Wherein I give my doctor knitting lessons

I nearly died today in the doctor's office. I was sitting there waiting for my appt., knitting away on my latest project, which I will avoid talking about as it is an experiment. Anyway, suffice it to say that it involves socks, circular needles and cable needles.

At this point, I will have to admit that I always put the cable needle in my mouth when I'm using it repetitively. That way, it's easily accessible and I know where it is. One unfortunate side-effect of this is that I occasionally forget it's there and will wander around with said cable needle still in my mouth even when I'm not actually knitting. I do recognize that I will have to change this habit should I ever actually make it out of the apartment with the cable needle still in my mouth. That could prove slightly embarrassing and potentially dangerous - at least if you know my track record. See bit about me being at doctor's office.

Anyway, me with cable needle in mouth, doctor walks in to get the next patient and spies cable needle. Drops everything to ask me what it is. I gave a quick explanation and she moved on. The other patient had to have some sort of test or something where the docs presence wasn't needed, so she marches back into the waiting room, sits down and asks me to show here what I use it for. At this point, the receptionist hears the word cable needle and runs in to see what it is as she has never seen one and does a lot of cabling. She always used a dpn which always falls out. She will be buying cable needles in the near future. So, back to doctor, I explain how and why a cable needle gets used and demonstrate. Then she starts asking why I'm using circulars and why there are "four" needles, so I explain this as well. The assistant again chimes in that she uses circulars for sweaters (me nodding in total agreement) but has never seen socks knit on circulars and how do you do this. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to explain all of this, but I foresee further questions the next time I go.

Who'd have thunk an American who has been knitting for 1.5 years would be teaching Swiss people (one of whom has knit for years) how to knit socks on circular needles and what cable needles are. Tee Hee! That was fun!

Jaywalkers

OK, I restarted the Jaywalkers using the 2mm needles and not only do I hate knitting them, but again they are too bloody small. Can't even get them over my heel without having to tug mightily. I think I need to give this up for the moment. I think I might try them again later with another type of yarn that suits the pattern better and is easy to knit, i.e. with thicker yarn. It's just not doing anything for me in this cotton and it's so thin that it's quite difficult to get the dd done without dropping stitches. This means I get to rip out another 2 evenings knitting. Bugger. Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger.

More Socks

Another Christmas pressie down! Finished Grandma's cotton socks, partially thanks to thepinksheep. I got most of the foot done while chatting to her last night. It was fun! Must do that again, yes?. I have to mention here that William was being an absolute doll while Mommy was on the phone. He gurgled a lot in the background, and fussed just a bit, but otherwise was as good as gold. *pinches Williams cheeks* Oh he's so going to hate me when he gets older! Anyway, the socks are done. The pics are pre-washing, so they still look a bit wonky. I need to get a plastic foot or something to model my socks. It's impossible to get a good pic while wearing them, especially when you cannot bend your knee. Just for the record, the colour is truer in the upper picture. For some reason it all went blue when I got closer to it. Probably just the cheap camera.

I also got my new needles, so I can work on several pair at one time. I've restarted the Jaywalkers and will need to start a new pair of normal socks this week before I make any phone calls. Knitting during physio is not really possible since I've moved on to ultrasound therapy and I do that myself. I can still get a bit done while I've got the electric thingy hooked up, but not much.

Speaking of knees, I think I might have re-injured it a bit on the bike at physio today. It hurts and the joint has more fluid in it again. I can't bend it as much as I could yesterday.

I think I'm going t continue to float along on socks for the moment and see if inspiration hits at some point. I might come up with something I don't need new yarn for. Maybe.

Jaywalkers

I just ripped out a whole evening's worth of sock. I started on the Jaywalkers with size 3mm needles and decided I really didn't like it. Too loose. I've now CO again with size 2, but I'll have to wait until my new needles get here before knitting them. Not that this means a great loss of time since I'm going to go get DH tomorrow and will not be knitting until that's been read anyway. So basically, if they get here tomorrow, I might start knitting them on Sun.

Just as info, I did order shorter ones this time. The ones I'm using now are 100cm and they fling around a bit when pulling them through. This explains how I managed to stab myself in the eye. They basically flung themselves in. The new ones are only 80cm, so less chance of that happening. Note, I said less, not no chance.

Oh, and for anyone who's reading this and doesn't know me, I only knit on circulars (continental style). I don't see the point in having both types of needles. Plus, I kept whacking the cat with the straights and was beginning to be afraid of kitten brain damage.

