Books, Yarn, and Podcasts

As an advance warning, this post is going to be all over the place.

Let's start with the recent purchases. As some of you might be aware, I'm desperate to make Helen a pair of knee high socks, and I now have the yarn, the pattern, and the needles. I was pretty thrilled when the Interweave Summer 2007 issue got to me, but I can only see about four patterns in it that I'd ever really make. The issue is worth is since I really want to make those patterns and I am terribly grateful for the toe-up sock instruction.



I did start the socks tonight, but for the first time out of all the socks, mittens, scarves, and hats I've made, I twisted my work when I joined it. I was horribly disappointed and I set the yarn and needles aside to work on my other simple anklets. My anklets are a simple stockinette sock with a short row heel. This is my preferred sock for myself. It normally requires less than 200 yards for me as I have relatively small feet. The Koigu I'm using for my anklets is nice, but I'm tired of blue. How is it that I fall in love with yarns when in skein form, but then hate them when they get knit up?



I also bought Custom Knits recently. I follow Knit and Tonic pretty faithfully simply because I love Wendy's patterns, so I knew the book was coming out. Wendy's patterns are often classically beautiful or truly fashionable. They are the type of sweaters that I'd buy if I were to go to a nice store at the mall. Now, I love to knit, but I'm not one to just knit a sweater to knit a sweater. I need to know that I'm going to at least think I might like the ending result of my knitting prior to starting to knit. (This is why I knit so many damn scarves and socks and hats and mittens. No matter what, I know I'll wear these things. It's also why I knit for other people who are less picky than me such as my mom.) This is why Wendy's patterns are perfect for me. I know that I want to knit them because they look cute or pretty or classic. I've already decided to knit Pink, the Karma Tank, and Tang from the book (eventually). I just need to buy some yarn for this first and then finish all the other projects I have queued up already. I hate to have yarn for more than five or six projects around the house.

I know, I only like to knit on one thing at a time normally, and I hate to stash. I'm an abnormal knitter in the internet blogging world, aren't I?

Let's get to the Podcast Reviews. I'm still working through old Podcasts, but I can tell you that I've decided I kind of like Knitting at Night. Even though I have a hard time identifying with the podcaster, Casey, I find her voice nice and the balance she has between personal stories and knitting information to be quite good. I'm glad that I gave her a try after her first several episodes which had sound problems. Because she has a lengthy backlog of episodes, and because she podcasts pretty much weekly without fail, I have not gotten to any new podcasts this week. I've barely kept up with the ones I love that have come out this week!

YarnCraft came out with episode 23. It was all about yarn based crafts for or with children. Well, that effectively killed me giving YarnCraft another try for a while. I have listened to three episodes and I just have not been impressed. It seems, largely, like an advertisement for Lion Brand Yarn, and I don't knit with their yarn. I don't get much out of the episodes, and I don't have the time to dedicate to them. I might give them a try another half year or year from now. Remind myself -- try Cast On in two months and YarnCraft in a year. I also got the latest episode of Yarn Thing due to her comments on my blog. I'll give her Season Two a try.

Knit Pick's Episode 62 was another interview and I loathe when she interviews, so I just deleted it without thinking about it further. I've got too little time in life for crappy episodes of her podcast. It's a real shame too, because I normally love the Knit Pick's podcast and I want to hear about their yarns and her knitting queue. Bah!

Pixie Purls put out a new podcast, episode 19! Unfortunately, I listened to her episode while extremely tired, but she had a new feature that I loved. She highlighted other people's Finished Objects that she had liked. I couldn't resist looking at the posts she linked. She also discussed whether Ravelry and Flickr have killed knitting blogs. This was an interesting topic, but she's had better.

Manic Purl put out a new episode as well. Her episode 10 was okay, but she too has had better.

I was going to talk about sock yarns I've fallen in love with recently, but this post is already hideously long. It'll wait until next time. As some of you don't know me very well, I'm going to be giving up my job very soon, which is causing me a lot of depression. However, this might mean that I'll have more time for posting. I might try to enforce a twice a week posting schedule if that occurs, to be upgraded to three times a week if twice a week works well.

Talk to you all later!

More Podcasts Reviewed

So, sometime in July, when I had a lot more free time on my hands, I promised I'd review some more podcasts. Well, I went back to work and my free time went to hell. I could choose to either blog or sleep. I normally choose sleep nowadays. I did, however, have a LOT of time to listen to podcasts over the last month since my commute jumped to two hours each way normally. That left me time to go through podcast after podcast. Since it is still before 23:00 right now, I'm going to review a few of those podcasts.

