Fred's Socks

I got an email from Fred last night. The slow boat to China finally docked and he got his socks! Here's part of what he wrote...

Guess what...... the school director just brought in your package............. 2 pair of hand knit socks ........ one wool..... hand care, only / and one corn fiber - elastic mix ....= hang dry. Xie xie........... You spent 27 bucks to send them ......wow! I will be sure to wear them ......... the candy kisses were nice ......... i bet the Chinese have more kinds of candy than we do in the USA.... they seem to have more varieties of everything ............... food, drink, ethnic people, etc., etc. The little letters ..........I will give to Joe ......... he teaches elementary .........I called him and he can give to some of his 'teacher-aid helpers' to play the word game with the students in small groups.............. so...... although, I can not use them, ........... they will be put to good (learntheEnglishlanguage) use.

Now I can start his sweater vest...and some fingerless mitts for him-- eventho he says he probably won't wear them, a pair for Joe, and for Lily and maybe one for the lady in the street cafe across the street from his apartment. But all after tomorrow! I'm down to the last pair of fingerless mitts for tomorrow. I may just make it! Oh, the socks took 23 days. That's USPS Priority Mail. Yeah.

Scarves

Christmas is getting close and I'm actually getting things done!
Two scarves are finished and gifted. Well, only one actually had to be knitted. The white seaman's scarf was already in the finished pile. The green lace scarf is a variation on a shawl in Victorian Lace Today (p.144). I did just 3 repeats and only worked the first 6 sts of the knit-on border. It ended up about 10" wide and 66" but it could have been longer. I did the scarf while minding the store in Cooperstown on Saturday and then while we were snowed-in on Sunday I did the border. It's in Rainbow Classic from JoAnne's. It worked up nice and fluffy and my coworker liked it so much she wore it home today!

My mom helped with the mitten candy bags for the rest of my coworkers. Between us we did 12 bags in 2 days and they're filled with candy and ready to put in mailboxes tomorrow.

That leaves 1 fingerless mitt for my cousin who's house we'll be going to for Christmas dinner, and a pair for her sister-in-law. The girl who cuts my hair wants a pair, too, but she can wait until after Christmas. It looks like I'll get things done on time.

Oh, still no sign of Fred's socks.

My Chinese Students

I had a nice experience with a group of college students today. They're from the earthquake area in Sichuan and have been here since the fall. One of their teachers brought them in for library cards. I asked where they were from and when they said Sichuan, told them that Fred was in LuZhou. They were so surprized!! They wanted to know exactly where he were and why he was there. I showed them his address and several started nodding as they recognized it:

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LuHua Middle School, GaoBa Town, Luzhou, Sichuan, China
Fred Riggs ȭ

(They couldn't understand my pronunciation of LuZhou and Goa Ba at all!) They wanted to know what he liked about China ( the people) and what he didn't like (no heat). They like it here well enough except for the snow...the novelty of it wore off quickly!! And they miss the street vendors. Oh, and our Chinese restaurants don't serve Chinese food according to them! They had filled out library card applications (some signed it in English and with Chinese characters!) and they were surprised when I asked if they wanted to use their English names, too. (They did.) They were so polite and their English is very good...they must have had a good English Expert in school. They were all about 20 years old but seemed younger and they are a lot different than the kids around here...just like Fred had said. Most of them took out books from the YA area and Kids room and wanted to look at magazines like People and US. I think they'll be spending some time with us...especially at night and on Saturday so they don't have to walk back up the hill to the college. I enjoyed working with them and I understand a little better how Fred feels about his classes.

Tomorrow is my day to cook lunch at the library so I thought I'd try a stuffed bread again. This time I'm going to make the dough from scratch and stuff it with sausage and peppers but no tomato sauce. Maybe it will hold together better than my last attempt with store-bought pizza dough!

Where Are The Socks?

Yesterday after another of my mom's MD appointments we went to JoAnne's and stocked up on yarn...as if we needed to! My boss had gotten some Debbie Mumm kettle dyed yarn there that was beautiful and I was interested. Anyway, I had added 2 more fingerless mitts to my gift giving list and was looking for some cute self-striping superwash wool for them that I found there. The hybrid pattern I created is super easy and I can do 1 mitt in an evening, so I should have enough time to finish everything. I decided to give a male coworker a seaman's scarf that's finished instead of a pair of socks that isn't even started and changed the yarn for a shawl/scarf for another coworker from sport to bulky. Now, that should help a lot, too! The tabi socks are 1 3/4 done, and there's only 1 other pair of slipper socks to start. Mom got yarn for a scarf for me, and we got a couple of sets of dp needles that we really, truly needed. (Yeah, right).

