Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Muppet Blanket Has to Go

That's right. The stole I was knitting from this:

was committing the double offense of being too muppety and I was going to run out of yarn before it was long enough. It's gone. I'm going to try again later.

I have other things in the works. Because I finished the December sock club socks yesterday, it is time to start the January sock club socks. I suppose I'll wind the yarn and read the pattern today.

Also, I'm getting somewhere on the mirror-image ribbed socks:

I'm also working on a lace scarf. I'm pretty sure I suck at lace, you know, the real stuff made from the super-fine yarn, but Yarn Harlot says all lace looks like ass until it's blocked. My lace so far looks like ass but it isn't blocked, so I am going forward blindly with the faith that it will all turn out fine in the end.

And here are some plain socks for The Man, with yarn he thinks is red, posed next to the daffodils, such as they are:

That yarn ain't red, but don't tell him.

Hooray, I mean, Damn!, I mean, Hooray!

And so we're sitting around the sunroom, loading some stuff on my IPOD, and there is a big thump. Kirby:

a) doesn't notice.

b) freaks out and flees the room to hide under something.

If you guessed (b), you are correct. The Man investigates, and in the process of that, discovers a package for me on the front porch:

I have posed it on the deck on top of the special dog poop can where, as you might have guessed, we keep the dog poop until it can go out in the weekly garbage. This reflects my non-joy upon receiving it.

What is it? Surely you can all see the sock club logo on the address label. It is the March sock club sock. I am not happy. I really wanted to finish the December sock club socks before the March sock club socks arrived. By half of one row and a frakking* bind-off, I failed:

So close. So very close. I was going to finish last night while we were watching Lost, but I was engrossed, and the last row is a ripply pattern that requires enough concentration to count accurately, which I cannot do when I am engrossed in something else. So I did not finish the sock last night, and, well, I guess I have another failure to add to my list. Sniff.

That's OK, I decide, because there is a lot of basketball today, which means good knitting time. My team is not playing, sadly, but the Blue Devils are. I have more than 20 years' experience listening to TV announcers fawn over the saintliness and perfection of the Blue Devils and the Very Large Ferret who coaches them (and the two sniveling ex-player assistant coaches, in which company I do NOT include Johnny Dawkins, who really is a god) ....... whew! long sentence! Where was I? ...... OK fawning, Blue Devils, oh yeah! nothing to get engrossed in there, so this is an opportunity to finish. I WON'T open the package until I finish the January sock club sock.

And so I finish the December sock club socks:

Pretty colors, hmmmm? Sock 2 is a little longer in the foot than Sock 1 because I couldn't read when I was knitting Sock 1. That explains why I ended up with the wrong number of stitches for Sock 1 when it was time to turn the heel. What did I do when I discovered my error?

a. Ripped it all back and started over, cursing that I had ever been born, and wondering how I could possibly have turned out to be so stupid.

b. Accepted imperfection and moved on because nobody will ever notice but me, and embracing imperfection is a triumphant step in the direction of personal growth.

You may now return to the top of the page to complete the quiz.

Nice wave pattern on the foot, eh?

Nice texture on the cuff and nice ripply edge, don't you think? Hey, I just knitted it. I didn't design it.

And now I am feeling more at peace with myself and with the United States Postal Service and I decide that refusing to even open the March sock club sock until the January sock club sock is finished is a stuppid idea that does not contribute to personal growth or my well-being. I opened it:

Green. My favorite color.

* I would like to thank the writers and producers of Battlestar Gallactica for giving the world a new non-dirty cuss word that I can use with impunity.

Bunny's On-deck Circle

Remember this?

All of that yarn is now socks. The chewed-up Lorna's Laces in the middle became the monkey socks:

The tofu yarn in front became The Man's tofu socks:

The two balls of Pace on the right became the Fair Isle socks:

Isn't Yarn Bandit handsome? No sun today, so he isn't bothering to climb on the sofas in search of sunny spots.

The two hanks of Cherry Tree Hill became the ribbed socks:

But wait! There's more! Please to observe that there was enough leftover Cherry Tree Hill (I think) to do another pair of turquoise socks with contrasting cuff, heel, and toe:

That only took, what?, five months?

The ribbed socks are done. I think I have enough yarn left to do a mirror-image pair. Ribbing doesn't go as quickly, but it is more forgiving in fit.


Plus, Lookie lookie what I found in the stash!

I totally forgot I had this! So pretty. So soft. So plush. I'm making this into a stole. I'm a little worried that it's turning out a bit muppety, but I'm going to do a little more before I pass judgment.