To Blog or Not to Blog

I really did have my mind made up to blog again. But I just never got back to it. A lot has happened since I last wrote but I can't think of a single thing to write about. Christmas came and went and now we are in the rainy season, although it isn't raining yet today and yesterday was a beautiful spring-like day here. We are due for rain later today and tonight and tomorrow. Thursday will be our shopping day and it isn't supposed to rain that day so we lucked out. (As it now stands anyway.)

I've been busy knitting. Just about finished with my second pair of socks. I was hoping this second pair wouldn't have any mistakes in it but alas! there are a few. But they are for me so I don't mind a wrong stitch here and there. But I do wish I would see these mistakes before I knit another 2 inches!!! If the mistake is only 4 or 5 rounds back I'm comfortable using a crochet hook and going back those rounds and correcting the mistake with the hook. But when they are 12 or 14 rows back, I am just not comfortable doing that. But I consider these early socks my learning socks so I'm not going to beat myself up about the mistakes. Suffice it to say I simply wish I didn't make them!! I don't understand why I throw in a bad stitch here and there. It makes no sense to break the rhythm and yet I do. My first pair of socks were too big so I dropped a needle size and wouldn't you know it, this pair is borderline too small. They are a nice snug fit. I just hope that doesn't cause the toe to wear out too quickly. I do like the fit better than the loose pair but I'm sort of frustrated. The first pair was too big all over and when that happens you're supposed to drop a needle size. Which is what I did. And now these are borderline too small. I have decided that I don't like trying to "fit" things. I prefer to knit afghans and such where it doesn't much matter if they're a little big or a little small.

Why would a different color in the same yarn, the same pattern, and the same knitter turn out to be a different size? You see, I did the leg with the same size as the first socks (#3s) and yet the leg is very snug. Everything was the same except for the color of the yarn. So anyway, the fact that these socks were knitting up smaller in the first place and then I dropped a needle size on top of that is what made them so snug. Sizing is discouraging to say the least. Any thoughts on sizing would be appreciated. I'm just learning so I'm going to consider these first few pairs learning experiences and let it go at that. Once I get the learning part down then I will consider knitting some as gifts. But of course that means I have to get everyone's foot sizes. But I don't know that anyone would appreciate the work that goes into making a pair of socks. So I may just knit socks for myself and let it go at that. The only thing is that I am perfectly happy knitting the same pattern over and over again and that drives Kathleen, my knitting mentor/teacher crazy. She thinks I need to knit a different pattern every time. But I'm going to stick with this pattern until I am more comfortable with it regardless of what she says. My next pair will be done with KnitPick's Felici yarn, which is a self-striping yarn. That will be a lot of fun. I knitted a few things this past Christmas that were done with self-patterning yarns and they were so much fun to knit. I bought enough for 2 pairs of Felici yarn socks and can't wait to knit with the yarn. Why I started with KP's Gloss yarn is a mystery to me. The first pair I did was Gloss and I had so much fun knitting them that I ordered more Gloss and the Felici yarns. And for some strange reason I started with the Gloss instead of the Felici. So I've had to knit this pair of socks wishing I had started with the self-striping. Bummer. But now I'll have 2 pairs to do back-to-back with the Felici yarn. Anyway when I finish with the yarn I have I will have 4 pairs of socks. Then I will order enough yarn for another 2 or 3 pairs and call that sufficient. I do hope they wear well. I'd hate for them to wear out too quickly and waste all that time and effort and money I put into them. But socks are fun to make. It's funny because I had sworn I would never knit a pair of socks. I thought like my husband thinks: You can go to WalMart and buy a pair of socks for a dollar, why go to all the work (and expense) of knitting them? But that was before I knit a pair and discovered how much fun they are to knit. And now I'm quite happy to be knitting socks. It's funny because I was very vocal about the fact that I would NEVER knit a pair of socks and when I finally did it made Ani (my knitting instructor) laugh out loud. I learned the lesson once again to never say never.

The fair is just 3 months away! And what do I have to enter? I was going to enter a lot of stuff but then I gave away most of what I'd knitted as Christmas presents last year so now I'm down to just a couple things. I was hoping to get a pair of socks knit without so many mistakes so I could enter them but I can't seem to knit a pair without a gazillion mistakes in them. I thought surely this pair would be better than the first pair and it's not. It has about the same number of mistakes as the first pair had. Maybe the Felici will be good luck for me and I will knit a pair without many mistakes. I don't mind one or two mistakes. But 5 or 6 are just too many. And of course, knitting them with a solid color makes the mistakes really stand out too. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I will get better at knitting them. Of course last year Kathleen entered 2 or 3 pairs and didn't take any ribbons. I guess the judge didn't like socks. Kathleen's socks were, of course, without error. Sometimes I get discouraged because she knits so well but I'm trying to learn as much from her as I can. That's what's important.

Kathleen gave me a sourdough starter and the recipe for sourdough waffles. Yummy!!! I made some for dinner last night and they were absolutely delicious. Then for breakfast I popped a couple in the toaster and had them again this morning. They were just as good as last night's waffles. The recipe makes a lot of waffles so I may next time divide the recipe in half. We'd still have more than we could eat in one sitting. I had like 6 waffles left over and that's a lot in anybody's book. Today I am feeding my starter and growing it back to sufficient size to use for another batch of waffle or maybe make some bread or something else.

Well, this hasn't been much of a post but at least I tried. I need to go now and get my hair and face straightened up so I can go run errands and get them out of the way. Hubby is going to make dinner tonight so I'm off cooking duty until tomorrow. I love it when he cooks because then I don't have to. Our sunshine has gone away and the clouds for the next storm are building up in the sky. We got over 8 inches of rain with the last series of storms that moved through our area. And we had to go across the river for one of hubby's doctor appts and we even got snowed on. It was so pretty. It was melting as quickly as it hit the road so there was no added risk involved and the flakes were so big and beautiful. I had forgotten how beautiful it is to drive in the snow. We didn't get any snow here at the house but Hogback Mountain had plenty of snow on it. This storm coming in is coming in much colder than the previous ones so we might get a little snow out of this one ourselves. I like getting a little snow but nothing like what we used to get when we lived farther up the mountain. I got really tired of shoveling the snow back then. When we lived in Colorado, we never had to shovel snow. We just swept it. It was always such a dry snow. Never had to scrape ice off my windshield either. Just brushed it away. Forgive me for this lousy post. I meant well. It's just that I haven't posted in so long I've forgotten what to write about. Sorry. I will try and post more often. But the operative word there is "try." Unfortunately I can't say increasing the quantity will improve the quality of the posts. Until next time...