Yarn Craft is... Well, I'm not really sure what it is. I've only listened to two episodes, and I haven't really got a feel for it yet. This is one of the few I've listened to that I haven't started near the beginning. It's two women who work for Lion Brand Yarns chatting together. I don't know if I have a feel for their personalities yet, but I am going to give it more time to grow on me. Since they always talk about yarns from Lion Brand, I'm often not thrilled since I haven't used Lion Brand yarn in about five years now, but I am still willing to give it a few more listens.

I loved, loved, loved the early episodes of Manic Purl. She speaks about things I find interesting, she loves to review various yarns, or give me knitting news. Thanks to her, I know there is still a chance to join one of those Mystery Shawl things. In the last few episodes, she's gotten a little bit disorganized. While I do appreciate some impulsive moments in podcasts, I really do like highly organized podcasts better mainly because I think that a lot of disorganized podcasters end up 'um'ing a lot and forgetting what they say in the middle of their podcast. She's indicated this change is permanent, but I'm still going to listen to her future episodes.

However, folks, my new favorite podcast might be Stash and Burn. These two friends have a natural flow and ebb to their conversation which is fantastic. Even when they are clearly showing each other things or going to the computer to find information, they are still interesting and on topic. It's both clear that they love knitting and yarn, and that they are friends who discuss it even when not podcasting. I can't recommend them enough to people who like to hear podcasts between duos.

I'm still making up my mind on Knitting at Night, but I should review this podcast soon. I hope to add another two or three podcasts to that review list as well. I expect I'll have a chance to give Doubleknit a listen, so they might be on that list. I also hope to start reviewing individual episodes of each podcast I listen to.

I wanted to add one thing, however. The podcaster for Yarn Thing, a nice woman called Marly, thanked me for my review even though it was not a positive one. I'd like to thank her for commenting, in turn. I would never have assumed any podcaster would see my blog, since it is not highly public and I'm not a well known knitter. Since she commented, I thought I'd explain, in further detail, why I didn't continue to listen to her podcast.

As I said in my last post, her podcast was simply not my thing. I do not crochet. The best way to describe my crochet attempts would be: "Epic Fail!" I have attempted to do blankets, scarves, squares, and every single damn last time, I end up with a slowly widening or shrinking fabric. Thus, listening to podcasts regarding crochet remind me of this failure on my part. Additionally, I would often get angry when Marly described her husband's exasperation about yarn prices. While logically I know that a lot of yarn is super expensive, I'm very defensive for womankind and I'd like females in a relationship to spend as they want to spend and without guilt. (Not that I spend without guilt, but I'd like other women to. Plus, I feel guilt over everything.)

Now, after saying that, I'll admit that Marly's podcast was the only one in recent memory to make me openly weep due to a story told in it. One day, soon after my own son's birth, I was listening to Marly tell a story about her friend Valerie's publishing attempts. Apparently, Valerie had won a Jimmy Beans Wool contest for patterns with her pattern the Presto Chango. The story behind it is at Valerie's site and the summary is that her child had leukemia and she attempted to make a pattern that would have made a baby who had to go through chemotherapy more comfortable. Two things about this made me bawl in bed:

I pictured my own baby having anything wrong with him, and I felt so horrible for any mother who had to go through watching her child or baby be in pain. I don't even know if I could be strong enough for my child if something happened to him like that. I admired her for thinking about other mothers and how she could make life easier for them.

I remembered how miserable my step-father had been while going through his own chemotherapy. I never appreciated Ed while he was alive, but he was a very good man in his own way. I ended up going to his alma mater, Drexel University, and it was widely acknowledged how thrilled he would have been. My step-father died from his cancer.

Some Matching Socks

Okay, I'm going to start this post with how I made some socks for Nathan, and end with how I'm a giant moron. Follow along.

First, let's start with the good. After more than a month of knitting, I've completed Nathan's socks. They fit him perfectly, which is worrisome since they are fall/winter socks and it is summer. But, he looks good in them.



I made Paul go outside with him, in the heat, and made them both wear wool socks so I could get a photo for Ravelry. Since I've been so depressed and exhausted recently, Paul humored me.



The cat in the background is Jade. She's staring hatefully at Nathan who she considers an interloper. Sometimes, when I cuddle Nathan, she tries to climb into my lap as well.

