First Class Cancelled for a Snow Day!!

Yup, we are getting the top end of the big storm that the news says is "paralyzing" cities, airports and general life everywhere. And the sensible thing to do was to cancel the class. I don't want to get in my car, so why would I expect anyone else to.

So, what am I doing instead? Working a bit on "Support the Girls", knitting a bit and wrestling with the most impossible skein of yarn I have encountered in nearly 50 years of knitting (yes, I did start very young ha ha).

Here is a picture of the mess, sitting next to the "unemployed" ball winder, since I can't make hide nor hair of the tangles in this skein. I am winding very small balls by hand. Why, you ask? Because I have finished a first sock for my dear hubby and need enough for its mate.

I am sorely tempted to toss the whole thing in the garbage, but that is not in my nature. So I have been tackling it, little by little, for the past few days. Grrrrr - what a waste of time. There is nothing therapeutic about doing this - EVER!

Rick loves homemade socks - they are his favourite thing for me to make for him. And usually, they are sooooo easy. But January 2011 has been a generally challenging "sock month" for me. It started when he showed me that he had worn through the heel of three pairs of his socks. Not the back of the heel that touches the shoe, but the bottom of the heel, which seems an odd place to wear out.

I found a patch idea online and decided to try it. 

You pick up stitches below the hole and knit to the length you need. 

You pick up stitches above the hole.

Use the Kitchener stitch to graft the stitches together.

Then you simply tack down the sides of the patch.  

It was surprisingly easy and quick. I worried it might be uncomfortable under foot. So, after doing one, I had Rick put it on to see how it felt inside his shoe. No point in continuing if it felt lumpy.  But victory was mine, as he said he couldn't even feel it.

Lessons learned from all of this patching experience. I will now knit all his socks out of steel wool. Well, not quite, but I will use wool that has some nylon in it to reinforce the heel. No more soft merino for his socks - I will save that for mine. I will also consider reinforcing the new socks (see this article on knitty.com)

And once this second sock is done, I will hurl the rest of this horrid skein into the trash - with glee.