The "New" Rule

Many thanks, everyone, for your congratulations on the Amazing Lace, and special thanks to the hostesses, Rachel and Theresa. They came up with a lot of great challenges and reminded us to have fun with our knitting. I think the incredible imagination that was shown in all of the entries is testament to how much knitters took to heart the spirit of the game.

Thanks, also, to everyone who suggested where I might find my missing toe. While no one pointed me to exactly what I seemed to recall at the back of my mind, SJ and ev and Ozknitter recommended the wide toe in Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. The photos and the directions for that toe leave a little to be desired, but in the end I was able to come up with something that matched what I was remembering.


Forgive the wonky picture -- the only way I could get a decent shot was to put the sock on my hand. Turns out that to achieve the effect I wanted, I merely had to align the stitches differently prior to grafting. Um, yeah ... duh.

I am one of those strange people who likes to Keep Track of things. I make lists of all sorts of stupid things, which I usually ignore, and I count rows while I knit. It makes me happy. Yes, I'm strange. The bad part is that I tend to cast on while I'm upstairs and make careful notes of the yarn and needles. Then I rip the page out of my notebook because I tend to knit away downstairs. I take it all back upstairs to turn the heel, back downstairs for the foot, and upstairs again to finish the toe. It may end up travelling around with me, or not. When I'm done, I end up with crumpled, little grease and/or coffee stained pieces of paper which I then just throw into a drawer in my desk. For future reference, you know.


It is time to get a little more organized. This is my new record keeping system.


Yes, it's another doo-dad, and yes, I have BLUE index cards :-)

I am still suffering from startitis. I present to you a fistful of UFOs.


I have decided that in order to curb what is starting to turn into an annoying habit, I must institute a "New" rule. Because I'm not really into the whole Deprivation Thing, my "New" rule says that I can still cast on whatever I want, whenever I want, but before I start something New, I must first take a photo of the yarn. A decent photo. That means I need decent light and the camera batteries must be charged. No more spur-of-the-moment, 10:30-at-night cast-ons. Other than the socks above, and the mate to the sock up top, if you see sockly evidence without seeing the yarn in its "natural" state, you have my permission to yell at me. Nicely, of course, but still ... keep me in line, eh? Besides, it will be interesting to compare how the yarn looks in the ball or hank with the finished product.

In the Other News Department, I have started my scarf for the International Scarf Exchange. It's now about a foot long, but here's a shot of it in its infancy.