Ski Day!!

Yesterday  was a great day!…  I went skiing with my sister!!  We have been hanging around and skiing for more than 50 years.  My sis was responsible for helping my daughter plan my 60th birthday weekend blast!   We went to my favorite mountain Gore.  Between the lousy weather and my lousy work schedule skiing this year is lousy.  That is a bunch of lousy’s.  Yesterday may well have been my last day to ski this year.  But any day that I get to ski with my sister is a great day.  I am blessed with wonderful siblings.  I would have loved to get to Vermont to ski with my brother but Vermont just did not work out this year.

Here is the obligatory selfie.  I was truly hoping for better conditions.  I keep hoping for conditions like the February 11th day.  That was the best day this year for me.

My sis and I needed a short break so we dropped into the Saddle Lodge.  If I get back to Gore I will put my lunch in a knapp sac and leave it at the Saddle Lodge.  Peg had never been there.  It sits at 3000 feet and the view is gorgeous !

Of course, I made her pose for a photo.  Its tough to have a sister that is a photographer.  Even though these are iPhone snapshots, they are a record of our fun.

The lack of snow is disheartening.  All of  the trails that do not have snowmaking are closed.  I do not remember a winter like this last one.  I privately call it the un-winter.

I am used to seeing these areas packed with mothers natures bountiful fluffy white snow. Snow in the Adirondacks is usually quite plentiful.  I worry about drought in the coming months.  We rely on the melting the snow pack to recharge water tables and drinking water supplies.  However the skies were beautiful blue and the view from the top of Gore was breathtaking.

Of course there is knitting involved.  Peg drove so I got to have some knitting time.

I am working on yet another pair of socks.  I just cannot get out of the sock mojo.  The project is small, portable and for now socks entertain me.  I like to take a picture of me knitting where ever I am.

When I grew up my mother’s, mother lived with us.  Bema (my word for grandma) always had knitting on her lap or next to her chair.  She was always knitting us mittens, hats, slippers.  I LOVED the hand knit mittens.  They were the DPN pattern and I do not have any pair that she made left.  I do have a pair my mother made.  I am afraid to wear them, because I do not want to loose them.  They were the last pair she knit for me and that was back when I was in college. Every stitch is a stitch made with love.  It’s that thought, that makes me want to gift hand knits to my children and siblings.  If the culture of their home does not have the time to hand wash knits, I use a yarn that fits their home.  Its a double win. I get to gift a hand knit, and they get something that is easy to care for, handmade by me.

Tomorrow is Monday.  Its the beginning of my  “7 on”. So I will be working 10 hour days, and getting 8 hours of rest.  Of course I may knit while I have my morning coffee.  🙂

 

Hot off the needles.

Another pair of warm wooly socks are hot off the needles.  They are for my collection of custom fitted socks.  Yeah, I am guilty of  tinkering with the numbers to get a sock that fits just right.

This is a color way called Steam Punk.  I like the crazy way the spirals work down the ankles.  Now when I purchase store bought socks I would NEVER, never buy anything flashy or outlandish. But, when I knit every stitch with care and mark off each  row on a scratch sheet, outlandish is OK.  (As long as it’s not neon)

Yeah I am a nerd.  I knit and mark my rows.  Its not that I can’t memorize the pattern, its that I forget what row I am on.  If its a 2 row pattern that is OK.  But if its a 4 row pattern, I prefer to keep a chart.  Same with toe decreases.  I make a chart similar to the above and mark off in pen or pencil depending on which sock I am on.  One advantage is that I do get 2 socks exactly alike.  I knit in bits of time.  Where ever there is 10 minutes I pull out my needles, take a peak at the chart and bang out a few rows.  The only time I do not do that is late at night.  Nope!  No knitting when I am fatigued.

I am a cuff down, two at a time, DPN sock knitter.  It works for me.  There are lots of ways to knit socks and since there are no sock knitting police I feel that each to his own.  This way pleases me.  So I prefer the K1 into the back of the stitch, P1 cuff ribbing.  I am unable to cast on loosely, so I cast on over 2 needles held together.  This gives one a very loose cast on and the twisted rib holds up nicely after blocking.

I like the Eye of Partridge heel better than the Dutch heel.

I like 3 stitches past the center when turning the heel,  I like the precision when picking up the gusset of the twisted stitch again.