Fred's socks haven't made it to China as of Monday evening. They are definately taking the scenic route! His apartment has lost it's internet connection for about the 3rd or 4th time since September and he was in an internet cafe typing in near darkness. It has warmed up a little and he has 48 days off beginning this Friday...w/o pay. (He's considered an English Expert teaching conversational English and doesn't have to prepare students for final exams giving him an extra 2 weeks off.) He wants to travel around China a little during that time but the lack of funds will slow him down. I decided to use Red Heart acrylic burgandy for his vest. The pattern was featured in Interweave Knits a couple of years ago and is suppose to be perfect for his body type...x-large... with a v-neck, front buttons and a small cable trim around the neck and down the front. The color will go with most of his shirts and the acrylic will be good for his laundry habits...put everything in the machine, add water and detergent and let it do it's thing! Hopefully, I'll get it finished and mailed by Jan.1, leaving the rest of the vacations days for it to get to him before school starts again. I just wonder where the socks are.

Fingerless Mitts...a Keeper!

My mom had an MD appointment yesterday with a doctor who's delightful but always running late so I took a fingerless mitt to work on. I finished it except the last 2 rows of ribbing while we were there and now have 2 partner-less mitts! The 1st one I did on Sunday (size 2 dp, sock yarn) ended up too fussy...those fingers!!...and small, and the 2nd one (size 6 dp, worsted yarn, yesterday's effort) ended up big enough for Fred! So last night I decided to combine the patterns and come up with my own version. It worked up perfectly with sock yarn on 2 circulars size 2's using the best parts of both patterns! I was using self-stripping yarn so I took an informal survey at work this morning about matching or non-matching stripes and the result is non-matching...why waste yarn. So my fingerless mitts will be wild stripes!! I hope to finish the partner tonight and 1 gift will be done! How many does that leave to finish with 12 days to go??

Winter is Here!

Well, we got hit with a snow storm last night. It started during the afternoon and by 5pm the ground was covered with maybe an inch of snow. Overnight we got about 8" of heavy compacted snow. Not nice to drive in! So far only a few patrons have come in, 2 staff members have called in saying they're not coming and a 3rd is missing but we should hear from her soon, I hope! Here are some photos of my house, Jack the maintenance man walking in the park by the library and the front door of the library. Winter is here!! This is definately the weather to be inside knitting!!

Knitting in China

Fred's socks should be getting to him today or soon--I hope! I mailed them Dec. 1st and USPS said it would take 8-10 business days for them to get to China. His apartment is without heat again and I think he could use the warm socks! He said he was layering his clothing (4 shirts & his jacket today!) to keep warm. I think I'll do a vest for him for Chinese New Year and maybe fingerless mitts. He sent a photo of a group of Chinese women knitting. Even tho they are inside a building, they all have on their coats. And check out the knitting needles! I don't know yet what they are working on, but I think they could use some shorter needles!! (I just learned that they may be using bicycle wheel spokes as needles!)

Our Great NYC Adventure

We (Sue-my boss, Nancy-the children's librarian, Linda, her mom-Millie and me) went to NYC Saturday.

We left KMart in Herkimer at 7am, stopped once and made it to NYC by 11:30am. I worked on a tabi sock for the girl who does my hair and nails on the way. I got the heel turned by the time we got to New Jersey. (I was surprised to learn you have to go thru New Jersey to get to NYC...at least if you go thru the Lincoln tunnel. I don't remember doing it that way before.)
The views across the river were unreal. What a city!


After walking around for awhile we had lunch at Dean & Deluca's and made it to the 1pm show at Radio City. It was fantastic!! Our seats were in the 1st row of the mezzanine...right at the railing..couldn't have been better. (For $105 each they should have been, right?) We all loved it. 2 1/2 hours nonstop music and dancing. WOW! The 5 of us want to grow up to be Rockettes. Think any of us have a chance?? (Remember Linda's mom is 82!)

