The Perfect Feet

My mom has perfect feet. She likes to stick them out and say things to me like “look at my feet…aren’t they perfect?” Then she will ask to look at my feet and after a close scrutiny, “yours are nice, but not quite perfect like mine.” I have even heard her say “it is too bad none of my kids inherited my feet.”

Perhaps these things skip a generation. Who knows? What I do know is perfect feet deserve handknit socks, even if their owner is a tad egotistical–hehe, just kidding mom.

(Oh, and for the record, “perfect” feet mean that your toes are perfectly arched and each toe from your big toe down gets proportionally smaller. My second toe is the same length as my big toe making my feet not quite perfect.)

The color of these are really a pale blue/purple/gray–thanks to Kara for taking the picture for me and bringing the socks to my mom in Hong Kong. I am a tad delayed on posting about these socks as they were a Christmas gift. Kara knit a pair for my Dad. The socks look almost as good together as my parents do.

Project Stats

Pattern: Log Cabin Socks

Source: Handknit Holidays

Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist Highlander

Needles: US 4 dpns

Mods: I knit the socks with a thicker yarn than the pattern calls for and with a smaller needle. This gave me two results: really sore fingers and a really thick fabric which makes for a super warm sock.

Notes: The yarn I knit with suited the style of these socks perfectly I thought. Very soft, and I love the flecks of color.

I love, love, love these socks. I feel like they are the definitive “comfy, wear around the house on a cold day” sock pattern. Next winter I might just have to knit my imperfect feet a pair.

Unrelated side note: I thought I should give you the update on my bump of unknown origin. I am admittedly not very good about things like going to the doctor. I really took your comments to heart though and have been looking around for a doctor–since I don’t have one yet. However, since I posted, the bump has been going down in size and is no longer sensitive at all. I happened to see a doctor socially tonight and asked him to look at it and let me know if I needed to worry. He said that whatever it was (maybe an infection) is on the mend and nothing to worry about. So thanks again for your gentle nudges to not take my health lightly.

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Obsessing Over: Bump of Unknown Origin

Today I introduce a new feature to this blog, “Obsessing Over”. In case you didn’t know this about me, I can be a tad obsessive at times. I get fixated on a subject or product or activity or idea until I exhaust all thought and discussion around it. This week, I can’t stop obsessing over this:

If it doesn’t look huge in this picture, please let me assure you that it is. What is it you ask? I really can’t tell you. It developed about 6 days ago and at first I was sure it was a pimple. Granted, the biggest pimple I had ever experienced. But a couple days into it I started to think that it might be something else. Below the surface it feels like a raised rock hard disc about an inch and a half in diameter. Two days after it fully formed it was painful to touch and the area around it was swollen.

My co-worker suggested it might be a bite of some kind and that is when I started to believe it was a spider or insect bite. Since then I have been putting Benedryl cream on it and it has gone down slightly in size but it is not going away as fast as I would like. Only reason I am blogging about this is I can’t stop thinking about it. Last night I spent an hour before bed google-ing images of bites and pimples (which is not something I would ever recommend doing unless you want nightmares.) I just can’t figure out what it is. I know the easy way to find out is to go to the doctor, but I am kind of banking on it going away before I go through the hassle and expense. It isn’t discolored and the swelling has gone down so I am assuming it is not infected.  It is just there, a big huge bump on my nose.  Too bad it isn’t Halloween.

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Valentine’s Day Coma

All I will say about today is, if I admit how much sugar I ate, you wouldn’t believe it. If you did believe it, I think it would hurt my feelings. So here I sit in my calorie induced coma remembering how great I felt in January when I was sugar free and how it wouldn’t be so bad if I did it again…

Regardless, I did have a lot of fun today. One of the highlights was I got to see my new favorite baby Isabel. She is 6 days old and perfect. It doesn’t hurt that she looks so adorable in the Bananahead Beanie (ravelry link) I made for her.

Her cuteness is almost too much. I am so honored that I get to be one of the first people to know this beautiful girl.

I also was able to visit with Isabel’s parents, Ryan and Teri, tonight and got to bring over some yummy dessert for them. I went to a local restaurant called Steuben’s a couple weeks ago and had this dessert that was unlike anything I had tried before, so yummy, and conceivably easy to duplicate. So I gave it a go.

Basically, this is a caramel apple (used granny smith and melted caramels) rolled in crushed Frosted Flakes, cut up and served with vanilla ice cream, drizzled with chocolate sauce, and sprinkled with berries. Super easy and so delicious. I am pretty proud of my homemade version.

