the reward entry

Yesterday, I managed to accomplish a lot of stuff on my to do list. My treadmill workout seemed easier, I stayed within my calorie allotment despite eating out, I ordered new glasses, figured out how to manage a part of the sock that was driving me nuts (more on that in a minute) and managed to take a "refraction" picture (This is a picture where you can see a picture in a small drop of water--and it can be tricky to pull off):

So today I am rewarding myself by putting aside the gazillion things I *should* be doing, and do something I *want* to do. (which if you haven't guessed is this entry)

So, the socks. Back at Christmas we planned a small car trip (12 hours in the car all told) and I had recently finished a pair of toe up regular socks (the purple stripes last entry) and so I thought that I wanted a portable project, but I didn't want "regular plain socks". Evidently I don't do anything halfway because before I knew it I had packed Sock Innovation, my harmony DPN pack and a skein of cascade Heritage (in purple solid).

I picked out the pattern Rick somewhere along the way and cast on in the car. The ribbing went fine, and soon I had started on the lace. And soon I ripped back to the ribbing. And then I started the lace again. And then I got distracted and pulled a needle out of stitches, couldn't find them again, and ripped back to the ribbing. Then I started the lace again and we reached our destination. By this time I think I had about 2 inches of lace.

So we did our trip thing, got back int he car to go home, and I pulled out the knitting. I was doing well, so well. Then I don't even know what happened but suddenly instead of 60 stitches on the needles I had 59. I tried back tracking, but couldn't find where I had dropped them. I was devastated and not sure what to do--do I rip, do I tink? And then a driver in the next lane pointed out we had a flat tire. After that car knitting just didn't happen. We pulled over at the next town took everything out of the car, changed the tire, loaded everyone back in and by then it was getting dark, we were all wound up and nervous about driving home on the spare (oh and 2 low tires--which we fixed at the next exit).

Back home it was clear, I needed to rip back to the ribbing, and start using lifelines. After the lifelines, I only have had one "swear incident" (as my husband calls them), in which I was getting ready to put in a lifeline and again pulled the needle out of 20 stitches--but 8 rows lost and it didn't take me near the ribbing.

So then I'm knitting away happily, I do the heel and it looks good, then I pick up the gusset stitches and for some reason it is easier than I remembered (probably because the pattern gives no number of stitches to pick up (which is sensible, it really doesn't matter) and then I start across the top of the foot--which continues the lace. For some reason I no longer had the 32 stitches I had put aside when I did the heel, I now had 31. (insert cosmic scream here)

However, while I was waiting for the eye doctor yesterday it clicked for me--it had dropped at one end. Quickly I figured out which end and made my peace with the idea that that row might look a tiny bit funny and suddenly I had a sock again.

Now I'm debating the need for a lifeline in the one lace row (I think I need one) and slowly moving along.

All this work and I still have to do the left sock (yes the socks are mirror image patterns--it is going to be totally cool).