Timing is everything

It’s freezing in the house today. At first I chalked it up to my antique furnace not being able to cope with the extreme cold, or maybe the fever I still have on and off, but this morning it’s not extremely cold or windy out, and I’m feeling a lot better (I napped, then had pizza, two glasses of a nice shiraz and watched Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Still a classic.) and it’s still frosty inside here. I think it says something about my priorities that I didn’t check the furnace, but instead I finished my toasty warm socks.

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Beauty, eh? I just love them. Adore them. Want to hug them and kiss them and call them George. I have a crazy bold affection for them. If I only had one pair of hand knit socks for the rest of my life, these could be them.

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The astute among you will note that these are not my usual sock pattern. Normally I knit a plain, good top-down flap heel sock (immortalized in Knitting Rules, for those who will ask) but with this special yarn I wanted to be able to use every single centimetre. To make that possible, I used my ball winder and scale to divide the yarn exactly in half, then cast on 16 stitches at the toe (I use Judy Beckers Magic Cast-on. She’s a genius) , increased at the sides of the toes (4 increases every other round) until I had what seemed right (60 stitches).

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I knit plain until I got to the right place for the heel, then did a short row version so as not to disrupt the stripes. (Laura’s tutorial here is very good, and almost exactly how I went about it.) From there it was just around and around and around until I had accomplished about 14 cm – then I switched to 2×2 ribbing. When I got to the bottom of the calf muscle I began to increase to accommodate it.

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I hid the increases in the ribbing at the back of the leg (made sense to make the sock bigger where my leg was getting bigger) and carried on until I ran out of wool – then did Elizabeth Zimmermann’s sewn cast off to make sure that the edge was stretchy. It is.

Yarn: Laurie’s (Yeah, That Laurie) hand-dyed, hand-spun, three-ply, one of a kind, self striping sock yarn. Needles: 2.25mm, pattern…cobbled together.

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I love these, and I haven’t taken them off since finishing them. I’m sure someone else with socks exactly this length is going to ask if they fall down, and it’s true. I stopped mid calf muscle (as opposed to above or below it) so even though they fit perfectly and I knit all that lovely vertical ribbing, they do have a slight tendency to slouch. It doesn’t matter though. They are just so beautiful that I’m willing to cut them some slack in the function department. (For the record…I think that’s how this girl I knew in high school graduated, but I digress.) It’s a good thing that I finished them when I did too, because once I had them all done, pictures taken and blog entry written, I noticed that even though I was wearing a lot of wool (socks, slippers, sweater) and even though I’d turned up the heat twice, it was still really cold in the house.

Turns out that the socks were a great idea, and I’d better keep knitting, because the furnace isn’t working. Joe’s on his way home to do battle with it now, and the upside of having an antique furnace is that they aren’t very complex beasts. (Insert the furnace scene from A Christmas Story here, and know that you are not very far off.) Keep your fingers crossed that it’s something like old wiring. Joe can totally fix that. If it’s any more than a minor problem we’re going to be cold for a while….The downside of our antique furnace is that it is one of the original Octopus Gravity furnaces – so we would need some ducts installed before we could even buy a modern furnace. (If you’re wondering what the hell an octopus- gravity fed furnace is…..there’s a great blog post on it here.) Our furnace has run, silent and obedient for decades and decades and decades. Here’s hoping it’s not fatally injured.

Fingers, toes and needles crossed.

210 thoughts on “Timing is everything

  1. We just got a new furnace (well, boiler) last year…..what a pain! Here’s hoping Joe can fix it!

  2. fingers crossed (inside handknit mitts) and toes crossed (inside handknit socks – although not nearly as nice as yours – way to go, That Laurie).
    (I figure the extra wooliness mught help).
    I’ve alse been reading you too much (note the excessive ellipse use).
    Hoping for Joe to work his magic on the Octopus.

  3. Wow, quickest knit ever! The frigid temperature must have spurred you on. They are gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. Here’s wishing you luck with the furnace (brrr . . .). Crazy weather here in San Francisco, bridges and roads flooded, wind blowing trucks and trees over, no ferry service due to the whitecaps, power out all over. But, it’s 50+ degrees. I mean, I’m wearing handknit socks that are only half wool–other half cotton. Guess I should be grateful for the little things!

  4. Wow, those socks came out great! Off to the spinning wheel I go. As for the furnace, I think you should have Sir Washie (formerly Mr. Washie) give it a stern-talking to about its responsibily to the family.

  5. Those are utterly gorgeous socks–that Laurie’s a genius, because the colors are fantastic.
    And good luck with the furnace. My apartment is the third floor of a brownstone, and I have not yet this winter had to turn on any of my radiators, so much heat comes up from below. I’ve even had my bedroom window open more often than not. This is not what I expected when I moved to Canada.

  6. Nice socks 🙂
    Good luck on the furnace. For a while I lived in a house with a coal furnace that was fed by an archemedian screw type device. What an artifact that was.

  7. If you’re having furnace problems, then I’d say “Knitting is Everything”, rather than timing. Bring on the wool; imagine how cold you’d be without it?

  8. Beautiful socks.
    Upside of a new furnace is the savings on the energy bill! We bought one last year to replace our 60 year old furnace – our bills are now about 1/2 of what they use to be. Even the electric went down!
    Will admit it, the octopus furnace is much scarier looking than our old cast iron huge boiler furnace.

  9. Those socks are beautiful! They are the comfort food socks of the sock world (if there is such a thing). That Laurie is a very talented woman with a knack for color.
    I hope that Joe is able to coax your long-serving furnace into a few more years of faithful service. I am sending warm woolly thoughts your way.

  10. we just got our furnace replaced yesterday. I’d send you my good replace-the-furnace karma but I really don’t think you’d want it, as the discovery it was broken occurred dec 26th. and while The Boy and I can survive down here in San Fran (albiet with whining)…well, hope it works quickly!

  11. Yikes! No furnace? I will definitely keep fingers crossed that the problem is minor. January is NOT the month to discover major problems with your heating devices.
    The socks are gorgeous! Another Stephanie/That Laurie masterpiece!!

  12. The socks are indeed works of art.
    I am curious: does your brother need to turn off his heat in solidarity? Or does lack of heat now count towards the next furnace wars (a sort of Harlot Handicap)?
    Feel better…warm up soon.

  13. We had an octopus in the house I grew up in. The tube that heated the basement just hung down from one of the arms. It was large enough to stick a head in. Which we did, pretending to be at the beauty shop.
    My brother’s hamster once escaped its cage and we found him walking the rim around the fire, kind of smudgy and very smuggy. It was kind of a creepy scene, actually. Hamster from Hell-ish. I can still remember the feel of the coil handle and the sound it made when it bounced off the door, and my mom yelling down “don’t play with the furnace!”

