The Cruelest Month

Just a quick report to remind you (and myself) that I'm still a knitter. I just can't seem to get going on anything, and I've got so many demands on my time. Our house has been chosen to be on our chorus' annual spring garden tour (scroll down the page for details) and lately my weekends have been consumed with vain attempts to make our yard worthy. Frackin' weeds. I have no idea how our yard will stack up next to the others -- all I know is that the other houses are somewhere in our general part of town. But it's not a competition, right? If anyone is interested, I can set you up with tickets. I understand that most of the yards are quite nice -- a great way to get ideas for your yard if you're horticulturally inclined.

I have managed to make some progress on the Classic Socks. This is my first pair of socks made with the magic loop method, and I'm finding it pretty easy. I still have wonky stitches sometimes when I switch from one side to the other, but using the magic loop is only slightly different than using two circular needles. I've been using DPNs for a long time, but this might be my new sock thing. We'll see.

I like the twisted stitch pattern on the cuff. If you've ever done that baby cable rib, where you k2t and then knit the first stitch before dropping both off the needle -- well, that's what's going on here. Only you do it a different number of times and in different sequences so that you get the slanting effect. It's pretty easy and visually cool.

I'm sloggin' along on the clogs. I've finished the first one knittingwise. I still have to sew up the seams down the center of the sole. I'm a little stymied on this. The instructions simply require that I "sew the seams," but the way I want to do it leaves a noticeable ridge which would run right down the center of my foot. I realize this is all going to get felted, but felting won't make an extra thick ridge down the sole go away, will it? I started a seam three or four times yesterday. I'm going to ruminate on this for a while. I know some of my readers have tackled this before -- feel free to chime in with your advice and experiences.

This picture kind of cracked me up, because the ridge around the sole of the foot is called a "bumper" in the pattern, a kind of ridge the offsets the instep from the sole. I thought that this picture made the clog look like a bumper car, especially with the chair upright that seems to be coming out of the back of the clog. I don't remember being particularly fond of bumper cars as a kid, but I do remember standing in line to ride them and seeing a sign that read "No Bumping." No kidding. I also remember that this "rule" was rather laxly enforced.