I abhor the second sock syndrome.  So I knit cuff, cuff.  Ankle, ankle. Heel flap, heel flap. turn the heel, turn the heel.  It is at this time I pick up exactly the same number of stitches for each sock on each side of the gusset.  It really does not matter if each side has exactly the same number of picked up stitches but it matters to me.  So I am careful to pick up both of these at the same time.  Then it is time to knit the gusset decreases on both socks and its a race to the toes.  I used to like the 4,3,2,1 toe but have changed to the knit and decrease every other row till I had 16 stitches across the top needle, followed by decreasing every row until I have 8 across the top.  A quick kitchener stitch and voila!  Done.

Last, I like my socks blocked.  So I wash and block the socks before I wear them.  Just another luxury thing about hand knit socks.

So what is on the needles next?

Something more sedate than the above pair.  The cast on has begun!

 

Its all about MOJO

I have not posted in a very long time.  I just lost the journaling mojo.  I am not sure that its back but I have been pondering topics for the past few days. ( So that does means that I am interested.  ) Basically I have made a few decisions..  One is to put my quest to pass my CPP on a back burner.  It was stressing me out to the extreme.  Sometimes putting something aside feels good.  Its a deep cleansing breath.

I turned 60 last month.  A milestone!  My family, consisting of my children and their SO’s along with, my siblings, inlaws and  nephews and my childhood friend  from high school all got together. They rented an old farmhouse near a local mountain. They  bought lift tickets and we had an old fashioned family  ski weekend.  It could not have been better!.  I have to say its the only birthday party ever thrown for me and it was the best.

We have been skiing since we were kids and I feel so blessed to have such a great family!

I have since been skiing every other week as my job allows and even though I am 60 I feel 30.  Its good to be  on the slopes I love the speed and fresh air.

Over the past few years I picked up knitting.  Its been a bucket list thing for me.  My grandmother on my mothers side taught me to knit as a kid.  I tinkered with it on and off only to disappoint my self with my results.  Finally in my 50’s I tried again and this time I was hooked.  I have knit a lot of things over the years but my passion is socks.  I was gifted a pair of hand knit socks and oh my gosh… They are like crack. You cannot have just ONE pair.  They feel so nice on my feet.

My sock journey had taken many twists and turns. There are the socks that did not fit.  They were an exercise in technique. Just because they did not fit me, does not mean that I did not learn something.    The ones that were too small, I gave to  my daughter. She wears them to bed to stay warm. The ones that were too large, I wear to bed to keep my feet warm.  Then there  are the pairs that fit just right.  I have tinkered with different stitch counts.  Measured and done math.  Changed the needle size. But all in all, I just love the precision of a hand knit sock.

A hand knit sock gently hugs your ankle.  Have you ever noticed that at the end of the day, when you remove your store bought socks that divot that circles your ankle?   Hand knit socks do not leave that divot.  Bam!!!!!  Your foot and ankle are wrapped in gentle comfort for the entire day.  Ahhh..  a slice of heavenly comfort.

I purchase shoes based on how they will fit with a hand knit sock.  In my drawer, there are some store-bought socks.   Yes, those suckers that leave a divot in my ankle, come out of their time-out place and are put to use in the summer.   They are as uncomfortable as all get out!  My poor ankles need  time to adjust to the stranglehold those nasty things have on them.  Store bought socks make me itch..  I have yet to find a pair that don’t.

I am not afraid of putting a lot of work and time into a pair of socks.  Hand knit socks can be darned.  I know darning is a lost art, but I darn my socks when I wear a hole in the bottom.  It increases the life span of a hand knit sock by years.  I will darn over darning and if done properly your foot does not recognize the difference between a sock stitch and a darned spot.  LOL  just ask me how I know.

According to the Yarn Harlot, there are approximately 20,0000 stitches in a pair of socks.  For me a quick sock knit takes 2 weeks. For faster knitters it takes 2 days. I always have sock knitting in my handbag. And yes you guessed it!  I choose handbags based on whether or not a sock project can fit in it.  If I have a moment, I bang out a few stitches.  I may just be on a bus heading out to a day of skiing…  Yup!  My knitting is with me, as well as a light on the brim of my baseball cap.  Back to darning, the more socks you have the less you have to darn.  Yes, true fact!..  By circulating many pairs your put less stress on 1 or 2 pair.  Now, I think you may see how this becomes addicting.  How could one not want bazillion pair of these fabulous beasts?

First pair of socks!!  The ones that were too small!