Off to physio soon where I will continue to look odd while knitting and doing physio simultaneously. Oh well, you should never pretend to be what you aren't anyway.

OK, in a desperate bid to solve my "not knowing what to knit" dilemma, I've ordered more sock needles. Smart, wasn't it? There is a method to the madness though. This way, I can not only have one set of telephone/doctor/physio socks, I can have Jaywalker or similar on the needles for when I'm craving something other than ribbing.

Never, ever give someone a pair of hand knit socks.

Last year, my aunt swore to kingdom come that she could not wear wool socks. They're itchy she said. She has sensitive skin, she said. Ergo, I knit some for my grandmother, who I knew would wear them. Then, I asked my uncle if he would wear my first ever pair of socks which turned out too big for me. He snatched them up (mostly because they were from me, but I digress). My aunt picked them up, looked at them, and said "these aren't itchy. I rather like these". So, I knit her a pair while I was there AND she absconded with the ones I gave my uncle as they were too warm for him. Meantime, my grandmother is telling me that she has worn hers five days in a row and doesn't want to wash them because then she can't wear them any more. This means that I need to do more for grandmother and more for my aunt, plus socks for me ('cause I need them as Switzerland gets a bit colder than California EVER will). Then I found the cotton ones and made a pair for Uncle as a replacement for the too warm ones confiscated by Aunt. Grandmother and Aunt will want a pair too. Ergo, I've become a sock knitting hor. Now if I get the second set of needles, I'll finish them even quicker. Nice logic, eh?

I'm still hankering to do another sweater. Someone please tell me I'm too poor to do this. Maybe I could do Dad's Sweater again only a size larger. I almost have enough yarn left over for that. I'd only need another 10 skeins at $3 a skein. Wonder if they still have the same dye lot...

Well, there's always the dog sweater to look forward to. Got to do one for Aunt's dog. Don't ask. It's not pretty. It's a duty thing. At least she's not a Great Dane. I'd need more wool for them than for Dad.

At a Loss

Oh dear. Now that Dad's sweater is done, I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to start next. I'd love to do myself an aran sweater, but can't really afford it at the moment. I am doing socks. I've always got socks on nowadays for phone/doc/physio time. I used to be a one project person, but that changed when I started doing more complicated things that I need to concentrate on, i.e. cannot knit in public for fear of suddenly and loudly spewing expletives when I've made a mistake (20 rows back). I mean, it's bad enough when I mess up the gusset on a sock during my physio sessions, if I tried to take an aran project, they'd wind up banning me from every medical facility in Switzerland as a precautionary measure for the other patient's safety.

I'm going to have to go delve in my stash to see what I feel like knitting. Maybe I'll do a few hats for charity or something until I figure out what to do. Can't go wrong there, can you?

Dad's Sweater

PICT0145.jpg
Originally uploaded by canootles

RE: Pic - Don't ask what the white blobs are, because I don't know. It must have something to do with that picture because they aren't on the original sweater. I just cannot be bothered now to try and get another decent photo.

I've done it. I've actually finished Dad's sweater. It remains to be seen if it will fit and if it does, if he'll wear it. He can be more than a bit picky, but I've done my best for him. Why do men have to be so difficult in their simplicity?

I'm still hoping that it will expand a little with washing and blocking. The picture of me wearing it shows that it's a but I can wear his stuff as we sadly have the same stature at the moment. Should it expand, then at least I can be fairly certain that the size is correct. Should it not expand, I'll just have to pray he likes his sweaters tightish.

I only had the thing on for a few minutes myself but it was quite warm. However, it's STILL 80° F outside (11:45 pm), that might skew the warmth factor. I'll have to try it when it's colder out. Still, I don't think anyone living where he does should need a warmer sweater than that, ever.

I've also finished Aunt N's cotton socks. They are a little on the small side, but then she has extremely narrow feet, so that should be OK. I've started working on Grandma's, which will be the same size, but she has chicken legs and my feet are swollen from the heat anyway, so all should be well on that front.

Sorry if this wasn't as entertaining as I would have liked it to be, but I'm still struggling a bit with the knee and am pressed for sitting time. Plus, it's late and I'm tired, so all entertaining thoughts have been drained away from my brain, hopefully for use another day.

New Blog

Because I don't already have enough accounts, blogs, groups etc. I'm starting a new one. This one is just for knitting, however, which is starting to take up more and more of my time. Actually, what am I doing in here when I could be finishing off that sweater? :P