It was really, so very good. Oh sugar, why do you do tempt me so? This dessert at least was worth it. Tomorrow however, I detox.

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Gathered Pullover

New blog, new sweater.

I have to say, it is really thrilling to have such a quick knit become one of my favorite knits. This took me a little over two weeks. Two weeks! Crazy right? It never got boring to knit because everything went so fast. And frankly, I love some good stockinette stitch in the round…up to a point. But the great thing about this pattern is, once you do get tired of the straight knitting, a little fun comes to rescue you in the form of the gathered cable.

The design is brilliant. There is no shaping, none. The cable doubles as a design feature and a way to pull the sweater in under your bust so no side shaping is required. I used a slightly thicker yarn than the pattern called for, was able to get stitch gauge, only my row gauge was a bit longer (5.5 as opposed to 6) so I just compensated for that by slightly altering the spacing of the decreases for the armholes. For everything else I didn’t worry so much since I was planning on adding inches to the body and sleeves anyway.

For normal people arms, if you follow the pattern, you will get a bracelet length sleeve on the sweater, for those with freakishly long arms like me, the sleeves would have been more of a three-quarter length. Since I was knitting this in alpaca wool I knew it needed to be a true long sleeve winter sweater and so I added a good four inches to the sleeves pre-blocking (they grew another inch or so after blocking) in order to get the long sleeved look you see above. I added the length before the increases began. I also added a good 4-5 inches to the body of the sweater as well.

The other modification I made was knitting the body in a size to fit my bust and then knitting one size smaller for the sleeves. I have done this with a couple other sweaters before and it has worked out well for a more tailored fit to me. This is one of the things I love about knitting, I can actually adjust things to fit my body.

Project Stats

Pattern: Gathered Pullover

Source: Interweave Knits, Winter 2007

Size: 36 1/2 for the body, smallest size for the sleeves

Needles: US 7

Yarn: Plymouth Suri Merino

Mods: Added 4 inches to the sleeves and body, knit a smaller size sleeve than body

Verdict: This may be my most wearable knit yet

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Did I mention I was knitting Gathered Pullover?

I didn’t think so. Well, not only was I knitting it, I am done. And yes, I know this picture is upside down (I tried rotating the picture but it looked freakish right side up):

This sweater knit up FAST. It took me around 2 weeks to complete. (And I wasn’t even monogamous.) I guess that is what happens when you have lots of stockinette in the round and size 7 needles. I’ll give you the full reveal and all my notes after the sweater is blocked but I will say now how good it feels to finish something. For me.

I really am a quite selfish knitter at heart.

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The following 14 comments were originally left at blogspirit:

Looks so cute! Simple elegance.

Posted by: Cassi | 02/05/2008

Very Cute

Posted by: Posted by: Cassi | 02/05/2008

Jumper looks lovely. I’m thinking about knitting it for me. I’m a totally selfish knitter. In the UK whilst knitting is the “in thing” my family hasn’t taken to it, so I’m free to knot for ME….and only ME. O the joy, now all I have to do is finish something. I currently have start-i-tist which is quite painful as I have about 4 things on needles at the moment with several others in the pipeline.

Posted by: Posted by: Bev | 02/05/2008

It looks great blocking! I can’t wait to see it modeled.

Posted by: Cheryl S. | 02/05/2008

Nothing wrong with knitting your yourself. After Cobblestone you deserve several sweaters!

Posted by: margene | 02/05/2008

Awesome shape and color for you!

Posted by: Heather Joins The Round | 02/05/2008

Sneaky — presenting a fait accompli! It’s such an elegantly simple sweater with just the right amount of embellishment.

Posted by: materfamilias | 02/05/2008

That looks gorgeous!! It looks like it turned out really well. Can’t wait for the modelled FO shots!! I’m going to be starting mine soon- as soon as the yarn arrives in the post….

Posted by: Julie | 02/05/2008

Hey, I’m working on that, too! 🙂 Except that as my row gauge is completely off, I’m knitting it as a bottom-up raglan. Hopefully, that won’t end in tears. 😉

Posted by: Katinka | 02/05/2008

Wow – when’s the modeled shot?!

Posted by: Chris | 02/05/2008

Oh the suspense is killing me! Try on! Try on!

Posted by: Kara | 02/05/2008

It’s beautiful! I want to see your pretty modeled shot!

Posted by: tiennie | 02/06/2008

wow, I cannot believe how fast you finished that sweater!!! I can’t wait to see how it fits. It looks beautiful even upside down 🙂

Posted by: rachel I. | 02/07/2008

hahaha…

Are you STILL deciding which photo to post?

Posted by: Posted by: jeff | 02/10/2008

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