d'oh!mestic

I just realized (stupidly) that I do not have enough yarn to finish the first pair of the Six Socks.

That ball, and a slightly smaller ball in my knitting bag, is it. Damn it.

Of course, this is hallmark me. I always manage to dip into my stash to start a project without much thought beyond “how fast can I get this baby on my needles?” and not much in the way of what you’d call foresight, or planning, or common sense.

And thinking back to the project which added this yarn to the stash, I recall that I had made a desperate lunchtime dash to the yarn store to see if they even had any left because I was short, and this yarn? This yarn that you see here? That. Was. It.

I’m weighing my options. I could make another desperate yarn store dash in hopes of finding another, hidden hank that had been previously overlooked, or I could start scrounging around online (and pay shipping, yuck), or I could improvise. Or I could just buy more yarn and actually do it right this time.

Desperate lunchtime dash it is.

Damn it.

Ice bat was helping with the first of the Six Socks!, because he’s good like that.

And look, even though I can’t have a lime green workspace in Maine, at least I can have a lime green needle pot.

Baby steps. Baby steps.

I finished the last of the Capt’n's nerdtastic nerd knitting (knerd?) nerdy birthday present. And I think I’m going to wait and let him post a picture of his Megatron Socks and then swipe it, because I am just that petty, and his photos are better anyway.

But in order to finish the Megatron Socks (to partner with the Optimus Prime socks I finished a month ago), I had to swing by the yarn store, and while I was there, I picked up a skein for a hat for a friend’s child, and then I paused to consider some other yarn, because I thought it might be most excellent to knit socks for everyone for Christmas.

Except for the Capt’n. And dear Mum. Those two got socks for their birthdays, the Capt’n doubly so. They’ve been socked enough.

But.

That still leaves two daddies and a mama-in-law. That’s six socks. At a week a sock, that gives me just enough time to finish a hat for a little girl before I launch into panic mode.

And then? I may never knit again.

Awesomeness came last week in the form of my co-worker Cheryl, who requested a pair of socks for her two-year-old daughter, Anna. It’s the first time someone’s commissioned a project from me, and I was thrilled to comply.

I ended up modifying the Thuja sock pattern from Knitty for a toddler — because I like to run patterns into the ground — using the Queensland Collection Kathmandu DK in 429.

Heartachingly sweet, aren’t they?

Anna’s Socks

Cast on 32 onto size 4 DPN

Work in K1 P1 for eight rounds
Work in seed stitch for eight rounds, ending on a seed round.
Divide for the heel — 16 stitches
Work the heel pattern for 12 passes.

Turn the heel:
Knit 9, ssk, K1, turn
Slip 1, Purl within 7 of end, P2 together, P1, turn
Repeat until ten stitches remain*

Pick up ten stitches along both sides of the gusset, and divide the heel so that needles 1 and 3 have 15 stitches each.

Gusset:
Round one:
Needle 1 — Knit to last 3 stitches, k2t, knit.
Needle 2 — Continue seed stitch
Needle 3 — K1, ssk, knit to end

Round two: knit all

Gusset until 8 stitches remain on needles one and three. Continue knitting until sock measures 1 1/4″ shorter than desired length.

Beginning the toe:
Round One:
Needle 1 — Knit to last 3 stitches, k2t, knit.
Needle 2 — K1, ssk, knit to last 3 stitches, k2t, knit.
Needle 3 — K1, ssk, knit to end

Round Two: knit

Continue until 8 stitches remain. Knit stitches on Needle 1 to Needle three, knit around once more and graft toes.

* I can never remember to count stitches when I’m turning the heel. I always just look for the turn gap in the yarn. If you get stuck, e-mail me and I’ll try to help.

*~*~*~*

In other news, it is cool enough to wear boots to work, and I’m thrilled. Not quite as thrilled with the five minutes it took digging around in the shoe closet to find a pair of matching boots, but hell. Boots is boots.

This is how rockin’, married hipsters spend their weeknights. Or how THIS rockin’ married hipster spends her weeknights: knitting and Star Trek.

The Capt’n long lamented my disinterest in the different franchises — I didn’t moon over the original series, I hadn’t seen any of the movies, I self-identified as a Star Wars girl — but we have to remember that when the Capt’n was merely a cadet, he won Nickelodeon Super Slinky Star Trek Saturday trivia contest and was somewhat biased. I was redeemed only when I was able to identify Next Generation episodes within 30 seconds of tuning in, a skill developed in college.

For years, I basked in my Star Trek ignorance. It was one of those comedic barbs. Star Trek IV? Wasn’t that the one with the whales?

However, during this past winter — where it actually snowed, how do you midwesterners stand it? — Spike started rerunning Star Trek Voyager, the Capt’n started Tivoing it, and somehow I got sucked into the Star Trek vortex.

And then, when I started knitting in the round, there was the inevitable comparison of the shape of the sock with the shape of the letter which gives that quadrant its particular designation and now I can’t think of it any other way.

We’re going through the second cycle of episodes, first so I could catch up with the ones I hadn’t paid attention to the first time around, and then to just see the fucking crew get home. Again. Because, y’know, this time they might not make it.

In seven seasons, I have completed a cardigan, a baby’s afghan, five socks and half a scarf. Not bad for a lesser series.

We’re pulling into the station with the last batch of episodes before (OHEMGEESPOILERS!)  Admiral Janeway blows the Borg out of the galaxy, and then we’ll go back to a more mainstream passive entertainment schedule with “Heroes” and “How I Met Your Mother” and maaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe “Grey’s Anatomy” if I can stomach it. I’ll still knit. It’ll just be slightly less nerdy.

And that’s kind of sad.

At the beginning of the year — right around the big-assed snowstorm that flipped New Mexico the bird and dumped 18″ in my back yard — I took up knitting again.

Not that I hadn’t not been knitting, really, but I had fallen into a one-pattern rut for the previous (cough) five years, churning out different sizes of the same afghan over and over again.

Capt’n Husband suggested I try socks. “I’ve always wanted a nice pair of cozy socks knit just for me.”

So I learned how to knit socks from the intarwebs, and the first pair of socks were kind of a disaster — they looked like the big, doofy not-really-tube tube socks of my early adolescence — but I did figure out this whole double point needle thing, and I was able to suss out that the wonkiness of my stockinette stitch came from knitting through the back loop at all times.

And you wonder why I’m calling this blog “D’oh!Mestic.”

Once I got my knitting issues sorted out, I spent time searching the intarwebs for a slightly sexier pattern that wouldn’t require too much from me, skillwise. The Thuja socks from the Winter 2005 edition of Knitty seemed like a winner.

Ensign Sarah’s Thuja Sock

• Yarn — Artyarn Superwash merino #135.
• Mistakes — About six that I can see, all of them minor.
• Probability of holding up through three wearings — 7 in 10.
• Time to completion — 7ish hours over two days.

I really like the way the pattern has turned out, and I’m fond of the orange, too. Now it’s just a matter of finishing its mate.