I rather like the socks. They are adorable and especially cute for being matchy-matchy with his daddy's socks. I am looking to buy some kind of cashmere sock yarn and make him several larger pairs of socks for the upcoming year. Perhaps I could knit myself some cashmere socks while I'm doing so. I told Paul when I finished making Nathan's socks that I could not picture a situation where I had enough yardage after making another pair of socks where I would not make Nathan socks. Handknit socks for Nathan!

Now, for the stupidity. Perhaps it is because I'm very tired recently, but I've been looking all over for Interweave Knitting Summer 2007 Issue. See, I really want to make Helen a pair of the boot socks, and I'd like to make myself the Montego Bay Scarf. So, logically for an old magazine, I looked on Ebay for it. And I kept bidding and getting sniped. I was so angry with the last one that I vowed to look around online for other stores that might be selling it and just buy it outright.

Turns out that Interweave is selling it and for cheaper than it has been on Ebay. Why didn't I check interweave first? What the hell is wrong with me? Either way, it is winging its way towards me as we speak. Now I just need to get gauge with either size 0 or size 2 needles with the proper yarn, and I can knit her socks up! Oh...

Wait, while I was waiting for the magazine to come on, I cast on for new anklets for myself with some Koigu. Unfortunately, my knitting speed is basically nonexistant now, so Helen might never get these socks.

More Knitting Podcasts

As you might remember, I've recently become knitting podcast obsessed. Though, honestly, I'm more just podcast obsessed nowadays. I doubt many of you knitters care, but I'm also listening to D&D podcasts like they are going out of style.

Here's an update to detail what I think of each podcasts. Let's start with what I've already told you.

My favorite podcast so far is probably Pixie Purls. She likes to knit tank tops, she loves non-variegated yarn for projects, and she is a techie. She's an easy fit into my knitting lifestyle. Additionally, as a new mother, she's fascinating to me, because I love to hear stories from other women with young children. She's also back with her podcast after a year break to my delight! I've listened to all the shows.

My second favorite podcast is Knit Picks, very oddly. I have nothing in common with Kelley, the host of the podcast. However, she has a good speaking voice, she is calm, and she has a focus and show layout that I understand. She starts with the theme of the show, goes to book reviews, and finishes with her personal knitting life. Love it! I don't understand her lifestyle at all, but I don't give a hoot. I'd listen to her podcast until the end of time. I even find that everything she discusses about Knit Picks is interesting rather than sounding like a constant advertisement. I've listened to almost all but the most recent shows. I skip the interviews now, because I've learned that I don't enjoy them.

I didn't like Lime & Violet. I found the show very self-indulgent, and I was tired of the oddness. I found their laughter at their own antics annoying, and eventually, I felt like they weren't even talking about knitting so much as just chatting with each other about their lives. I understand that they are popular, but I am not really sure why. I listened to seven shows before giving up.

Yarn Thing was not my thing, but she wasn't a bad thing. I didn't seem to have much in common with her, and, overall, her show didn't interest me, but I think I can see why others would find it interesting. I listened to several shows before giving up. I might consider sampling her show again in the future.

I've just gone through a ton of Socks in the City. I like her show, but I don't love it, and I think if I wasn't such an obsessed sock knitter, I'd probably give up on the show. As it is, I think when I finish with her current episodes, I might not have a choice about whether I give it up. There hasn't been a new show since May! I'd recommend this show for the sock obsessed.

I'll be honest, I listened to only one show of Ready, Set, Knit. I hated it, just hated it. It seemed like a huge advertisement for Webs combined with a boring interview. I normally hate interviews on podcasts, anyway, as most people are interviewing people I'm not interested in. I couldn't bring myself to listen to more when I saw that they have a lot of the talk of yarns they sell and lots of interviews. Where as I felt that Knit Picks' podcast was simply a podcast that mentioned Knit Picks more often than most, I felt that Webs' podcast was one giant advertisement.

Cast On is an old podcast (several years now) and a steady one, but not one that I particularly liked. I listened to two episodes, then gave it up. I'm not quite sure why I didn't stick with it, and this is another I might give a try in the future, but, for now, I don't want to listen to any more. The host should have been fascinating, but there was just something missing.

When I next blog about podcasts, I'll attempt to cover Yarn Craft, Knitting at Night, Stash and Burn, Manic Purl, and Doubleknit. I've already given a listen to Yarn Craft and Knitting at Night, but I want to see if my impression on those two sticks before I give my final say.