  14. “Want to hug them and kiss them and call them George. ” Was that a Loony Tunes reference??? I miss Loony Tunes. Remember the one with the Rubber Band Band…. Stay warm in whatever way possible — hopefully by a functioning furnace.

  15. It’s too cold to be cold, but at least you have gorgeous new socks to keep your feet warm. Glad you’re feeling better, Stephanie! May the furnace recuperate as quickly (or rather more quickly) than you did!

  16. Well, the only up-side I can think of if you have to replace the Octopus is that there will be some storage space for Joe in the celler when its done! My parents replaced their octopus about 12 years ago, and it was amazing how much space suddently appeared in the basement! You can still see the huge circle on the floor where the furnace was compared with the new furnace.
    Until then double or triple your wool layers and huddle for warmth. Good time to bake some bread too. . .

  17. I had a gas gravity for years and still miss it like heck whenever the hydro goes off during the winter. But the lure of air conditioning outweighed the luxury of heat when the entire neighbourhood was powerless. I now have a lovely modern furnace which can be a real pain.

  18. If I could get my hands on some sock yarn like that, I might become a sock knitter. I can’t believe it’s handspun!

  19. Let’s hope the furnace fix happens more cleanly than the blog-pictures fix. (Still wondering what your favorite project of ’07 was.)

  20. Ahhh! thanks for the memory lane moment. We had a furnace in the house I lived in until I was 6 and I remember Dad shoveling in that coal. What fun, to know it is called an octopus, if I’d only know then. Keep warm…

  21. The socks are gorgeous as usual. And thank you for the Loony Toon Reference. God, I miss Mel Blanc.
    I know exactly what an Octopus furnace is, and when they die, it is a horrible death, and you usually can’t get the carcass out without much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

  22. Those are absolutely GORGEOUS socks! Hey, look, Haley’s Comet….that’s what we say when we want to distract someone and…say…take the socks off their pretty little feet!!
    Good luck furnace-wise…we spent a couple of rather chilly days and nights recently and it’s NO fun. 58 degrees F is a bit too low for an inside temperature.

  23. I can’t believe you knit those up so quickly, and they just look fantastic! Oh how I’d love to get my hands on some of that yarn!

  24. I’m glad you are feeling better. Remember to keep taking care of yourself! As women, so often we place the needs of everyone else before our own, and therefore never quite get there. If you keep doing EVERYTHING, the world isn’t going to pat you on the back and say “Wow! you’re amazing”; the world is going to assume this is the norm and expect it. You are a wonderful, warm pee-my-pants-funny human being, and we all love the parts of your life you’ve chosen to share with us. Please don’t make yourself sick trying to do everything. We’ rather have fewer blogs and a healthier Harlot. At least, I would.
    sue

  25. I just love the stripey-ness of those socks and the colors- oh my! I don’t think I could tire of that color combo.
    Hope Joe fixes the furnace and there is lots of heat tonight.

  26. I still miss our old gravity furnace and was pretty torqued when we had to replace it. Though the cool air in the summer is nice. The new one just doesn’t quite cut it.

  27. Stephanie, those are some good looking socks and darn, what is up with your luck these days, or is it Joe’s luck that is still on the fritz? Now the furnace is sucking air. My oven went on the blink Sunday before Christmas, so that made me have to go spend time and money on a new oven. But I’m enjoying the new oven, made plenty of Mac and Cheese and just this morning I baked some brownies with cashews and chocolate chips.
    Good to hear that you are on the mend, keep it up.

  28. Keep an eye peeled for locusts. And rain of blood.
    (And Looney Tunes was quoting Steinbeck, guys. ‘Sokay, though — play Wagner and I still hear “Kill the waaaaabit, Kill the WAAABIT!)

  29. Ah, an antique octopus….I just replaced mine two weeks ago after not having any heat this winter. Tried to have it repaired a couple of times, but it just lost its will to go on – noone could/would repair it. Minor problem for me was that my furnace lived in the basement and I live on the 3rd floor and the law here now says that the intake air must come from the dwelling you inhabit. So, I now have a boiler in the basement and have experienced the joy of seeing walls in every room of my home being opened to get the pipes through to new radiators. I wish you better luck with yours.

  30. Love the socks. OMG love the color!!! I want them. lol.
    Bad time for the furnase to break. Been there done that. We had a dinosaur of a broiler furnase. Caught fire one cold winter. We had several days of cold at our house. Not fun at all. Sending warm thoughts your way!!!

  31. glad to hear that you’re feeling better….the socks are lovely..i should be knitting. take care!

  32. Oh how I understand old heaters and ours isnt even a furnace!! We have a propane Warm Morning Stove that is very inefficient as it only heats the one room it is in with very little heat going to any other rooms. So in the winter we wrap up and hope we dont freeze goin to the bathroom 2 rooms away! Glad to hear you are feeling better and that was the quickest hand knit pair of socks I’ve ever seen.

  33. “For the record…I think that’s how this girl I knew in high school graduated, but I digress.” Hahahahaha. =)
    *fingers crossed for you*

  34. What *beautiful* socks, and absolutely gorgeous yarn! Wish I could go out and buy a few hanks of it.
    I’ve been wondering something about toe-up socks. I love them — love knowing I won’t run out of yarn before finishing the toe, love knitting ’em tall, and so on. BUT, the one thing I’ve noticed, is that I need *way* fewer stitches for toe-up vs. top-down socks. Does that make any sense? I mean, my feet are still the same, but if I knit cuff-down, 56 or 60 stitches is usually just about right, but if I knit toe-up, it’s usually more like 48 stitches. Does that happen to anyone else?
    Good luck with mr. ancient octopus furnace!

  35. Great day in the morning, I thought I had seen all the old oddities in heating land but I missed that one. Gravity being the “heat rises” reality, I presume?? I guess my family just held on to the old wood and coal fed things so very, very, very long we skiped over octopii and went right into the most modern area of gas and oil furnaces with fans that blow the hot (and in the summer the lovely cold) through the ductwork. Yikes, what a beastie that is! I will cross my own needles and fingers and toes for you. I like old basic mechanical things best myself (needles over computer every single day of the week)but having once used a 1957 Cub Cadet to mow my lawn every week, I know that sooner or later, no matter how basic…parts become impossible to find. I hope for the best for you!!
    The socks ROCK! I am loving them and wanting to kiss them hug them and call them George myself. You should NEVER let them out of your sight…some daughter or other sock thief may grab them up.

