I Love Lucy and so does Little Bunny Foo Foo

Ahh the details I promised. Well let me first of say, I Love To Knit Socks! I was not sure that I would, but I am a girl that will try anything at least once. Ask my friend Gina, no wait, she has pictures...

Pattern: Sensational Knitted Socks, Slip Stitch Rib

Size: My big foot

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks That Rock

Color: Little Bunny Foo Foo

Needles: Addi Lace US 1

Started: Easter Weekend

Finished: 8:20pm 8-13-07

I am long winded, fair warning. Ok, it does not take that long to knit a pair of socks. I will explain. I got the yarn along with other sock yarn prior to me learning the fabulous world of socks. Everyone has been telling me it is magical, Harry Potter and shit like that. Well behold my Dumbledore, it is magical. You turn that heel and scratch your head and there it is. So I am ALL about socks right now.

My first sock of the pair is when I learned long tail cast on, which will explain my difficulty with the second sock. I went round and round and round until I got the cuff as long as I thought it should be with out "running out of yarn." I would do a few rounds and put the cuff away, then pick it back up in a week or so when I felt guilty. Now the cuff was long enough, I read my book, LOVE THE BOOK, and it says to knit a heel flap, I did. And it was a bit too long, but that is ok, a learning experience. Then came the magic of the heel turn. I was not sure what I was doing was correct so I went to my friend Colleens house for her assistance. (Ironic thing about that is, I taught her how to knit. She started socks before me and got the whole thing down, so she held my hand so to speak.) After the turn, you know the drill, pick up stitches, I knew how to do that from the Lady Eleanor that I knit, and then the gusset decreases. Well, I screwed them up royally because after only about 8 or 10 rounds I was done with the decreases, ummm not good. So I frogged back to where I picked up stitches and re-read the pattern where it said to knit one round between the decrease rounds! Wow, isn't it amazing what you learn when you actually READ the pattern instead of GLANCING at the pattern? Yada Yada Yada, toe decreases. I did not pay close attention again at the pattern, I was just so excited that I was almost done that I did decreases every round AGAIN. But I was not going back, I had gone that far, I was almost done, screw that, move on! Then its kitchener time. Now I had never kitchenered before, I liked the look if it, was a bit scared of the LONG directions and my lack of wanting to read any directions, I did the only reasonable thing, I had Colleen read me the directions step by step so I would not mess it up like I had other sections of the sock. And BAM...my first sock was done. I was so happy, the monkey was off my back, I wore it around the house. I sat there and waited for Sensei to compliment me on my fabulous sock, I would dangle my leg off the couch, stretch and then I got, "do you realize that you only have one sock on?"

Me: Yes, I just finished it tonight, isn't it great?

Sensei: Uh, yeah? But there is only one.

Me: Don't burst my bubble!

Sensei: So when are you going to finish the other one?

Me: $^!&

So now that monkey was on my back again to finish the pair. Made some rules for myself, lets not make the same mistakes in the second one as you did in the first. Broke that rule right off the bat. Remember when I said that I had just learned the long tail cast-on? Cast on, round and round, cuff now is the same length. I was invited to Cindy's house on Sunday for her birthday knit party. It was great. We had wine, food, wine, my homemade salsa, wine, cake, wine. Cindy collects wines and has quite a large assortment, I am not complaining. We had some Pinot Noir, Petite Syrah (my personal favorite if you are ever needing a reason to know) there were Cabernet's and Zinfandel's. And I start the heel flap. After about 6 rows, I look down and started laughing, I was knitting the heel flap inside out. I think that the company and the food was so good that I just didn't notice, others blame the grapes, I would never. So I tear out the heel flap and start over. After I gathered my composure I began the heel flap again. At that point, Cindy says, "Hey, you and Hannah are both on the second sock of your first pair of socks, you should both race to see who finishes first." Great Cindy, I just started my heel flap for my size 10 foot and cute little Hannah the sheep has done her heel turn and was picking up stitches, did I mention Little Hannah? She wears a size 4-1/2! She has such a lead on me that it is not even funny. Then Cindy says the magic words, " I will buy the winner a margarita" We'll bring it on honey! I love adult beverages. My concentration was fierce. I was knitting like a woman on a mission, I had a date with Don Julio. Come on, it was for a margarita.

Hannah actually had me a bit scared cause she started to get real serious about her knitting, her speed increased, she started to not participate in conversation and her foot is half the size of mine. This race was real. The trash talking was starting. She started to get help from the attendees, Janice, Cookie, Kristi, anyone that looked her way. I nipped that in the bud, "No published knitter may help out!" So that put Janice, Cookie and Nathania out, but Kristi informed me that she was not published so she didn't count.

I know I am getting long winded, and I need to get to the part of how I explain the title of this post. Round and Round I was up until midnight Sunday night. Monday, I knitted every opportunity I had, I got to the dojo and I told Sensei, "don't bother me, I have to win" I sat there and was not yet at the toe decreases and I looked down to find a TINY amount of yarn. Yes, a tiny amount. It hit me, I am going to run out of yarn. Now Hannah has been calling me, this being Monday, it started at 8:03am with a message that said, "where are you on your sock?" Then there was something about me being a loser and I was going down. At that moment I did think I was going down like yarn supply I was looking at and I had not started the toe yet, actually I was not close to starting the toe. I called Cindy in a panic, she was on her way to the dojo to pick up her daughter and I told her that I was going to run out of yarn. Why did I run out of yarn? Remember an hour ago when I said that I just learned the long tail cast-on? I wasted a lot of yarn in the cast on. And it looks like had I not messed up the cast on length, I would not have needed more yarn. In through the dojo door walks Cindy and a small bag of sock yarn to rescue me. I open it up and there it is, Little Bunny Foo Foo's first cousin Lucy. Lucy is blue version of Little Bunny Foo Foo. I knit until I ran out of my yarn and then added Lucy to the sock. I only ended up needing about 10 rows of the toe plus kitchener of the Lucy yarn. So one sock has a little blue toe. Socks were finished and photographed for proof of completion at 8:30pm Monday night 8-13-07. I have worn these socks for two nights in a row around the house and to bed, they have their faults and issues but I love them anyway. I took them off this morning and laid them on the couch when I was going to get ready for work. My plan was to wash them this morning and take them to knitting tonight. Sensei came home from work while I was getting ready to go to work. He changed his clothes and settled in to the couch watching the Golf Channel like he does every morning. We said our good mornings and I asked him were did he put my socks? He grinned and I pulled the blanket back and there was Little Bunny Foo Foo snuggled up on his feet. He said, "Babe, these are nice!" He had the biggest Cat ate the Canary grin on his face. I guess I am a sock knitter now.

Photos below are seconds after completion, no washing or blocking had occurred.