In my own knitting news, I managed to finish the ribbing of the first sock of Nathan's Matching Socks. I think that tomorrow, if I have the energy, I will finish one sock, and then cast on for a Slytherin scarf!

Paul's First Socks Done

After more than a month of knitting, Paul's socks are finally done. Finally.



Since they are wool socks, and my husband is almost always too warm for the weather, he will probably not wear them until the middle of December, at least.

These socks were made using the Sleeping Dragon yarn in the Mossy Frogs colorway. It was a nice yarn to knit with, but I didn't love it. I found it a tiny bit splitty, and while a nice smooshy yarn, I'm a bit more used to a thinner sock yarn when I knit. I'd buy it again, but I wouldn't be in a hurry to, if you know what I mean.

The socks are a simple stockinette cuff down sock with two by two ribbing for two inches at the top. I did a short row heel, which is my preference in general for knitted socks. I kitchenered the toe, which is also my preference.

My husband's feet are a bit wider than normal (maybe a fair amount more than just 'a bit') and he wears size 11 mens shoes, I believe. Out of the 440 yards of yarn that the label states existed, I have a fairly small amount left. To get a feel for his size feet, here is one (with sock) next to my size six and a half foot.



I plan to use the bitty remainder of the sock yarn to make my son, Nathan, a matching pair. I've already cast on! Either before, or directly after, I finish these baby socks, I plan to cast on for my Slytherin scarf as well.

Babies Are Hardwork

I started this blog with the best intentions of blogging continuously, but if I had been smart, I would have done this several months prior to having a baby and then my entries would have been a lot more interesting.

As it is, what I mostly do nowadays is wake up every several hours to feed a baby, fall back asleep, and eat. It's not very exciting. I do listen to several podcasts through the day (something to do at four in the morning while Nathan takes thirty minutes to eat) and they've all been knitting podcasts so far.

I've really been enjoying the KnitPicks podcast. It's not exciting or something I really relate to, but Kelly's voice is so calm and everything she talks about is relatively interesting. I put her podcasts on when I want to be calm and relaxed, which is normally what I like from roughly one to four in the morning.

At six or so in the morning, I'm generally falling asleep during the feedings, so I put on something a little more energetic like Socks in the City which I just started. I had been listening to LimenViolet or Yarnthing, but I found LimeNViolet to be a little silly after repeated listens (loved the Yarn Porn segment and tired of everything else, plus it was repetitive), and I didn't identify very much with Yarnthing though her podcast was NOT repetitive and was fairly good, simply not for me.

I have been knitting a tiny bit. I finished one of my socks for Paul's First Pair of Socks. It took forever once I got to the foot and when he put it on, it was much greener than it looked in the skein or when I first knit up a small swatch. I've decided to make him a second pair of socks out of Blue Moon Fiber's Thraven after a bit so he can have a pair of hand knit socks to wear to work. That'll be a while in the future, however. The first sock that I knit him did fit him beautifully, and I'm already getting to the heel of the second sock, so that's well and good.

That's all the news for now. I suspect that the next time I blog will be either when this pair of socks is finished and I have pictures, or when I start my Slytherin scarf. I do not know which will come first!

Not My Blanket and Plans

First, an update on Paul's First Socks -- I have turned the heel once again and am now an inch or two into the foot of the socks. I foresee the first sock being done in the next several days, if I'm lucky and his foot doesn't magically grow in size. I've also decided on the next sock yarn I'd buy for socks for Paul, but that'll be a while.

As to the blanket which is not mine, Christy, a good friend of mine (and one of my bridesmaids from my wedding), was very kind and she knit Nathan a gorgeous blanket.



It's a garter stitch blanket, but done in stripes of two colors held together. I think the blanket is the Blue Lagoon pattern from Lion Brand, but I could be wrong. It's gorgeous and wisely done in blues and yellows. Perhaps Christy knew what gender of baby I was having before I did? I'm so happy that Nathan will have several handknit items such as blankets and socks. I'm also very surprised that Christy did a blanket since normally she knits hats for babies nowadays because blankets are too large a knitting commitment. Thank you, Christy!

Now, as to my knitting plans, I hope to knit several things in the future. First off, I need to make socks for Helen. The socks are the Spiral Boot Socks from Interweave. You can buy the pattern at Interweave's website, though if I can find the whole magazine, I'll get it. In fact, I've bid on the magazine at Ebay recently because I love two or more of the patterns in it, which makes it a good buy.