  36. Those socks are bee-oo-tiful! A warm wooly sock is a joy. But now fie on your furnace. How could it quit during the coldest part of the winter, and with Sir Washie setting such an excellent example of antique appliance chivalry and faithfulness? And after you gave it a holiday for the first part of the winter. Base ingratitude!

  37. Good luck with that furnace. If it doesn’t come to life soon, you and yours can go snuggle under the wool (do like that squirrel did and line your beds with the stuff).
    “George”? “Want to … call them George”? You’re still sick; back to bed with you!

  38. Holy hell, you knit socks toe-up? That is awesome. Can we count you among the converts, or was this a one-time-only indiscretion?
    And Judy’s Magic Cast-on? Love. It. She is definitely genius.

  39. Nice socks! That sock yarn is indeed genius – nice the way you worked together all teamlike.
    I hope the octopus in the basement has been revived and you’re all toasty in the great frozen north. (I do actually a big purple octopus in your basement btw.)

  40. LOL!! Just had to thank you for the Christmas Story reference. Living in apartments I no longer get that horrid first-heat-of-the-year burnt-dust smell, or the accompanying swears…. Good times, good times.

  41. Sorry to hear about the furnace. Sending wishes for a fast and cheap recovery. If that’s not possible, go find your blue washcloth Dez in N.O. was kind enough to deliver. It gives general directions to a place where you don’t need a furnace. If you come though, better bring your own wool. My stash is mostly non-animal fiber. We’ll pick you up at the airport, and the local VIetnamese restaurant is awesome and has a pretty good vegetarian selection.
    Aloha,
    Lisa Louie
    Kahului, Maui, Hawaii

  42. This must be the season for furnaces to malfunction. I had to have a pilot light part replaced this year…and we found out right when the first snow fell, of course. And it took about four days for the guys to come and fix it (the waiting list was huge).
    But on the plus side – those socks are awesome and really show off the wonderful yarn. Still can’t believe that is homespun. May I live long enough to be able to master spinning like that….

  43. I know what you mean about the ancient furnace, we have a very old and tres simple oil burning beast in the basement that just keeps chugging.
    I felt bad about using oil until this year when they actually sold us biofuel to burn so what’s old is new again, sorta:)

  44. Please, please tell me where I can find That Laurie? I googled but got nothing. That yarn is GORGEOUS and she obviously has some wicked talent with colors!

  45. I TOTALLY have sock envy!! Those socks are great. And I’m jonesing like mad to start a sock right now, but I have to first finish the baby blanket for my niece who was born Wednesday. Little Claire needs a blankie knit by her Auntie.
    Hope the furnace recovers!! Brrrrrrrrr.

  46. Our heat is out too! In Boston, so not quite as bad as you up in frosty Toronto. Still, copious quantities of wool have been donned, and huddling under the comforter has commenced. I may bake something soon, to try to inject some heat into my frigid little apartment. The temperature gauge on the heat is still working, though, so i can see it’s at 9 degrees celcius and sinking. Brrrr.

  47. As the youngest in my family, I never got any practice being a bossy big sister. Forgive if I don’t do it well, but here goes:
    Steph, you’re still sick. Don’t you dare spend the night in that house, if Joe doesn’t manage to fix the furnace today. There are dozens of people who would be happy to put you up for a few days, including one in Hawaii. Hop to it.
    Oh, and *great socks.*

  48. At least it’s starting to warm up in Toronto. It would have been much worse if your octopus decided to nap earlier in the week when temperatures were near -30 C. Lovely socks, Steph and Laurie – I love that wool. Just think how cold the house would be if you didn’t have that stash to insulate it!
    My grandmother had an octopus in her basement and when it was finally replaced, we found a lot of ping pong balls. The ping pong table in the same room meant we lost a lot of balls in inaccessible corners (ductwork – and strict rules about touching, climbing or going under that stuff).
    I hope the beast only needs minor repairs and that Joe can get it going again before you have to knit stockings for all your water pipes. 🙂

  49. Wow. Those are some gorgeous socks. Wow. Really. Wow.
    Best wishes for a quickly-recovered furnace. Cold is no fun, even with stunning socks.

  50. Beautiful socks.
    And the next worse thing to the furnace going out in the winter is the hot water heater going out. Ask me how I know.

  51. Don’t forget that there’s another way to stay warm that doesn’t require lots of layers…or any layers at all.

  52. Ack. No furnace? It’s been 10 degrees Fahrenheit here at night, lord only knows how cold it’s been up there — and no furnace? Hopefully Joe can fix it (unlike the whole unfortunate computer incident).
    Those socks are unbelievably gorgeous. And hey, slouchy socks are cool, according to teenagers down here. . .

  53. That Laurie has you pegged. Those are totally your colors.
    My last apartment had that same heater in the basement! Very quiet and uncomplicated (as in no thermostat, just a button to push. You had to push it 4 times to get it to go off…ask me how long it took to figure that out)
    Does your heater have a name? Maybe it wants a name and has quit working in protest.
    I’m glad you’re feeling better missus.

  54. your octopus tale reminds me of the time our part-chihuahua woke me in the wee smalls one feb a.m. to let me know the furnace insulation was smoldering (how does THAT happen?) and putting out nasty smells. she and i got the rest of the family out of the house and into our adjoining shop, from which my mother phoned the brave fire laddies.
    please, she said, don’t use the siren. there’s no need to wake the neighbors.
    they arrived, siren-less, and cooled out the insulation somehow or other. major repairs followed, and ever after, when the steam heat was turned on for the first time each fall, we could smell the overheated-insulation odor.
    here’s hoping joe wins the wrestlling match with the octopus. money should be invested in lovely wool yarn, not squandered on ugly mechanical devices!

  55. If Joe can fix Mr. Washie, it’s likely that the old furnace can be fixed, too.
    *Love* the socks – browns are totally not my colors but the combination looks wonderful. If it wasn’t one-of-a-kind, I would consider getting a skein for myself (like I don’t already have enough sock yarn for about 50 pair).

  56. The socks are completely gorgeous! That Laurie makes suck incredible yarn.
    Glad to hear that you’re feeling better, and I hope the furnace problems are easily fixed.

