Yo La Tejo

I'm going back to bed.

Was anyone else thrown off by this whole "spring ahead" business? I could barely get out of bed today and I thought it was just me, but then when I compared notes with some of my friends, it turned out that we'd all been stricken by this malaise. How is it possible that one measly hour can throw you off for two whole days? (Maybe I'll just milk it indefinitely..."Yeah, I'm pretty tired. The whole daylight savings thing threw me off." "But it's Memorial Day.")

Those of you who have been with me for a while know that I am given to the occasional non-knitting, political rant. I do not have a rant at this time, but I feel compelled to say one thing about the current wave of anti-immigration sentiment. I won't go on at length; others have put more time and effort into analyzing and countering this hysteria.

All I wanna say is: it's an election year. Hi?! This is not a new issue, yet the public is being expertly manipulated (even cornered) into taking extreme positions on this so that they can take their anger right to the polls. Happened last time, with the gays and their crazy demands to be treated equally by the law. Sound familiar? People, don't let those pinheads in Washington do your thinking for you.

Bueno! On with the knitting content.

Things have been very nice around here at Chez Yo la Tejo. The knitting goes slowly, but it goes. However, I was surprised by the lovely blog button that Claire made for me! Just out of the blue, she goes and sends me this wonderful gift. I never would have made it for myself, since it was challenging enough to get my banner up (and took me a while to realize that the skewed template caused half my readers to try and read pink text on a pink background as a result--sorry, guys!).

So here's the button, if buttons are your thing. Yay! Be sure and visit Claire, who's a kindred spirit politically and musically (who else loves Lyle and Lucinda as psychotically as I do?). And! who has a lovely FO to show off.



How are you all doing with your Sockapaloooza socks? My sock sister, checking in with us today, wrote about the "not-sures." Ina sez:

"They're not sure their pal will like their socks, not sure the socks will fit, etc, etc. Some proceed; some turn back. I'm afraid I know of no cure for such existential doubt. Zen masters sometimes administer a brisk bop alongside the head, but I'm no Zen master and that's impracticable in cyber-space."

Am I suffering from the "not sures"? Well, as I recently posted, I'm done with one sock and am making good progress on the second cuff. I love my Hill Country Yarn; can't say enough good things about the gorgeous colors in the Pecan Tree colorway. If you're a green-loving person, you have to get yourself a skein of this stuff. The colors go from bright green (the color of a new leaf), to true green, to forest green, then dark olive green right before it turns brown.

Knitted up, the fabric does remind me of peeking through the dark brown branches of a big tree and looking at all the different hues of green in the leaves, depending on which were being highlighted by the sun and which were tucked away in the shade. I also ordered a skein of Longhorn Orange from Hill Country, and while it's lovely, it doesn't have the same kind of color variations as this colorway.

I'm also enjoying the Rib and Cable pattern I'm using from IK Fall 2005. Encouraged by Laura and finding much success on Sheep and No City, I decided on this pattern even though my cabling experience is limited. It's super easy, though...you only cable once every eight rounds, and the rest is knitting the ribs.

When I started turning the heel and found that the short rows involved yarnovers, I began to have doubts. Ashley was of the opinion that the YO short row is a tool of Satan, but I decided to blithely (and perhaps foolishly) forge ahead. My sock-making experience is sorta limited, so I decided to use this as a learning experience and see exactly what would happen with these durned YOs.

Well, it turns out that the variegated yarn hides those little holes pretty well. There's only one visible on the ankle, and if it bothers me enough, I might take a little needle and thread and close it. Cheating? Yes. Do I care? Not really. I'm the girl who uses band-aids when a strapless bra is not available. Just call me the MacGyver of knitting (and support garments, apparently).

The toe also threw me for a loop, initially. I started decreasing at the three corners where the dpns met, instead of on the two sides. Huh? I thought it was going to look like a cone. Who has a cone-shaped foot? But I decided to have a little faith, and kept going, and well, who knew? It looks OK.

Here's the front:



And the back:



The purl 2 togethers they have you do look like little stitches, and are actually kind of cute.

So if I love the yarn, and am satisfied with the pattern, what am I not sure about? Oh god, people, the FIT! Will this thing FIT? I've measured and re-measured, stuffed my arm into the cuff, checked the pattern specs, and all indications are that it probably will fit. My friends, all reasonable people, have tried to reassure me. Yet I remain paralyzed by doubt.

And yet, I must knit on. Because other than the fact that the cuff looks so skinny (and this is because of the ribs and cables), there are no logical reasons that I should rip back. And honestly, there's no time left to monkey around with this thing.

Maybe I'll include a "satisfaction guarantee" policy? Like, if the socks cut off this poor woman's circulation and she ends up permanently hobbled because of the Rib and Cables, I will happily offer to knit her a new pair!

posted by Olga @ 9:01 PM