I also have plans to knit a Slytherin scarf for myself, which will be identical to Paul's Gryffindor scarf, but knit in Slytherin colors, because I am evil. Some of the scarves on Ravelry make me want to make this my first project, but I'll most likely make this project one that I work on in conjunction with other projects.

The last two things I want to knit are a cute little hat from "The Yarn Girls' Guide to Simple Knits" which uses some GGH Soft Kid which I have stashed away in a pretty deep berry red, and a pair of socks for myself made from Koigu.

After I've knit these four items (or the three non-scarf items), I might allow myself to purchase more yarn. I normally only knit on one project at a time, because I'm exceedingly boring like that, or focused anyway, but I plan to make some exceptions in the future. From now on, if I'm knitting on a boring project like a baby blanket or endless stockinette or garter stitch scarf, I plan to also knit on one other item such as a pair of socks or tank top or hat. I'll be moving from being a one WIP type of girl to a two WIPs type of girl. Hopefully this won't bring me to the end of my knitting dreams and hopes because I become too scattered and disorganized.

Sock Failure

Again, I hold off on discussing my criteria for picking projects or my plans for future projects. I will simply discuss my current sock-a-licious failure. As you might recall from my last post, I had swatched the Sleeping Dragon sock yarn on size 2 needles and discovered that I had been getting seven stitches to the inch. Using that SPI to calculate how many stitches I needed for Paul's sock, I cast on 18 stitches to each four needles and knit and knit and knit. The picture was taken PRE-heel turn.

After turning the heel, which took roughly forever, I took them off the needles and made Paul try them on. They were loose. I tried not to cry, and instead tried to figure out how many stitches I would need per needle (16 would be better) and then tried to discover where I went wrong. I re-measured my stitches per inch and found that I was now getting eight stitches per inch.

Time to rip back. I ripped and ripped and ripped. After ripping out everything, I recast on with my new stitches per needle, and knit two rows. After that, I had to take a break and feed my baby.

So, I have no progress to speak of, really, but hopefully the next time I blog I will simply discuss my future plans rather than discussing my failed progress.

Baby, Baby, Baby

It's all baby all the time here at the house. Remember in my last post, I said that if you didn't hear from me for a while, then I was having a baby? Well, I had my baby! Nathan is quite the cutie and is now the biggest part of my life. My family has become my priority and I don't know how to deal with it, to tell you the truth. I had planned to spend this whole post giving details on how I choose to knit projects, but instead I'm already gushing about my son.

I won't go into how I choose my projects in this post, but I will talk about my knitting in relation to my son. First of all, I finished his little socks prior to his birth, and I had thought them tiny little things, and they were small!



Once I put them on him, however, I realized how gigantic EVERYTHING is in relationship to my son. He was born at only six pounds, so he's not the biggest baby, as you can imagine.

As for how else knitting relates to my son, on the first night I was in the hospital, I was drugged out from my post c-section drugs. I couldn't sleep, could barely doze, and was almost unable to understand things. I read a little Pride and Prejudice and listened to some knitting Podcasts.

Here's where I'm going to highlight my favorite podcast -- PixiePurls. She's not podcasting anymore, sadly, but I get the feeling from listening to her podcast, that I would enjoy spending time with her. I agree that I knit to have a nice looking finished product. I agree that I like the look of variegated yarns, but like her, I don't buy variegated sweaters at stores, so it is silly to try to knit them. I also love Rowan yarns and patterns. I hope she starts podcasting again! As a minor aside, she talks about being a lousy secret pal in one podcast, but this is a complete lie. She had me for a secret pal once, and she got me the prettiest yarns. I made a Clapotis from two of the most wonderful skeins of yarn ever that she gave to me.

I also listened to KnitPicks' podcast, which I like, but do not love. Because it is so relaxing it causes me to drift off into sleep fairly easily. I should have listened to this when I needed to sleep instead of PixiePurls since I find PixiePurls so interesting that I paid attention. Lastly, I listened to LimenViolet. This is a good podcast for me because I am a huge fan of sock yarn, and they appear to be too. Who can resist a good sock yarn?