  57. The socks are lovely!
    Good luck with The Beast. I certainly don’t miss my octopus furnace. Number of arms? One. If the house was cold there was always a really nice warm spot half way up the stairs…

  58. Ohhhhhhhhh… ::deep sigh:: Those socks are beauties, indeed. You and That Laurie make wonderful art! Judy is *such* a sweetheart – and it’s thanks to you I know her. She sat one seat over in the row behind me when you were at Powell’s last June, and we had a lovely conversation, with more since. 😉 Hope you two have a chance to discuss socks next time you make it out here!
    Sending *major* speedy-healing-vibes to the Octopus. Everyone’s right again; if Joe can’t fix it today, please, go someplace warm so you don’t get even worse, no matter how much better you feel. We worry. (Yikes – you probably have this tattooed on your forehead, but are the faucets turned on a little?? Right, like you’d forget that…) And good lord, that has got to be the same kind of furnace that was in my Grandma’s basement, too. She still used wood and even some coal in it when I was a little girl in the early 60’s!

  59. I’m glad that you are feeling better. The socks look comfy. My grandma used to have an Octopus furnace. By the time I came along it had already been converted but we (there were 22 grandchildren) were fascinated by the old coal shoot.

  60. Sending warm thoughts your way. Good luck with the furnace. You’re fortunate that the temps are going up to double digits by Sunday (in the worst case scenario that it can’t be speedily dealt with).
    The colourway of the socks is extraordinary. That Laurie is brilliant.

  61. “My father worked in profanity the way that some artists worked in oils…I’m sure he wove a tapestry of swear words that hangs over Lake Michigan to this day like a black cloud…”
    Oh, one can only wonder what how creative a man can get when he’s been inspired by a woman who can create with something as stout as wool, as opposed to something as flimsy as oil paint:-)

  62. If it gets too cold you could all burrow into the stash to keep warm.
    I love the “call him George” reference. That has become a catchphrase in our house since we recently bought our girls some Looney Tunes DVDs – we had forgotten how violent the old cartoons were! At first the girls watched them with their mouths open and eyes like saucers – after a couple of years of Dora, Higglytown and the like being so sickeningly nice and nauseatingly supportive, watching Daffy and co. hurling anvils at each other and being blown up with TNT and mangled by contraptions from the Acme company was mind-boggling! They love the Looney Tunes and I noticed at Christmas there were more grown-ups in front of the telly when Wily Coyote was being flattened!
    So glad you are feeling better. Love the socks!

  63. Shiraz and socks sound perfect. My washing machine quit (mid cycle, of course), and I did exactly the same, except with the eternal afghan. Harrisville yarn. Bear claw pattern. Looks nice, works fast. Who says avoidance is bad?
    Hope you feel better. My cousin, who should know, says if you drink a glass of water for every one of alcohol, and wait an hour or two after meds to start, all should be good. But he’s not a doctor, just an avid practitioner:)! Feel better soon!

  64. The name of the furnace is REALLY Octopus? That sounds ominous!
    Good warm wishes! At times like these it’s a blessing you live in a wool-lined house, yes?

  65. Those socks are spectacular. I hope you’re furnace is ok. This is a bad time of year to have a broken furnace. Especially in Canada. And, you seem to be in much better spirits today. That is a good thing. There’s nothing under the sun that a nap and some wool won’t fix. Yay!

  66. I would have knit the socks, too, so I guess our priorities are the same. I’m sending warm, working furnace thoughts your way.

  67. Our furnace took a vacation today too. However, I’m in south Louisiana so the difference in temperature is huge. I also have a fireplace and have been sitting in front of it for two days with my feet propped up on the coffee table and knitting away – me, not my feet. My husband was able to solve our problem so maybe Joe can fix yours. Luck!!!!

  68. Those socks are beautiful!!! The yarn was gorgeous on the skein, but even more gorgeous knit into socks!
    Good luck with the furnace. I hope that it doesn’t turn into that scene from A Christmas Story 🙂 I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!

  69. These socks are fantastic! I love, love, love the colors of the yarn and you made the perfect pattern to show it off. Lovely!

  70. Oh geez. Those socks are gorgeous just gorgeous.
    I love A Christmas Story. I hope Joe gets your furnace fixed (without weaving a tapestry of obscenity that is still hanging over Toronto in 2050).

  71. If we were having a Sock Academy Awards, those would win for Best Yarn, Best Sock, Most Useful Sock, Most Attractive Colourway, etc. Just remarkable.
    Stay warm. Play Vivavldi’s “Summer” and knit something yellow. We’re praying that Joe is good with furnaces.

  72. I’m sure you probably have, but just in case. . . . have you thought of running coordinating elastic thread through the back of the ribbing to help keep them up?
    I hear it works like a charm for those longer socks.

  73. Here’s hoping your octopus only has a titch of a non-fatal malaise! Gorgeous socks to distract you at least…

  74. I’m not usually much of a self-striping yarn kinda girl, but That Laurie’s outdone herself… your socks are so beautiful. I adore the colours… they’re striking but harmonious.

  75. Hey, you even knit fast when you’re too sick to knit! When I’m too sick to knit, which is most times I’m sick, I’m too sick to knit for days. My immune system got cheated.

  76. o wow, they ARE totally rockin’, those socks . . i just love that particular combination of colors.
    good luck on the furnace . . we replaced a similiar contraption two years ago and though it is noisier (and was costly, yikes), it is also about 10 times more efficient (read: more money for food and such . . . )

  77. You want to hug them and squeeze them and call them George! No one EVER gets it when I say that! I am totally going to refer them to this blog post when they look at me like I’m crazy.
    And those socks, are Georgeous. I want them.

  78. I grew up in a house that is now 105 yrs old (and my sister currently owns) with a gravity furnace. They DON’T make ’em like that anymore!!
    it is entirely fixable….good luck on keeping warm in the meantime. And I know how hard that will be as we live in NE Ohio and it’s 16 degrees!

  79. Doing furnace wars from the other side of the lake (Buffalo). Shut down half of the house just to have heat…and not much of that. Just me here so I can get away with that kind of trick. Good luck with yours!

  80. I’ve never had a slouch problem with socks, but I’ve heard that you can run elasticized thread through the top rounds to make the ribbing stay up.

  81. Amazingly beautiful yarn knit into amazingly beautiful socks. You are a genius, and so is That Laurie. Hope heat is restored soon. Wool only traps body heat, it doesn’t actually generate heat of its own!

  82. Those socks are outstanding!
    As far a the furnace thing goes, I see by the comments here and by your own trials, that I am NOT the only one battling furnace issues this year. I swear that damned device knows when I have a bit of money and attempts to remove it from me.
    MY solution ( until the damned device is fixed) is to sleep amongst my stash!
    Now, as for you Miss Stephanie, I offer food, warmth,some outstanding cold and flu medicine,a comfy sofa, transportation here to Massachusetts, AND I live only a short 1 hour away from WEBS.