After the show we went to the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center...67 stories up!! The cars looked smaller than Matchbox cars! The views from up there are unbelievable. Then we went downstairs to the concourse and managed to get lost looking for a bathroom. No one told us the concourse spirals down and as you keep walking down hallways looking in store windows you're going down! Finally we found a Ladies Room and started back up. Made it to a door thru which we could see St Patrick's across the street-our next stop-but couldn't exit. Ended up walking back thru the concourse about 2 blocks until we finally found an exit. Then we had to walk back the 2 blocks to St. Patrick's! Sue was really getting tired about then.

After visiting St Pat's, Sue wanted to sit down so I asked some cops in front of St Pat's where we could go to eat. (Actually I said 'where could 5 hicks from upstate' go to eat) After they stopped laughing they sent us to a burger joint across from St. Pat's. The place was clean, the food was decent and the prices were reasonable. Not bad, huh? (I remember to always ask a cop when I need help.)

We spend the last 2 hours of our stay walking around, shopping, and watching the ice skaters at Rockefeller Center. Did you know it cost $25 to skate for 30 minutes there? The big Christmas tree wasn't lit but it was decorated and we took pics of it anyway. We went into a store called Anthropologie that was really different! The stock looked like retro (40-50's) but was all new!! Their window displays and main inside display was old, long knitting needles and the most beautiful cream and white balls of yarn. Now that's what we all can do with our stash if we don't want to knit it!

We tried to go to a mini-brewery down the street from Radio City while we waited for our bus but it was a 1/2hr wait to get in. We did go at a place called the Cafe Duke that was part restaurant, deli, bakery..it had chinese, italian, american, vegetarian buffets-everything looked and smelled so good! We should have gone there or the mini-brewery for supper. Instead we settled something to drink while we waited for the bus. Sue, Linda and Millie had bought pocketbooks from a street vendor...in the dark...so they wanted to see what they actually bought.

Finally our group started to form around our bus stop and we exchanged stories and showed contents of shopping bags. Everyone was talking and we all seemed to really enjoy our day in the city. Nearly everyone agreed it was a nice place to visit but none of us wanted to live there. Are we hicks or what?

I think I was asleep by the time we got out of the tunnel in NJ...coming to long enough to buy a pepsi at a McD's when the bus stopped. I had a headache and Nancy gave me some Tylenol and I was out again until we got to Herkimer. I was home and in my own bed by 12:30am. A very good day. I'm glad I went. But today I'm tired and I think I'll go take a nap. Maybe dream of being a Rockette! Fred's Maizy socks will have to wait until tomorrow to get finished!

A Good Weekend to Knit

It was a very good weekend to knit. Friday I worked at the museum and it was so quiet I was able to knit in between tours. In fact, it was so quiet I only had 2 tours...with the same 2 people...2 hours apart! I was able to finish my 2nd pair of socks, the pair my boss asked me to make. Yesterday I worked at the craft shop in Cooperstown, and again it was a slow day. (Actually, it was worse yesterday than on Friday. My total sales for the day were $25.70...and that's with every one who came into the store buying something!) The 1st sock of Fred's 2nd pair is about half finished. I really like the way the Maizy yarn works up. It is so soft! The color combination is Night Shade and is a nice brown blend. I hope he likes them. The pictured socks are the boss's, in Regia. I'll post both of Fred's pairs together. Hey, I'm on pair #3! I still think I'll be knitting Christmas Day on the way to the family dinner, but I love it!

More Socks

I went to get my hair cut the other day and was working on a Regia sock while I was waiting. Four young women came in...2 with flip flops on...and I said something to the girl doing my hair that they must be cold. She said she likes to wear flip flops but you have to put them away this time of year. I told her that there were socks for flip flops called Tabi and that I could make her a pair. (My big mouth strikes again!) So I've added a pair of Tabi to my holiday gift list. The owner of the shop overheard and wants a pair of slipper socks...so add another pair. Will there be enough time?? I better stop finding people who want socks.

Socks, socks and more socks!

