FrankenSock and other stuff....

So I've finished that last pair of socks, almost finished one of Joy's; I've got to try it on her before I finish it and they've been gone for 4 days, so I've started another pair.
I'm using the Quickset Socks pattern for the most part, but my eyes crossed when I tried to use her short-row toe and heel instructions, so I used the short-row toe that I know, and the gusseted heel from the Diagonal Sock pattern that I just finished last week. I really like that heel! My next project (yeah, I'm not done with FrankenSock yet, but I'm planning ahead...) is going to be the Triton Socks. I'm excited to try that heel pattern! (Note; you have to have a Ravelry account to view the above links)

Remember the post "What a Difference a Dye Job Can Make"? I got pictures of the project that was made from that first batch of Navajo plied yarn.

My friend Jo made this for herself from that yarn, it is really gorgeous! She is a very talented knitter, and my Sock Guru!

In Other News
I had a really bad night last night. I got a call Friday from my next door neighbor, who is also the town dog catcher, that my daughters dog was in jail again. This is the third time he's been picked up and would I come get him please? My daughter and her beau had left for Idaho that morning. I don't like the dog. Let me clarify. I would love this dog if he were mine. Because, if he were mine he would have manners and wouldn't be so off the wall crazy. The last time I 'puppy' sat, I found an as yet unidentified headless rooster in my yard. I had told her I wouldn't do it again. But to save her some heartache, I went and picked him up. I can't let him be in the house at large over night, he tears things up, so I put him and my two bigger dogs in Jari's old room. Every morning he wakes up before I do and wants out so bad that he has torn the carpet up to about a foot back from the bedroom door.
Wait! It gets better!
I called Jari yesterday to see when they were going to be home, she told me not until today, because they were going to see a realtor. ...why? I innocently ask.... why, to buy a house of course! ...In Idaho? I ask.... her and her beau are planning on buying a home in Idaho, and moving there with my baby girl. My heart is almost broken, only 'almost' because it hasn't happened yet. There went my good mood.
DH is on night shift and I didn't want to stay here and pout by myself, so I went to town. I figured the dogs would be ok for a couple of hours...
When I got home my living room was trashed. I would have taken pictures if I hadn't been so distraught. Both lamps were on the floor, one past repair, the other the bulb broken out, my end table was on its side, my little working lamp was on the floor behind my chair, the yarn from Joy's sock was strewn around, literally, both mine and my husbands chairs. The antlers my husband has kept on a tall speaker across the room from his chair for years, were on the floor in front of his chair. As I was taking all this in I realize there is a dog barking in another room. The first thing I though was intruder! Someone was in my house. Then the smell hit me. Cat feces. I ran to the hallway and Eli met me half way, I kicked him out and went back to the hall and heard my 14 year old cat, Skinny, crying. She was lying at the end of the hallway, covered in slobber. She couldn't get up. I gently probed her for broken bones, then moved her to a towel. I think that if I'd had a gun in my hand that dog would be dead now....
As it is, he is back in town, his family is home and are looking for a new home for him, one where there will be someone that can take him out running and spend some time training him. He will be an excellent bird dog someday, if someone doesn't shoot him first.
Skinny is still with me, but not well. She's in the bathroom with water and food. She drank some water, but hasn't eaten any food yet, so I gave her some b complex. She didn't have any open wounds and there is no swelling in her abdomen, so I don't think there are any serious injuries, but she is so old. I really don't know if she'll recover.
Today has been a little better, in that nothing else dire happened in my life. I went to town earlier to take DH to the bus stop, and realized I had left the kerosene heater on. I half expected the house to be burning when I got back, its just been that kind of week...

HaHa! I win!

A quick update! I won! That sock is now finished, more than half way done with the other and started on a pair of socks for Joy out of the remaining yarn.
I don't like tall socks, so I've finished this just above the ankle.

 Notice how close the lace pattern is on my little fat foot? That comes from not following the pattern right :)

And look at that heel!
Another victory! I will post pictures of mine and Joy's socks when I've got them finished!

Sock Fight

I got this book for Christmas, one of the One Skein Wonder books that I love so much. There is a pattern in it that I just love, a scarf with bumps and lines and sections. When we went to Arizona I wanted a project to work on on the way home, and deciding that none of the hand spun I had with me would do this pattern justice, I went yarn shopping. Unfortunately I got a yarn that was too fine to get the gauge right and still keep the pattern as tight as it needed to be to get the right affect in the pattern. Its very pretty yarn, so I decided to make socks.
I have only made three pairs of socks since I started knitting, the first were booties, that turned out ok for a first pair; the second were toddler socks, that still haven't been worn by a toddler; and the third I made for Derek for Christmas last year, but after Jari ran them through the washer, they were too small for him and I inherited them. This is my fourth pair of socks, but the first to have a gusseted heel. I've always used the short row method (toe up) for toe and heel, and regardless of the fact that I've only finished 3 pairs of socks, I can't count how many times I've done a short row toe or heel, albeit they only turned out right on the occasions where I was able to move on and finish the sock.
I've not done a lacy sock before either, so when I came across the Diagonal Lace Socks, from the Wendy Knits book "Socks from the Toe Up", I decided to try it. I have this book, somewhere, but hadn't spent much time looking at this pattern, mostly because I was scared of the gusseted heel. I didn't think about that when I started the pattern the other day, somewhere in the back of my head I was convinced it wouldn't be a problem, that I am an experienced enough knitter that I could handle it, come what may. ...Right.

I have a friend, a very nice woman who would have made an excellent teacher, who makes socks. A lot! She has drawers full of socks, I know, I've seen them. I found out she'd done this pattern when I called her for help on the heel. I started having problems on Wednesday and had called her to see if she was free to give me a hand on Thursday, but it didn't quite work out and although she got to see the beginnings of my sock, she didn't have her book with her when we met up, so she wasn't able to help at that time.
Yesterday I decided to just try to bull my way through it, try again to get past this bit;
Work back and forth on the heel stitches:
Row 1 (RS) K47 (52) (knitting each wrap together with the stitch it wraps), ssk, turn.
Row 2 Sl1, p31 (35), p2tog, turn.
Row 3 *Sl1, k1; repeat from * 16 (18) times, ssk, turn.
Repeat rows 2 and 3 until all of the side stitches have been worked and end having worked row 2.
Pretty straight forward, right? Except that every time I get to 'row 3' I don't have enough stitches. I've frogged it so many times! I cant do it any more for fear I'll ruin the yarn and will have to cut that part out and splice. For whatever reason, I have the right amount of stitches all the way up till that 16th repeat, then poof! one short.
I seriously spend all day yesterday trying to figure out why I was always one stitch short there, even though every row before has the right amount of stitches in it! I never did figure it out, so on Tuesday I'm going to go back to Elko and sit down with my friend and see what she can make of it.
In my net searches to nail down my problem, I also discovered that I'd make a very typical beginner mistake, one that I really should have been able to avoid, because although I've not done lace socks before, I have knitted lace, and I know the reason only odd numbered lines are shown on the lace pattern. Yes, I did that. I skipped all the even numbered rows which are plain knit rows between the lace pattern rows. I was seriously considering ripping the whole thing out when I talked to my friend again last night, but she assured me that although she had noticed that I'd left every other row out of the pattern, she thought they looked great, please don't rip them out.
I split the yarn so I could start the other sock, running on the assumption that I will over come whatever issue I'm having.
Onwards and Upwards!