  83. We have a gravity furnace that suddenly quite working during a cold spell last year. Turned out to be the thermocoupler – quick and relatively cheap to fix!

  84. Hey! I learned to swear in front of an Octopus Furnace with my Opa–in German. Ah. . . good times. Good luck with the furnace. The socks are quite cool. How you can finish them so quickly still amazes me (and I’ve seen how fast you are)!

  85. I had a cat once that I hugged and kissed and called George.
    (Seriously, His name was George cause of that Bugs bunny cartoon!)

  86. Ah, I grew up with an Octopus Furnace. We had floor registers that were great to sit on to get warm(you had to move a dog or cat first) but did little to heat the upstairs where I slept. Freezing in winter(Santa brought me an electric blanket instead of lots of toys one year) and hot,hot,hot in summer.Said furnace was in our “Michigan” basement,which is a basement with stone walls and in some places dirt floors. Great for keeping canned goods-scary as hell for a kid. I locked my little brother down there occasionally to show him who was boss.Don’t worry , he wasn’t scarred permanently and he retaliated plenty.
    After I moved out to college my parents updated to a modern forced air furnace with airconditioning no less. Like I always said”My brother got all the good stuff”.
    Beautiful socks! Glad to read you are getting better.

  87. Were you watching the Apes on AMC Canada? Just curious!
    I hope your furnace in better health than mine, it died yesterday and I work up this morning to a temperature of 35 degrees in my bedroom. I have just had it replaced at vast expense but at least the house will be toasty warm when I finally get home from work. Will keep my fingers crossed that yours is just resting and will return to duty very soon.

  88. You story, the sock part reminded me immediately of Robert Munsch’s book “Smelly Socks”, I just read it to my son the other day, it is halarious.

  89. I know exactly what you’re talking about with the ancient furnace. Mine used to burn sawdust until they converted it into oil. When the maintenance guy came to work on it, he tested it and nodded knowingly. “Yep. It’s 64% efficient which is the most you’re going to get out of it. It’s just the way it was built.” And the gravity heat. Yeah it’s quiet but takes an hour to get the chill out of the air. I have a gas furnace now. Best thing I ever done.
    And yeah, Judy’s a genius. Great to knit with too.

  90. i enjoy old silent movies
    yours is just as good- i dont
    have to wait till the next saturday for the
    next chapter on our on going saga and have to
    sit on needles and pins–will he arrive ontime
    stay tuned – be well- i am a type 2
    i get sick and my sugar gives
    all kinds of misery and i just
    take pills its called passing out

  91. It’s a good thing I don’t know where you live…those socks are soooooocooooool.
    *ahem* sorry, that sounded kinda creepy… Maybe all of this fan mail would convince That Laurie to make some more…huh? huh? huh? canshecanshe?!?!?!?!
    Sorry that your furnace caught a cold…We have no concept of that whole ‘cold’ thing here in the Valley of the Sun. I actually turned on the AC at Christmas because all the cooking, people and activity had pushed the temp up in the house so that we were all sweating…btw hysterics ensued here when all the news channels announced a (no really) a frost warning. All the bushes in the neighborhood were covered in sheets =)

  92. I’m very attached to my antique ugly-but-lovely furnace, so best wishes to yours of course.

  93. What fantastic socks. Wow.
    To make this comment do double-duty, I’m so sorry for your year-end crapola. While I know there are a lot of people listening, you know, you’re entitled to a good whine from time to time. You’re the one who reminded us that we’re a community here, and that means that when someone needs a little “poor you” they should come and get it. That said, poor you. Here’s to much better in 2008.

  94. I too grew up with a gravity furnace. It still heats my parents home nice and cozy while taking up a huge amont of space in the center of the basement. I’m glad you “quit”. I couldn’t believe you actually tried to do yoga with a cold. I’ve had my cough for over a week and would love some exercise, but know I need to let my body heal. I only wish I could have stayed home from work to curl up and knit with wine and a classic movie. Keeping my fingers crossed that the furnace is an easy fix.

  95. I absolutely love the socks – love the colours, the stripes, your pattern, the whole thing!
    And my kids and I thought we were the only ones in the world who want to take the things we love and hug them and kiss them and call them George… nice to know we are not alone (we just watched ET)…

  96. No wonder you love those socks they are fabulous! Keeping my fingers crossed that the furnace is ok now. Keep resting that tired bod of yours . it’s busy fighting a war and needs your co operation

  97. I. Covet. Those. Socks.
    The colors are just magnificent.
    We’ve been down in the 20s the past few nights and hereabouts we think that’s COLD, and it’s the very best excuse to pull out the woolies. We are having a warmer spell today, though.
    I sorely miss the old rattle-bang radiators in the first house I ever grew up in and also at my Grandma’s in New Orleans.
    We have central heat and air here in Baton Rouge; and the front of the house is always twice as cold (or warm) as the rear. The A/C is a blessing in our wicked summers but in winter I sure do miss the snuggliness of those old radiators.

  98. Great socks! I love, love, love the colors.
    I will think good thoughts for Joe and his Octopus wrestling.
    Thank you for the shout-out. I appreciate it a lot. I did meet you the last time you were here in Portland, but I was so incredibly and embarrassingly geeky (I blame low blood sugar) that I refuse to admit it was me.

  99. Can I hug and kiss your socks and call them George? I LOVE them! Love the colors, love the pattern, love the yarn!

  100. I now realize that you are the Oprah of the knitting world – or she is the Harlot of television talk shows – whichever! Anything that you show us we all, every gazillion thousand of us, must have right now! Does That Laurie ever sell ANY of her hd, hs yarn? I mean to the rest of the world?? It is truly mean of you to flaunt your gorgeous new yarn and stunning sock skills when a few of us have more UFOs than we can count……I’m beginning to sound like my kids years ago – “I want it! I want it!” And I already have some other scrumptious yarns in the stash….I just can’t knit fast enough!

  101. We’ve got an Octopus (we live in Minne-snow-ta), and I can definitely say: if you can at all save the poor bugger, do so! If it hasn’t died a horrible death and you can revive it, I heartily recommend it. Gravity furnaces might be huge beasts, and they might be unwieldy to fix sometimes, but I think they’re far superior to forced air furnaces. First of all, with an Octopus you’re not blasting air (and dust, and allergens, and germs, and mold spores, and wool fuzz) through ducts—you’re letting gravity and the properties of heat rising do the work. (Plus, grates are better than ducts and far less unsightly.) Also, having lived in places with forced air furnaces that have all broken and needed repair at some point, I’m convinced that gravity furnaces are just made better. We almost got rid of our Octopus last year when a dishonest repair guy said it was beyond hope. Well, guess what: it was just a pilot light problem, and the repair guy just didn’t know how to deal with an old furnace. So anyway, tread carefully with repair guys, research all your options thoroughly, and keep knitting warm clothing!

