Washed my needle

See how clean it is?

Yes, I do see that my keyboard could use what my Aunt June calls the once over.

This is what I decided to do with the too small sock. I know it looks like some of my overworked knitting where I frog and reknit all over the place, but it's actually a pattern. I thought I ought to make one from the Six Sox Knit Along since I joined it more than 6 months ago. The pattern is called The Best of Both Worlds, or BOBW. I haven't read the whole pattern, but so far it seems like it's just starting in the middle exactly as I've thought about doing it myself. You can see the reddish yarn of the provisional cast on. I was hoping it would be more exciting, but I'm not dissatisfied. I cast on 72 instead of 64, decreased down to 68 using the gusset, and I worked a pattern on the part of the cast on rows that would become the instep. Here's a link to the Six Sox Knit Along. N You have to join in order to access the patterns. A new pattern is put out every other month. Members can post about patterns as much as they like, but must post only two pictures for each design, one of the sock(s) in progress and one of the completed socks. Some of the designs are fairly plain or fairly odd, but a lot of them are really clever or pretty. You can see most or all of them on Ravelry. N

Bloggy Good News

I bought a New Camera!!! And it works! Woo Hoo! Accurate colors! What a treat. It was cheaper than my last crummy one even.

And here are the Packer socks all done. I've actually worn them once already.

The yarn is ArtYarns Ultramerino. Here's a big novelty: I paid full price for it at the 2nd most expensive local yarn store because the Packer colors are such a hot seller. The pattern is called Bloody Mary. I didn't name it. Here it is on Ravelry. I love how the colors land on the original. The colors on mine didn't change as often, but I do like them.

And pictured below I present a flop. I was really enjoying the yarn and the pattern. It only took 2 evenings to get this far. I really should have tried it on sooner. I can't get it over my heel. Now the question is what to do next. Add some stitches to the pattern; get bigger needles? I haven't had this happen before. I must be knitting the yarn too tightly. It's 40% cotton, 40% wool, 13% fake, 7% elastic. The seven percent solution works for me about as well as it did for Sherlock.

Norberta

I'm still knitting, but I've lost my camera (again). That's why I haven't been posting. I did take some pictures of my last finished object at work using a work camera last week. Happily, it's a much better camera than mine. I can't even complain that the color isn't right. I finally found the time to e-mail the photos to myself today. It's been cuckoo at work. I have to keep changing all my appointments and driving all over town because of work stuff. My car is starting to feel like it's falling apart. It doesn't seem like it's the potholes. We've got another bumper crop this year. The car is 2 years older than the cats and the cats are starting to show their age. I love my cats. I like how they drape themselves on me when I compute. I don't like when they can't find a good spot, though. The kneading of and the getting hooked in cloth of the claws and the standing on the precise painful spot on the hip bone--that I hate. Really, really hate. Fickle, moi?

So this is my Norberta. Actually, it's our youngest Harry Potter fan's Norberta because it was her birthday present. If you go and visit the Norbertas on Ravelry, you will see that many other knitters complained about how hard the sewing up was. That was true for me also. The arms and legs were especially hard to position. I think I may have omitted a step on the legs that would have made them more leggish and easier to attach, but I like them anyway. By the time I got to attaching the legs I was done reading the pattern. It was the home stretch. The only big modification I made was the tail. I'm not sure why, but the original was really short, more of a squib than a tail. Maybe I misread the pattern. It was the classic case of knowing that something isn't right, yet going ahead and trying to "trust the process" but having to frog and reknit even though you've got the body stuffed and the chassis nearly complete. The new tail could have been upturned somewhat to lay better, but even I wasn't about to redo it again. Hey, it's not easy to frog 2 strands of boucle from the cast-on edge. (It helps if you read the last line as Rodney Dangerfield.) If I make another Norberta, I would try to remember to add a couple of extra rows to the head because the undercarriage is knit in garter stitch, which makes it a little too long for the nose. That's why Norberta's neck glands look swollen.

Norberta takes over the planet.

Hear her roar.

A little scoliosis won't deter Norberta!

No real dragon has a body like a model. Models are actually freaks of nature. And the skin? Please, it's all air-brushed.

I love myself because I am green enough and fat enough and crusty enough. I love myself because I am green enough, and fat enough, and crusty enough. I love myself because I am gre . . .