Who Needs Gauge?!

I am probably like the majority of women (and maybe men too) that exist in the world. My body doesn’t conform to the ‘norm’ set by the apparel industry. My lengthwise proportions are smaller than average compared to my circumference, and it is a pain in every part of my body to buy clothes, because some things you can’t determine don’t fit right until you have worn it for a while (like bras). My feet are no exception. I can wear shoes in children’s sizes (in fact my soccer shoes are a size 4.5) and my ankle bones are lower than where most running shoes put them so I had to wear high-top sneakers for most of my adolescence. Good thing they were in style at the time!

So most adult socks don’t fit well either. I have noticed this most recently because of how my athletic socks feel when I run. And how my dress socks always end up with holes in the toe after wearing them once. How any commercial sock will slide around my foot so that they feel uncomfortable with the toe twisted and the heel pocket on top.

But my knitted socks are another thing entirely. They fit beautifully, because I made them to fit. They look nice, feel comfortable, are holding up much better in wear, hide stains-of-use much better, and I made them. The only complaint is that I don’t have more!

But don’t worry, I’m working on that.

I know I haven’t been around for a while. I got sidetracked and instead of just blogging, I kept thinking about it and not doing it. So here I am. There has been family in from out of town, food that has been put up for the winter, crafting done, swaps completed, back-packing finished, and getting together with friends. I am breaking the dry spell with this and will start fresh from here. Come back soon!

I have an hour to be ready to leave my house. I still have to finish packing, clean out the car, pack the car, clean the kitchen, and so on. I have a lot I want to post about, but I guess that will be waiting until next week! See you then!

1. This is what life does. It lets you think you have everything under control, then WHAMMO!
2. When a baby is screaming it’s head off, can you really appreciate the moment?
3. Upon reflection I should have made plans for this weekend long before this so I had more time to prepare.
4. I could sleep for quite a long time.
5. Later, you wake up and realize it’s only 3 in the morning. You can’t sleep, so you lay on the couch and read, when suddenly there is an EARTHQUAKE in Maryland!!! (seriously, I thought that couldn’t have been what I felt at 5am today. Sure enough…)
6. No time to go to the far and boundless sea.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to sleep (hopefully), tomorrow my plans include hanging in Mt. Gretna and Sunday, I want to visit with my relatives!

Maybe it’s just the middle of the week thing, or maybe it is because my baby has developed a sense of separation anxiety, but I seem to be feeling like this time of the week not much gets done. I have done a number of things, but it doesn’t seem much gets accomplished.

These earrings are one thing that has been accomplished. I made them for a swap partner, and I really like how they turned out. Quite classy, if I do say so myself.

I have started knitting a new shawl earlier this week, but I’m not that far along to show any details. Maybe soon, maybe not. I am also planning on joining some friends for spinning next week! Yay! I sometimes dream about owning a wheel so I can feel like I actually accomplish something with my spinning, as opposed to when I spin on the drop-spindle.

Tomorrow night I am having family over for Family Game Night™. This is the first formal event, although I am planning on having more in the future. My family has played games for years, and I think getting together for that purpose would be fun! So far my parents and my sister and bro-in-law are coming. Good enough for the first event! I’ll be sure to let you all know how it goes.

What are your favorite games to play?

I have now finished blocking the Skuld shawl and taking pictures of it. I still think it’s a bit small, especially to be of much use when wearing (I’m nothing if not practical, right?! HA!) It is long enough to wrap around my shoulders and secure with a shawl pin, however it still has some tendency to curl along the edges even after blocking, so it isn’t as long as when laid flat. I think it would be good for a smaller person to wear, like a child, or as a head scarf. This is probably more my mistake, because I used smaller needles than the designer suggested. If I were to make this pattern again, I would definitely add at least one more repeat to make it longer, both in width and length.

While I was getting ready to take those pictures, I started weeding my front beds so there weren’t weeds in the pictures. I’ve been putting this off since the ground has been so dry the weeds won’t come out very easily. However with the rain we had last night, things were definitely easier to pull…until I came to these nasty things that have the most awful thorns! I looked it up and I think it might be ‘horse nettle’. I’m going to have to get thicker gloves to pull them out! I did not manage to finish weeding the whole bed as I had a little girl I had to keep from falling down our front steps…

I also received the first of my swap goodies from Swap-Bot!

A bunch of stationary, stickers, and some tea! This was just as small swap, and I am having lots of fun finding things for my partners I know they might like. Plus I get fun mail!