  102. Wow – the pictures on that blog don’t do justice to the octopi I’ve known. When I was a very young child, back in the early 50’s, we lived on the 2nd floor of a a 2 flat with my aunt, her husband, & my uncle & grandma living on the first floor. It still had the gas lighting tubes (which were live as I discovered much to my mother’s consternation when she heard the hiss of escaping gas!) & the first floor was heated by an octopus – I still remember the huge ducts that really looked like fat octopus tentacles all over the dirt floored basement. My uncle (aunt’s husband rather) had to get up early to feed the furnace & then there was something to be done late at night – putting the embers to bed. People used the cinders from the coal fire on icy walks instead of salt. Our apartment had space heaters – but gasoline or wood burning – not natural gas. As small & inconvenient as those apartments were with their small rooms (esp the bedrooms), I loved the turret in the corner of the living rooms & the pocket doors between the living & dining rooms & the 10′ ceilings & bullseye molding. I was 10 when we moved to a new house in the suburbs & hated its’ blandness & the fact that it looked very much like every other house around there.

  103. That is some speedy knitting there, girl. Of course, the goal was worthy of the effort – really gorgeous socks. My recently completed socks have the same cast-on and cast-off… love ’em both. Good luck with the furnace. In the meantime, thank goodness you have a new stove. Turn the oven on and hunker down in the kitchen!

  104. An Octopus gravity furnace? You should be fine! I look forward to hearing that it’s all well again. I am sending good furnace thoughts. I grew up in the heating business. We appreciate good, solid furnaces. Once I almost bought a house because it had one of those furnaces. The house was too small for my needs, and my daughter would have had to sleep in a trundle bed in the living room, but it was tempting anyway because of the heating system.

  105. Love the socks, but I have to comment on the ol’ Octopus. I adore mine. Especially the first time you turn it on for the season-the way it smells, and the clanks/ticks it makes. Who needs modern heating systems?

  106. I *love* octopus heaters! They’re surprisingly efficient and completely silent. The last house I lived in had one, although sadly it kept cutting out the last winter I lived there and was eventually torn out. I did swipe the doors to the octopus off the salvage truck as a memento.
    Gorgeous socks. I can see how you’d be distracted from the cold.

  107. I’m in the middle of a serious case of sock envy. I’ve started my second “practice” sock (little tiny sock which won’t cause me to kill myself if it self-destructs) and I’m hooked. Bad. I’m waiting for some sock yarn to be delivered as I write this, but evidently the sheep can run faster than the UPS guy, and I’m STILL WAITING…
    I hope you have some heat by now. It’s a bit chilly here too, but nothing that five cats on my lap and on my feet can’t fix. Take care of yourself…

  108. Oh, yeah, meant to tell you that I got the black laceweight merino (DWB Drawing). It’s gorgeous and I’m incredibly intimidated by it. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’m going to sneak up on it soon while it’s not looking and make a shawl with it. Thank you!

  109. Your socks are beautiful and I hope your furnace is working again….and I have a question…how do you like the garter stitch cardigan from Fleece Artist that you made? Is it wearable? Do you like it?

  110. I love the yarn for the socks, it reminds me of the Knit Picks self-striping sock yarn, in Pebble. Really, really pretty colors!

  111. Gorgeous yarn and beautiful socks!
    We’ve known for some time now that Judy Becker is a knitting goddess, so it’s wonderful to see her getting more and more recognition. 🙂 Can’t wait to hear her tell tales of massive blog hits coming from your blog!
    Hope the furnace is an easy fix!

  112. Hopefully Joe can repair the furnace, but if it has to be replaced it might free up room to create another spot to store your stash…. I have sock envy!

  113. The socks are beautiful!! I really like the color combination. As for your furnace .. I feel for you. This must be the weekend for broken furnaces. Our furnace will not light at all. Even though I live in Connecticut, USA and it is probably warmer here than in Canada where you are, it is still freakin’ cold in the house.
    I love your blog and hope 2008 will be even better for you …
    Thanks!
    Miss Emily

  114. The socks are beautiful. And I appreciate the slouch information. Does that also happen to the short socks? I’ve become adept at anklet knitting because sagging socks bother me. Sorry about the furnace. At times like that I’ve blessed the small woodstove we have. Messy but cozy. Hope it’s already worked out.

  115. Best of luck with the furnace…. they always misbehave at the coldest possible times….
    LOVE your blog and have given your Book “At Knit’s End” to several Knitting friends.
    Hope you realize just how inspiring you are to so many of us !! You truly are a Knitting Goddess !
    I wish you all quiet healing time you need. :o)
    Christiann in chilly snowy NB

  116. Drop dead gorgeous socks! I’m creeping ever closer to making my first pair….we just moved to a colder climate and DArN! They don’t seem to make attractive WARM socks for women and my boyfriend is getting tired of missing socks…
    My sympathies to you and your aging furnace – warm thoughts being sent your way.

  117. We have two furnaces downstairs. The previous family built an addition and instead of installing more steam radiators, went baseboard on the new side – hence two furnaces. I loved the OLD furnace. Because when the electricity went out we had HEAT. Even though they are both gas, the newer models require electricity to start. Something to think about.
    Hmmm… If you can’t get a washing machine out of your cellar, would you be able to get the Octopus out or a new furnace in??

  118. That was pretty timely on the furnace. It’s supposed to be really mild for the next three days at least.

  119. I got The Yarn Harlot for Christmas and have enjoyed it immensely. I have two suggestions for your next book. Since we all lose tape measures, why not print a ruler on the back cover of the book? That might help with the lost tape measures all over the world. (I just had another thought. How about putting it across the bottom of the book jacket so we can use it for pesky gauges?) The other suggestion is that you put your books on tape so we can listen and knit at the same time?

  120. Love the socks!
    That furnance is something else! I think the old ways are often better and things made back there are much more reliable than the new stuff they have today. Wish my house had a furnance like that! But I can’t complain too much the one I have is oringinal to this house (1969) and with only minor tunes up is still working perfectly.
    Stay warm!

