RIP Molybdenum, 2007- March 2009

I got an email from my mom a couple of days ago telling me that one of our rats had died. She had a mass in her stomach after a fall, and the vet wasn't sure if it was cancer or a ruptured spleen, but either way she was getting into her golden years and the surgery would have affected her quality of life too much to be worth it. My mom told me this afternoon that it turns out that it was a ruptured spleen, caused by Moly's love of jumping from the couch back to her cage. (Seriously, it was like watching an athlete. The muscles would twitch. The brow would furrow. Then she'd take off like a rocket.) Apparently she hit the table wrong, and was gone within a couple of days.

In her better days, Moly was a rascal. She was also a certified Glasses Inspector, and along with her sister Vanadium, formed the Sleepin' In My Foodbowl brigade. I think it's somehow fitting that she died doing the acrobatics she loved. She was relatively young, so it's sad, but at least she got to take one last glorious flying leap before she went.


Bye, kiddo. I'll miss you.

Still sick... harumph!

Oberlin's Mudd library in all its cement-y glory

Knitting has not been happening lately. Daydreaming about knitting is another story, but at this point I'm 3 midterms away from spring break (started this morning with 4) and have a case of some sort of viral infection piggybacked on another sort of viral infection, as the kind lady at Student Health informed me. I feel like such a hypochondriac going in there so often, but when "the flu" and "bug bites... I think?" have turned out to be mono, an ear infection, and staph, I guess I get a little paranoid. So, no antibiotics for this unhappy knitter - just a bad cough, some Robitussin, a low-grade fever, and instructions to wait it out.

In better news, today was a gorgeous, mid-60s kinda day here in Oberlin. I took a picture of the boy out in the sunshine, but he was making a face with a mouth full of sandwich and I figured I wouldn't post it, out of courtesy. Hahah.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Sick and twisted

....but mostly sick. Around 3 yesterday afternoon, I realized that I had a sore throat and was feeling abnormally tired. I decided to take it easy for the night, and finished the boyfriend's first sock in the process. I'm using the Gentleman's Fancy Sock pattern, which is an awesome pattern, but I find that the toes decreases are a little claustrophobic for my toes, which are quite used to being swathed in weirdish fibers like mohair. So I subbed a normal toe instead of the super-pointed Nancy Bush toe. Since I went up a couple of needle sizes for this pattern, I also had to recalculate the decreases and how long to knit before stopping for the toe.

I checked my gauge, I did some math, and I knitted the toe and grafted it - and it was exactly as long as I planned it - 10.25 inches! ....then I tried it on the boyfriend today, and he said, "Soooo could I have more space in the toe?" and well, it turns out that not everyone likes their socks to fit the same way that I do.

It's funny, because if this were any other project that I was working on while sick with a sore throat and three midterms next week, I would be tearing my hair out. Instead, I spend as much time as possible on said project when I should be studying for said midterms.

In other news, I have a tiny little project to share soon, co-made-up-on-the-spot with Bethany for our Fearless Knitting Exco. Hooray!

Boyfriend Socks Are Not Made Of Fail!

Backstory: I started a pair of gorgeous blue Gentleman's Sock with Lozenge Pattern socks for the boyfriend about 5 months ago. I used size 0 US needles, just like it recommended in the pattern. As the sock got longer, I started to suspect that they would fit me, but not the boyfriend. So I had him try them on... and they wouldn't even squeeze over his instep. D'oh. But size 0 is very small, and I had almost a whole sock, so I finished them and kept them.

Then, I thought that I would use some stash yarn to actually make him some socks. I used the Gentleman's Fancy Sock and size 1s, which are a size up from what is recommended. I started the sock in Bali, and then realized that I was having the too-small problem again, but wouldn't be able to prove it until I got home. So I put the socks away for a while. When I brought them out again, I had him try them on......... and they were too small. I gave up entirely. I knitted the Rib Fantastic socks. I tried not to be too disappointed. I mean, I've knit the guy two scarves and a hat, and I knit about a thousand socks for myself every month, and yet he only has one pair of worsted-weight (and now felted!) hiking socks from me. I want to share the goodness of hand-knit socks with the dude I like, and I can't because I keep on underestimating the size of his freakin' feet. Sigh.

So: last week, I re-started the boyfriend's socks on size 2 US needles with the same yarn (charcoal Baby Ull) and have now knit the cuff, heel, and some of the foot. And today was the moment of truth; I took the sock over to his room and had him try it on... and it fit. Kinda perfectly. Yessssss.

Knitting mojo = 5 billion

Knitting fail = 0

FO: Bali Socks (They Look Like Licorice, Hey!)

Bali socks! I started these the day before I left for Bali, thinking that I would probably finish them either on the plane, or on Nusa Penida. Well... that didn't happen on the way there. I get pretty airsick, so I ended up wearing a scopolamine patch that kept me knocked out. While on Nusa, it was so hot that I only finished one of the socks before totally giving up on wool. On the plane ride back, I had what ended up being a staph infection, and didn't feel much like knitting either way. Luckily, about a week after I got back, I decided to cast on for the second sock. It's just a plain sock with a short row heel to minimize the wacky striping that would happen with a heel flap and gusset.


These have been done for a few weeks now, but it wasn't until yesterday that I actually wove in the ends... now they're off to Smith's to be a store sample. I just wanted to model them before I said goodbye.

Final opinion? Super easy, super cute!

Patience

I had to rip the second toe of my socks today. This was the good kind of rip - I fixed a problem and now I like them better - but sometimes it's hard not to cut corners just to get to the finish line.