Triple the fun

So I haven’t been on much lately, with my oldest heading to college in the fall and five younger siblings keeping me on my toes, I’ve been busy.  Not so busy that I haven’t been knitting just not as much as usual.  (I might be a little distracted by Pokemon too).  But I have three good reasons to buckle down and knit non-stop.  We are just weeks away from my best friends scheduled c-section for triplets.  Baby knitting times three…I am having fun buying yarn and knitting little items.  Three little girls, two are identical, third might be too but we won’t know until after they are born.  So exciting. So here is what I’m working on right now.

Perfect fit newborn socks
Love the stretchy fit of the socks, now to finish this pair and make two more pairs.

Comfort

Today is rough.  Life is catching up to me and has me down.  So today I knit for comfort.  Feeling the stitches roll off the needles makes me feel as though I am accomplishing something amidst the mounds of failures that hit like a brick wall.  Rehabilitation is a slow process when I am coming back from being down for so long.  It’s hard to find satisfaction in the small steps forward.  It’s hard to see progress.  Sometimes my knitting matches my mood, today it does.  I am plugging away at my two-at-a-time socks.  Maybe if I can make progress my day won’t feel so unsuccessful. 

 

Tired

I have to admit something.  I haven’t posted in awhile because I haven’t knitted much lately, simply because I am too tired most days to knit.  This road to recovery is a slow bumpy road.  Small setbacks, sore muscles, fitting my prosthetic–all things that have made this a difficult time to write without depressing rants….I will try to keep this depressing rant short.  I am still around working on a pair of socks and a hat, it’s just slow going at the moment.  Today is a beautiful snow day and I get to knit and enjoy a movie, and update my blog.  I will enjoy today, even if I had to cancel my last rehab appointment.  Only one more to go then a home program and later I will return to therapy to get running again.  Now I just need to light my fire, pick up my knitting and enjoy my movie.

If only I had to sets of hands to speed up my knitting 🙂  

Pretending to be Patient

I may seem patient on the outside, but I am full of anxiety, excitement, and anticipation as I wait for my new prosthetic leg.  It has been a long summer, knitting has distracted me for the most part, but always there  are nagging emotions just waiting to explode.  In less than a week, I get my test socket.  School has started life is falling into a routine and I wait.  One more week and I can take normal steps, probably just a few as my stump toughens up.  I want to watch my boys run cross-country, walking from checkpoint to checkpoint cheering them on rather than sitting in a wheelchair or riding a scooter.  I hate being dependent on others and actually look forward to cleaning my house.  But I can’t yet, soon.  I wait and knit.  I am finishing some projects, things I lined up before surgery to give me purpose through the recovery process.  Socks, pillows, washcloths and hanging towels have been most of my projects.  Now if only the anticipation didn’t weigh so heavy on me, I might enjoy them.  For now, they are just a distraction as I pretend to be patient.

Casting my leg so my prosthetic can be made, less than a week until my test socket is finished. 
  

Procrastination

What I should be doing is getting my home ready for my 8 weeks in a wheelchair but instead I’m typing after a day of knitting.  I am nervous and dreading the impending pain as I avoid thinking about my surgery to remove my right lower leg.  A year from now will be great with many more opportunities than I have now but having most of my foot amputated already makes me just too aware of the process.  So I knit.  Anklets, two at a time and toe up.  The color is cheerful and bold.  Maybe a little boldness in color will keep me bold in spirit as I put off my  preparations.  Just a few more days….Tuesday morning my summer of rest begins.

   

Wednesday’s socks

 

Toe Up

I decided to get Knit Picks Fancy Feet Anklets.  It is the first time I have tried toe up socks.  My first pair I used smaller needles and some yarn on hand to make a pair for my daughter.  I knew my daughter has smaller but thicker feet.  Now I am starting another pair on larger needles and Knit Picks Stroll Sock Yarn.   I really like how soft and stretchy the stroll yarn is versus Deborah Norville’s Serenity Sock Weight.  I do like the convenience of picking up serenity at JoAnn’s but the color and texture of stroll yarn is superior.  This has been my purely for pleasure distressing knitting, unlike the gifts I’m working on for family.  I don’t think I will ever tire of learning new techniques.  I even ordered, The Knitter’s Book of Socks.  Great book!  I originally saw it at my local yarn shop, but couldn’t afford to spend that much but when I was putting together my order on Knit Picks I couldn’t resist the 40% price tag.   I read through chapter after chapter breaking down socks right down to the fiber.  Love learning new details about my latest obsession.  It’s a good thing I sell enough to feed my knitting addiction!

  

Wooly summer

So I am making a pair of wool socks, an early birthday gift, for my dad.  I have already made wool socks for my brother, sister and mother.  My dads birthday falls in July and I know that I never think of wool socks in the summer, so I checked it out.  I googled it. Yup, I googled “wool socks in summer” or something like that.  Right away expensive wool socks pop up, exhorting the superiority of wool verses cotton socks.  Because the wool wicks away moisture, runners or athletes feet remain comfortable.  I think wool socks will become a regular gift from me.  Of course for the summer months I am going to stick with smaller needles and finer yarn so the socks will be thinner socks.

My first summer dress socks for my dad

  

The pattern I am using,

Hedge row socks

Sock scraps

   For a long time the sock scrap pattern that is popular on ravelry has caught my eye.  I finally decided to use my scraps from my sock knitting binge I have been on the last few months.  I looked up patterns, two caught my eye.  I looked at the samples from people’s projects.  Wow!  Thousands of blankets have been knit.  I found a knitters notes on the pattern and her blanket had such crisp lines. 

    I have taken her advice and started my squares.  I love the results.  This is going to be fun to watch take shape and to have evidence of the socks somewhere other than a basket.  I tend to give away the socks i knit so having a blanket with a piece of each will be fun.

This is the pattern I chose

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sock-yarn-blanket

And this is the example I loved

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/PrairiePiper/sock-yarn-blanket

  

Socks and Spring

Spring is sneaking up on me just as I am really getting in a great groove knitting socks.  By the time I finish my planned socks projects, those receiving them are going to be thinking of spring and summer.  Oh well, I have never been great at knitting in season.  I will probably be working on my summer projects well into fall and my Christmas projects well into January.  Oh well, at least I am enjoying the knitting. 

My current project



Frustration

So I decided after the last pair of two-at-a-time socks to give another pair a try. Some of the patterns go against my “OCD” nature to adjust for the two-at-a-time. I matched the socks beautifully, or so I thought. When it became apparent that there was a repeat in the color way that I wasn’t aware of and the medium size was working up larger than I liked, I frogged it. Well, starting fresh and trying to match the color way was incredibly annoying but I did it.

It obviously didn’t work and is making me go insane. I am a seasoned enough knitter that even my husband understands to get the matching dye lot so there is no contrast. I have checked and rechecked and the dye lots match. So I am just going to knit these socks to unmatch. I am still frustrated.