  121. hey Harlot I took one look at that furnace and went right back to my childhood in this house. That’s a pretty familiar looking unit. We too had a converted coal furnace (my brother still remembers the coal coming in the basement window) It was converted to oil and used to scare the willies out of me in the night as another feature of this old house is that the bathroom is in the basement (which meant confronting the furnace on your way) The house was built so long ago that it featured le shack out back . Just in case you think I’m out in the boonies this house is in Toronto and its cousin next door still had le shack out back when my folks moved in in 1954! Good luck with the old girl my Mother replaced ours at least 25 years ago and we replaced the replacement (and yes it was all new duct work, you gotta be 5’4″or under to cruise around my basement without dinging yourself)

  122. The socks look wonderful! I really like those colours together, too. I have to get cracking at my Yukon Leaves socks…they go pretty fast, but I just need to sit down and knit them.

  123. Thanks so much for the links and the walk-through on these gorgeous socks. And good luck with the furnace. Replaced ours a few years ago when we had to replace the air-conditioners. we had to have some new ducts, too, but the installers did it with a minimum of fuss. I was very impressed. Here’s hoping you won’t need to replace yours but if you do, that the installers are equally impressive.
    Thinking warm thoughts for you,
    Barb

  124. I agree that if those were my socks, I would never take them off either. Beautiful work that my spinning skills aspire to. I’ll think good thoughts on the furnace for you.

  125. Gorgeous socks. That yarn is delightful and I love the fact that they’re longer than average socks. Best wishes with your furnace woes.

  126. I am glad you are starting to feel better. A good pair of handknit socks hot off the needles seems like it was just the thing. They are just beautiful. It’s only 50*F (11*C) here, so I’ll be sending warm toasty thoughts your way

  127. I covet That Laura’s Spinning Ability. Just amazing.
    Always thought the furnace sounded like a monster when I was a kid— but you have an octopus heating your house…..you DO have a monster in the basement!;) (maybe it tri[pped you on the steps- the beginning of it’s rebellion)
    Hope you’re healing well, and the furnace fix is minor….even with all that wool insulating the house- you gotta have heat! stay warm!

  128. I lurve your socks! The colors are just beautiful. And I can’t believe how fast you finished them.
    We replaced our old octopus furnace this year (together with the asbestos-covered ducts). We figured it was probably installed when the house was built in 1930. It was about 50% efficient, which meant we were just throwing half our dollars away every winter. It clanked and clanked whenever it started up, which always made me feel like it was thinking about blowing up. We now have a 92% efficient furnace that is nearly silent, and it’s heating the house nicely, with no icy-cold spots, and there’s no condensation on the windows. It cost a whole mint of money, but it should save some since heating bills are rising by a significant amount.

  129. Beautiful socks! I was listening to ‘At Knit’s End’ on my mp3 player while waiting for the dog to get out of surgery yesterday. It was so nice to hear your smile on a not so great day. Thanks.

  130. Now that I think about it, I can’t believe the furnace has gone unnamed. How on earth does Sir Washie address him?

  131. I am rarely envious. Thinking to myself, I can make something similar no problem. But, when its magical fiberliciousness, well that is another story. Beautiful knitting, and a gorgeous hand dyed, handspun yarn! Thanks for sharing. Feel better!

  132. Just to say how you feel about the furnace, we replaced ours about 4 years ago with a Trane, happy with it, does well in these cold Wisconsin winters. Luck and love the socks.
    Kris

  133. It’s always fun when the heat goes off–I remember preparing for a dinner party many years ago, and my bread dough wouldn’t rise, wherever I put it. The penny didn’t fall until the guests had gone home & the house felt so cold. We’d had fondue, and a bit to drink, so kept warm that way for the evening! In our current house, we replaced a furnace that could have housed a family of 4 with an oversize attache case–it does make a difference in the furnace room. But give your cramped stair situation, you might not be able to evict your octopus! The socks are stupendous–knitting (like firewood) warms you twice! Happy New Year

  134. When I see That Laurie’s spinning ability, it makes me want to quit everything, go live on a mountaintop somewhere and do nothing but practice spinning for the rest of my life. Either that or just give up and set fire to my wheel. And the things you do with her yarn!!

  135. Man… I wish that I could knit socks that fast. I started mine just a couple of days ago and I’m only just past the toe.

  136. Want to hug them and kiss them and call them George
    As we often say in the RPG I run, reference ftw!
    Great socks. Makes me want to knit a pair despite all the insane stuff I currently have on the needles.

  137. The socks are fabulous! How do you knit so fast? Best wishes for a wounded but not fatally injured furnace…

  138. Love the socks :o) I’ve never really gotten into sock knitting, but I have to say that I am truely envious of those socks. Love the yarn, love the colors, love the length, I think I might be inspired to try sock knitting once again.

  139. I absolutely ADORE the socks. They are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Do you have a pattern for them? I want them. If you ever stop liking them, just send them to me. I promise I’ll take good care of them. 🙂 Feel better soon.

  140. I love Planet of the Apes! I saw them when I was so little and they fascinated and scared me to death. Tell me what kind of a 5 yr old is savvy enough to be scared of seeing the Statue of Liberty beneath sand? How did I even know what the SoL was? Too many questions.
    I still like to watch the series every few years.
    Roddy McDowell seems so gentle somehow.
    Also – you make me laugh out loud:
    (For the record…I think that’s how this girl I knew in high school graduated, but I digress.)
    The socks are perfection to look at – they have got to be warm!
    Hopefully Joe can fix your furnace so you don’t freeze, I’ve heard it’s really cold at your end of the country.

  141. I hope you can fix the gravity furnace. I love mine. Gravity heat is so much warmer than forced air.
    Oh yea, the socks are fab.

  142. The most wunnerful socks and you are rude to show us/tell us/then we can’t get that same yarn! I am going to use your recipe/pattern/whatever you call it for my next pair of socks.

  143. I have but one question: What are you doing wearing my socks?!! “It’s mine, it’s mine, it’s all mine!”

  144. Those are by far the most beautiful socks I’ve ever seen! If they were mine, I’d be wearing them right now, and it’s freaking 60F at 11:00 pm!!! If the furnace is no more, please feel free to come down to Texas & visit for as long as you want.
    P.S. Or just send the socks – I’ll give them a really good home!

  145. Those socks are fabulous. I have a gravity flow furnace that has her own room in the basement and I call her Bertha. She occasionally doesn’t kick on and I have to go down to the basement and tap a certain place on her belly to get her to go. I love not having to depend on electricity to get the heat blown into the house….gravity is a wonderful thing! I am praying that Bertha will live longer than me. I will cry if she ever dies. Her ducts are about 24 inches in diameter…now those are some impressive ducts!!