Fred's socks are done. The blue silk and wool blend made up very nice. It is so soft! I hope he remembers not to put them in wash with other clothes! The Maizy for his 2nd pair came yesterday. I couldn't decide between 2 colors so I got both! I really want to start working on them but I promised my boss I'd do a pair with yarn she had bought. I did about half of the 1st sock last night. It's a Regia self-striping wool and is working up very nice. She wanted a pattern on the cuff and Jane at work was doing a sock with a nice mock-smocking pattern so I asked if I could have that pattern. There is a big difference between working on a man's size 11 and a woman's size7! I have today off so maybe I'll get this pair finished this week so I can start Fred's other pair. My gift list grew by 1 today, I'll use the other skein of Maizy for that!

Drop-stitch Class

The drop-stitch scarf class last night was very nice...and very small: besides myself, only 1 other student and the instructor. The bamboo yarn is beautiful. The entire shop is filled with beautiful yarns. I could visit there everyday. If that was my shop I'd never want to sell anything, just keep it all for me!! The scarf is pretty easy but expensive. Now I've got to figure out who's going to get it for Christmas.

Fred's sock #2 is almost finished. I wish the other yarn I ordered for another pair of socks for him would get here. I'm really in a sock mood. I may even make myself a pair! Or for my mother. Anyone else I can think of?

A Toe-tal Success!

I ended up going into the knitting chat room at Yahoogroups and asking for help with the toe of Fred's sock. I got so many great responses that I actually managed to do a very nice toe on his sock. That was the first time I had asked for help from the chatters and was really very pleased with the help I got. So, sock #1 is finished and has generated as much oohs and aahs as a plain blue silk-and-wool blend sock can get. Sock #2 is going much quicker and I just finished the calf shaping. Tomorrow night I'll take both to the knitting circle, plus the purple blacksheep sweater that's 3/4 done. I need those needles and the shelves in the shop are almost bare!

I'm signed up for a drop-stitch scarf class on Wednesday night and I went today to buy the beads for it. The class cost $10, the beads cost $10 and I'm sure the bamboo yarn will cost that much too. So much for an inexpensive little class. Who can I give that scarf to for Christmas?

The Toe

I was ready to do the toe to Fred's sock last night. I did what the directions said and it came out too sharp and too short. So-o-o-o, I ripped it out...picked up those blue size 1 stitches and put it down and went to bed. Now I'm ready to try again. I never have this trouble with baby socks. The short-row 'turn heel' method works very well. I wonder if it would work on an adult sock? Wonder if it's worth a try? It would be another rip and pick on that blue if it didn't. It's going to look old if I do that over and over. I have to master the toe method soon, there are 4 other pairs on my to-do gift list. Maybe I should try a toe-up sock next?

Christmas Is A Comin'

Well, today I looked at the calendar and realized that Christmas will be over in 2 months whether or not I'm ready!

I have 1 sock almost half finished. It's a nice sock...for Fred, in China...in that wool-silk blend from Knitpicks. It's making up quickly but it's a little boring so today I ordered some Maizy--Patternwork's corn fiber blend, to make him a 2nd pair. I'm not sure he's going to actually wear either pair but I won't find out until he comes home in June so that's ok. Postage to China is so high($25/lb) that I have to keep the package small and light. No sweaters. Socks and candy. That sounds like Christmas to me this year!

I've got a scarf for my computer tech about half done. It's in a ribbon yarn I got really- really marked down at AC Moore who knows how long ago. It was sitting in my pile waiting to be used and it's bright and cheery like her. I just got some beautiful yarn for socks...most of my gifts this year will be socks... that I haven't touched yet and last week I ordered wool for a shawl for a friend from Knitpicks. It hasn't arrived yet or else I'd probably have that started!

I usually do baby and children's sweaters and accessories for a gift shop in Cooperstown, NY (the Home of Baseball). Doing the same 'picture sweaters' over and over again thru the season gets old fast. Every year I say I'm not going to do that one or that one again but I always end up doing them. I try to do something new every year, too. Last winter I did 2 Elizabeth Zimmerman pi shawls that I loved! One sold this summer but the other will be mine if it doesn't sell in 55 days! Baby socks have been a big hit the past 3 years! All the left-overs from the sock yarn I bought for Christmas presents will end up being used for them. In fact, they'll end up paying for most of the glorious yarns I've been buying!

Enough chatter for now. Time to get back to Fred's sock. I've got to have the package ready to mail by the Monday after Thanksgiving.