When, Oh When, Will It End?

I am surfacing through a haze of conjunctivitis, strep throat, and dishpan hands (from excessive washing) to bring you my latest FOs. I meant to post several witty and creative blog entries this past week, but I'm afraid we are under heavy siege from viruses and bacteria in this house - as well as the above-mentioned afflictions, my five-year-old has tonsillitis (aside - it's amazing how well antibiotics work when you never use them...the last time Charlotte had amoxicillin she was two years old and had pneumonia. Now, three years later, it only took a couple of hours for the raging infection to succumb to the meds.) so I haven't had a chance to be either witty or creative.

I have, however, had a chance to do a little reading, which made a nice change, and finish up the long-awaited Children's Socks.

First, the reading. As soon as I became too sick to knit, I picked up Family Tree. Barbara Delinsky is a popular author with whom I'm entirely unfamiliar, but I enjoyed this book nonetheless. It is a nice bit of light reading, with the bonus of a fair dose of knitting content - the main character is a knitter who grew up in and around her grandmother's rural yarn shop. Good stuff. You can tell that either Delinsky really does know how to knit, or she took some extensive pains to appear legitimate. Her character takes four or five knitting projects to the hospital where she is about to give birth, she knits for emotional healing, and she frogs relentlessly. There is a definite Ring of Truth.

Being bound to my bed (not literally, unfortunately - ha ha) gave me a chance to finish up the infamous children's socks, which have been hanging over my head since last fall. There are two pairs, one each for a set of my nieces whose mother loathes knitting, but who are quite keen to try it themselves. Apparently there was some begging and pleading going on for socks of their own, and despite my reasonable expectation of ultimate rejection, I decided to go for it anyway. Here are the results.


Pair the First: Spiral Rib Socks
Pattern: my own. Toe-up, 2X1 rib, moving 1 stitch over every four rows. Stockinette sole, short-row heel, 1X1 twisted rib cuff for the last 4 inches.
Yarn: Paton's Kroy in Winter Eclipse, 75% wool, 25% nylon.
Needles: 2 2.25mm and 1 2.75mm steel Susan Bates circular (two-circ and magic loop methods)
Tension: Dunno. Too lazy to get up and measure. I'm guessing about 8.5 sts over 1 inch in stockinette.
Cast On: Around November 15, 2006
Bound Off: March 8, 2007
Notes: First, how cute are those little five-year-old legs? I could just eat them up.
After the short-row heel, I decreased a couple of stitches at the centre back of the ankle, where I find this type of heel fits a bit too loosely. We'll see how the child likes it.

I decided to make these as long as possible, so that the eight-year-old who is destined to wear them would have some options, but to tell the truth I got so bored by the time I had knitted an 11" cuff that I had to bind off to keep myself from going completely barking mad.



Pair the Second: Purple Pixies
Pattern: my own. Toe-up 3X1 rib, stockinette sole, short-row heel, with 1X1 rib for 1" on cuff.
Yarn: Paton's Astra 100% Acrylic in Lilac (now called Hot Lilac, for some reason) with unlabelled purple eyelash stash yarn at ankle.
Needle: 3.25mm unmarked steel circular, magic loop method, and 2.5mm ancient Boye steel crochet hook for trim.
Tension: about 6 sts per inch in stockinette.
Cast On: September 1, 2006
Bound Off: October 1, 2006. Crochet added and ends woven in: March 9, 2007 (shameful)
Notes:
I like these socks - especially the colour and the eyelash crochet. The only thing is, the crochet does make the ribbing a little looser at the top. Luckily they are only ankle socks, so this shouldn't matter too much...I'd make them again - they make nice slipper socks with the slightly heavier yarn.

Now, I just have to send these off, and see what the verdict is.