Eating & Drinking Again

The mouth is improving day by day although I liked it better when the Silly Putty bandage covered everything!! I'm supposed to brush gently with a very soft brush - doesn't matter how gently you brush, you make it sore, dammit!! And I can't chew on that side either but I managed to scarf down two whole bags of baby bok choy with Chinese sausage & six red grapefruit in two days!! I have missed all the green veggies & citrus fruit I normally eat!! Nothing like a trip to the Chinese grocery store to whet the appetite for Lettuce Rolls with hot sauce, BBQ Pork, Chinese Sausage & my favorite Pu-erh tea!! I think about moving away from the Rat Race in the Lower Mainland & then remember my tea, the Lettuce Rolls, BBQ pork, Sushi & Goat Curry . . .

I HAVE been doing other things besides eating. I promised a pair of wild socks to a second Motorcycling Mama with small feet so I cast on when I got my new Harmony DPs. Good thing this MM has SMALL feet because those needles are also short - not as short as the full set I bought but a little too short for me to work my magic with FOUR needles!! I now know why they include SIX to the set. It isn't to cover breakage, it's so you can knit a full sock. Here's an example - I'm about halfway into the increases for the heel shaping & there's just too many stitches for one needle! Since my heel is K1, S1, I can't break that part up onto two needles easily, I could put each one of the gusset increases onto it's own needle I suppose or do what I did on the other sock & just use a circ. I love the feel & look of the Harmony sock needles but they just aren't long enough for me to work with. I just don't find them comfortable & I'd never be able to knit a man's sock with them, that's for sure. Too bad because they're really nice.

The second sock is on two circs - not my preferred method of sock knitting but I can work with it. I had to put the stitches on the circs in order to finish the gussets & turn the heel since it was just too awkward to use THREE needles for the heel shaping. I don't have any other needles in this size so I had only the two options. I wish the Harmony needles came about 2 inches longer - 4 inches longer & I'd buy a whole set!!!! I'll probably end up making some more bamboo skewer needles in the 2 & 2.25mm size this summer. I have a 2.50mm set that I use constantly for men's socks. The whole bag was in the 2.50mm size - just lightly sanded them & rubbed them with greasy fleece! I've never broken one - I probably will now that I mentioned it!! But, I prefer the 2.25 for my socks. It's amazing, but that little .25mm does make a big difference!!

And then there's my gloves! I've been having fun with the gloves. I decided some of the wild colors looked too garish in the middle of them so I yanked it out & found other colors that looked nicer. I've finished the second finger & my only problem has been the hole at the base of the finger where you cast on a few stitches between picking up the front stitches & the back ones. I've messed with the cast-on a little but still have a hole. So, before I do any more fingers, I have to figure out how to get rid of that hole. It makes me crazy! Other than that, Gloves are easy & fun to make!! By the time I figure out the hole problem, it will probably be too warm for gloves . . . .

I found two boxes & one big bag of sock yarn leftovers - I'm sure there's even more lurking in the bags, boxes & bins around here too. I found a couple of pictures of afghans made up of leftovers but I sure don't have the patience to sew up a bunch of tiny mitred squares - hell, I don't even want to sew up the big ones!!! I am thinking about a Log Cabin style afghan with very large squares - less sewing - or starting a rectangle for the centre & then rotating it 90 degrees, picking up stitches and knitting another. Each rectangle is built upon the one preceding it & spirals slowly to the outside as it gets bigger with NO SEWING. You can end it at any point or keep on adding to it for years. Might be the ideal way to use up those constant leftovers.