The way that sock is

Hello Poppets, and thanks for waiting here for me. I’ve been in over my head for a few days, and today’s the first time the fog of overbooking myself has cleared enough to find my way to my desk for anything other than a sigh of regret.  Jen and I swept two rides on the weekend. (“Sweeping” is riding slower than the slowest rider, making sure nobody gets left behind.) It’s fun, but exhausting, and Sunday’s ride was marked by a beginning in a torrential downpour, that then left us riding the remaining 95km in soggy clothes and shoes, as the rain stopped, and the sun came out, and Southern Ontario was transformed into a steambath.  (I am proud of the lack of profanities I used on that ride.)  Monday we had a Team Leader thing, and yesterday… fine.  I fell asleep.  I took my laptop to the couch and put it on my lap and started to type something to you about how I felt about my hamstrings, and whammo.  I woke up about three hours later, and I’m not sorry either.  There’s a big challenge headed my way, and by wool, I can’t go into it tired. I struggle enough without stacking the proverbial deck against me.  When I woke up, I didn’t write a blog either. I knit. I had a feeling that’s the way the lot of you would have it.

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I’m plugging along on the Starry Starry Night Socks, and have encountered a problem.  (First, there’s the fact that my monthly sock deadline blew by me yesterday like cashmere at a 50% off sale, but I’m not talking about that right now.) I’m at the toe of these beautiful socks, and I decided long ago that these were for me.  They were fitting (mostly) and I love them.  I kept imagining the part where I wrapped them up and gave them away, and I wasn’t able to do so without feeling resentment towards the intended recipient, so I gave up.  I’m sure the occasional bout of knitterly selfishness can be forgiven, so that’s it.  The problem is that I have (like many knitters) a little bit of an obsessive streak, and in my heart I know that these socks must end at the finish of a star. I can’t see anyway at all that a half star would be fetching at the top, and so that’s where I’m stopping.

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Last night I knit to the end of the stars, and this morning I proudly stuck it on my foot, ready to begin the toe.  I’m spot on for gauge, and the pattern says that the toe adds about 2.5″ to the foot, and that’s where I’m screwed. I have particularly short feet, and knitting the prescribed toe onto it at this point will make the sock too long for me. The way I see it, I have some choices.

A) I can knit the thing as I’m told, following the pattern and putting a very fetching and proper toe on the end, and accept that I’ve knit another bloody brilliant Christmas present, and accept that destiny has punished the petite footed, once again. (Also a point of consideration is that this sock is actually a tiny bit big for me all over, but up until now I had chosen to ignore that entirely, and I think I can continue to do that.)

B) I can pull the work back, and start the toe 3/4 of the way through a star, and get over my idea that there needs to be a whole star at the end, and actually now that I think about it I don’t even know why I’m putting that option on this list, because it would totally ruin the whole thing.

C) I can rework the toe so that it ends sooner, and have a slightly less fetching sock, although probably still a very good one, and I’ll just have to think over a little math.

D) I could rip back the entire sock and work it on a smaller set of needles so that it’s… screw it. That’s actually not a real choice.

E)  Actually, I can’t think of another option.  Can you?

Shall we move onto presents? I can’t thank you guys enough for the magic you worked on my pledge page.  Knitters, man. You’re not normal people. The fun I’ve had over the last few days explaining that it’s a knitting blog and a mutual love of yarn that’s doing all this has been nothing short of extraordinary.  You haven’t lived until you’ve  seen the looks on the faces of the Rally Leadership as they look at me, look at my knitting and try to figure you all out.  It’s delicious, and I can’t thank you enough, so PRESENTS.

First up, the completely gorgeous Rachel Coopey has donated a copy of her book Coop Knits Socks (It’s a great one) and will be sending it to Keeley S!

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The lovely Lee has a beautiful skein of IndigoDragonfly’s 50/50 wool/silk fingering weight (and unless I miss my guess, that’s the rather amazing colourway “beige“) and she’ll be mailing it – prewound and everything, to Lacey P.

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Next, the incomparable Maureen has a charming gift.  She’s donating all 28 of her patterns to Chrissy M…

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and the best part? Maureen says that Chrissy can keep them or share them as she wishes, and Maureen will email them wherever. Nice, right? (The patterns are darned nice too. You should click that link.)

Last (but oh my, so just only for today) is a beautiful gift from Jaime, at Yay for J.

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She makes lovely handwoven scarves, and the scarf of Kim R’s choice will be on it’s way to her shortly. (Obviously, since I was in charge of stealing pictures, I like that one.)

Thanks so much to all of you, and know that there will be scads more presents tomorrow… there just won’t be a blog post today if I don’t stop here today.

Thanks everyone!