  146. It’s HOT today here – the Husband went out for his Daily Constitutional wearing shorts (true story!) I believe it got up to 40 ABOVE! Those socks are dreamy and I have to thank you for the carrot: I’ve promised myself that – *first thing* when I finish the last of my commissioned toques (two down four to go, one on the needles) I am IMMEJITLY make your Knitting Rules socks. I don’t have that luscious yarn but I’m (painfully) easy to entertain and have some yummy Reggia in the stash aging. Now, where was I???

  147. spectacular socks. really.
    gorgeous colors – so well done.
    hope the furnace just needs a teensy amount of electrical tweeking.

  148. Those socks are just beautiful. And btw, as it seems that we have similar tastes in movies, I highly recommend I am Legend. Totally Rocks (Will smith gives an incredible performance).

  149. OK I’ve been dreaming about those socks all night. I read your post yesterday. I love love love that colorway. Way to go That Laurie!
    Hope the furnace wars don’t continue for you.

  150. Hey, this sounds like an excuse to do a midwinter version of the Furnace Wars . . . I’m guessing you’d win.
    Love those socks!

  151. Burrow into the stash. My house has been cold (not because of the furnace not working but because of me not working, so we’re keeping the heating bill down) and I’ve been sitting here with wool socks, sweater, silk long underwear, and 3 600 yard skeins of wool on my lap.
    I’m toasty. It must be warm, the cats are competing for lap space, too.
    (I’m petting the wool, ok? It just finished drying after being dyed and it’s SO PRETTY)

  152. those REALLY are beautiful socks! i think i will have to keep my resolution this year to actually knit my first pair of socks! 🙂

  153. Sadly, I’ve done it.
    Whenever you haven’t had time to post for a while, Stephanie, I just go to your archives and read some blog posts I’ve never seen. I began at the beginning and today, can you believe it? I hit November 16, 2006, which is the very first blog entry of yours I ever read. This means I’ve finished them ALL! No more new posts to help me through the lulls. Would you consider adding on to some of the archived posts sometime … kind of like as an emergency ration kit?
    LOVE your new socks. I’ve begun my first toe-up sock and did fine with figure 8 casting on, but will definitely try your Magic Cast-On for the next pair.
    And give serious thought to the emergency blog post thing.
    Happy New Year, (and I’ll pray for your furnace)
    ~ Dar

  154. Stephanie,
    I love your blog. It is the only one I read regularly. I can’t say what I love the most lately. I think the collective scarf is brilliant. I deeply appreciate the lessons and lessons learned and references to other great knitters and knitting ideas. I so look forward to 2008 with you! Happy New Year!

  155. Holy Crap! I knew you were a fast knitter…but jeez…I’ll be lucky if I get my Boyfriends socks done by Valentine’s Day. Nice work.

  156. LOVE the socks and that yarn!!!! I’d definately buy some if it was ever made available.

  157. Thanks to the link to “Grendil.” I, too, have a 1924 octopus furnace just like it. When I was contemplating the advantages of the octopus versus a hewer furnace, my friend’s brother who is an electrical engineer said keep the octopus. It’s quiet, efficient and has no moving parts to break. Taking it out would involve asbestos removal which is really expensive. I kept it and it continues to keep me toasty our frigid midwest winters. Hope you can keep it going for many more years!

  158. I am glad you are feeling a little better. i was sooo worried about you the other day. All those falls, and the flu, and…wow. BTW, are you taking arnica for all those bruises? It really helps speed the healing and is excellent for bruises.
    The socks are a marvel. Beautiful yarn. Great knitting, of course!
    I am crossing my fingers too for the furnace.

  159. “Hug them and kiss them and call them George”
    I always loved that line. It’s nice to know others quote Looney Toons too.

  160. I live in a 1923 Spanish Colonial bungalow (we live in California) and are the proud possessors of a Payne Floor Furnace. We thought about replacing it but it still keeps the house toasty. These things are almost indestructable. I have every confidence that yours will be up and running quickly.

  161. I would love to have an old heater like that! We live in a 100+ year old house with a new heater that is too small for out house. (It came with it) We use a wood stove to heat most of it, lucky got us. I hope you feel better soon. I have the plague as well. It is no fun. I am sure Joe can fix your heater.

  162. You are right. Those are utterly, completely, and unequivocally gorgeous, and although I’ve always done my socks cuff down, I’d’ve knit upside down to use up every single centimeter of that yarn, too.
    Hand dyed and spun from fleece? Oooooooh. Ahhhhhhhh.
    I’m glad you’re feeling better.

  163. My husband watched ALL of the Planet of the Apes movies. I’d had enough about halfway through the third! Recently had to replace OUR vey old boiler (gas; steam heat)because it had obviously cracked inside. But that baby was about 50 years old, and probably would have kept on going if we had been nicer to it (you have to fill and bleed them regularly–key word: regularly!) hope you don’t need a new one, ’cause, damn! They’re expensive! (got our new one through Sears, and we can pay it off for a year with no interest because we used our Sear’s card).

  164. Lovely socks. I understand the slouch attitude; I didn’t get the heel size correct on the second pair I knit but I continue to wear them and don’t much care because they have purple stripes.
    I looked at a couple houses while buying that had the gravity furnace. The house inspector said that they were great and worked with few problems until they decided to drop dead and then it was all over. Hope it’s minor.

  165. OK. Am using your Sock Love to fire up my first sock this evening. I signed up for a sock class at Stitches West so I need to get some sock time under my fingers before then! Gorgeous beautiful socks.

  166. Two Words: Sock Garters!!
    My husband picked up pair this New Year’s and they are sexy as all get out.

  167. I thought I loved the yarn *before* it was socks, but it’s even more stunning now. Hope it helped your R&R, and hope that the furnace cooperates so you don’t need even more R&R.

  168. Steph: I love, love, love the socks. I sure hope you feel better soon. You’ve taken a “lickin” as we say in Tennessee. Even when you are sick you make me laugh out loud. And I admire your patience with Joe over the computer stuff. I would be acting very ugly over my pics. Love you.

  169. I loved the pictures of the Octopus furnace. I have never seen anything like it. I do remember our neighbors having one that big in their basement but it didn’t look like that ( it was in the late 1950’s).
    Keep it going if you can. The modern ones may claim to heat better but my experience is that they don’t pour the heat out like the old timers do. If it is efficient as the blog says then here’s hoping Joe can keep her going.
    May the furnace be with you!

  170. >>Want to hug them and kiss them and call them George.<<
    It’s been years (ok, decades) since I’ve heard this! I stopped using it because people would look at me funny. How did they miss Looney Tunes?
    The socks are gorgeous!

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