thinking ahead about yarn quantity and I never checked to see how others and fared and rated this pattern. sigh
I am now doing the seventh repeat and have reworked the end half of the chart so there will be solid triangles like on the top and down the middle. In theory. I also do no know how big this shawl Should be. Bearing in mind that I'm working more repeats and using thicker yarn. A vague starting idea would be nice. That blob at the top is a little smaller than my lap. This may be a large shawl. Oh sweet mystery of knitting.

Strawberries and Raspberries

It's fruit picking time again!

The plans for these guys include salads, jam, muffins and of course just munching.

Tie Dye

Last weekend we went to the annual tie dye potluck.

I'm mostly happy with them. The spiral has more white than I'd prefer. The Bug Likes them and that is what matters.