Well, the answer is... not me. When in the hospital, waiting to bring Nathan home, we learned the disappointing news -- he had jaundice. This meant that for that full day, all we were allowed to do was visit him once every three hours to feed him. The rest of the time, we were stuck in the hospital waiting to see him while he hung out under some ultraviolet lights. During that time, Paul and I played a bit of Scattegories, and I made him bring me my size 2 needles and the Sleeping Dragon yarn. I merely meant to make a gauge swatch, but I became so enamored of the yarn, that I just kept knitting it up. After a bit, I asked Paul, "Do you think this would be manly enough for socks for you?" He considered them and said, "Yes, it's a nice dark green."

So, once home, on Father's Day, I took his foot measurements (huge) and cast on while drinking a nice glass of wine.



I'm much further down now, almost to the heel, but I'm a little worried about the amount of yarn I have. I have over 400 yards, but he has size 11 feet that are super wide! Will I make it? Will I be able to make Nathan matching socks as I had hoped?

One Baby Sock Done

The minute I finished posting last time, I realized I hadn't shared the story of the winding of the yarn Creamy into a center pull ball. Creamy is delightfully soft for something made of milk, but it's also very fine. It's possibly finer than most other yarns I've ever worked with as I've never worked with lace weight yarn yet. My husband had just finished winding a skein of my Blue Sky Organic cotton yarn into a skein, and it was about one in the morning. We were both watching some cooking show on TIVO and I asked him if he'd mind winding the skein of Creamy in the morning for me. He shrugged, put on another cooking show, and started to wind it then, which made me happy since I knew I could get a gauge swatch almost immediately then.

As a side note, my husband loves to wind yarn into center pull balls for some reason. I've asked him if he secretly wants to become a knitter and he admits that he'd love to knit, but he's afraid we'd become competitive at it. This is a legitimate fear, since I am competitive and he is also.

He started out the skein of Creamy fairly slow, taking two or three times to get a good start to the center pull ball. I had forgotten to give him the advice to really wind the yarn around your fingers before moving on to the next step when you're winding sock yarn or smaller. However, he got moving, while I was knitting on my baby blanket. I was half watching him wind yarn and half watching the cooking show, when I heard a "Uh..." Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that he had dropped the hank of yarn from his knees and it was simply laying in a big pile on the floor. I cursed silently to myself, but tried not to panic, picking it up as best possible to avoid tangles. Too late! It took us a three hours of combined effort to fix that mess. We picked apart the knots as best possible often moving the yarn balls on EACH end we had started around each other and the mass of yarn. It was miserable. My husband kept apologizing, while I kept comforting him and offering to do the fix myself. I will probably let him wind sock yarn in the future, simply because I feel that once you've done this (and I've done the same thing with sock yarn) you learn a lesson about being careful with winding yarn.

Anyway, I'm now officially done one and a half Better than Baby Booties. I'm flying through them so quickly, I've been wondering if I should start the socks for Helen when I finish, or if I should start my winter hat. I am thinking that I might even cross-stitch a tiny bit or start my Slytherin scarf for myself. I wasn't expecting to have so much time before this baby showed up as YESTERDAY was my due date. Some quick notes on the baby sock pattern:

• The particular pattern I'm doing is the Cable Rib pattern.
  
  
• I disliked the ridge of stitches at the toe, so I kitchener stitched the whole thing closed instead for a more seamless finish.
  
  
• The pattern is slightly confusing. Around the cable cable that comes down the foot, you see at one point p1, work 2 stitches in cable pattern, p1, k16, p1, work 2 stitches in cable pattern, knit to end. Why does one cable pattern have purls on both sides and the other has a purl only on one side? I couldn't fathom this. I also couldn't figure out where they wanted me to place my damn cables exactly. Finally, after a lot of reading that line and wondering WTF they wanted me to do, I made my own decisions about purling and cable placement. On the first one, I work 2 stitches in cable pattern, p1, k16, p1, work 2 stitches and knit the rest. On the second one, I decided I wanted a little more pop around my cable and purled on both sides of it. This means that my baby will not have socks that exactly match.
  
  
• As I finished the first sock, I was so proud and so in love with its cuteness. I seamed in all the ends and stared at it happily. While staring at it, I noticed that one stitch in one of the cables was slowly, but surely, winding it's way up the sock. I panicked and shoved one of the needles into it while I tried to figure out where the hell I went wrong and what I'd do. I managed to pull the stitch back up to the toe area, put a piece of the yarn through it, and tied it into place, then seamed THAT piece of yarn into the rest of the sock. That's right, folks, I have no pride. I tied a knot into my knitting.
  

That's all for now. If you don't hear from me soon, I'm busy having a baby.