Last night, I finished up all of the knitting on the first of what I’m calling the “Somewhere” socks (as opposed to the “Somewhere Else” socks). All that remained for me to do this morning was to graft the toe, weave in ends, and block.

After grafting the toe, I couldn’t wait to try on the sock:

(Yes, those are my jammies…I said I couldn’t wait!)

So get this: the socks are about 1/2″ too short. I measured them and measured them and measured them and I knew exactly how many vertical repeats were required to get me to the start of the toe. So why are they too short?

My theory is that I subconsciously sized them incorrectly. When I was making the first Somewhere Else sock, I was unsure for whom I’d make them and ultimately had it narrowed down to two possible recipients. After having decided on which one, I then spent a lot of time thinking that I needed to make the other a pair of socks.

Guess what? The Somewhere sock would fit that person to a T.

(I guess I’m not keeping these ones for myself!)

A couple of days ago, I wrote about my latest sock project and how it came about as a result of going in a different direction.

Well, here’s what “somewhere else” looks like:

I finished up one of the prototype socks and, in an attempt to stave off “second sock syndrome”, I plan on working on the same pattern in a tighter gauge. For that, I picked up some gorgeous Malabrigo yesterday and have already started on them.

I remembered to take notes this time around and so basically have the US 2 pattern written. I’ll have to remember to take notes for my US 00 version as well; it might be nice to offer both versions, especially since those tiny needles sometimes discourage people.

The author of one of my current blog reads, Lolly Knitting Around, apparently also coordinates a challenge-your-creativity-type knit-a-long (but not a knit-a-long–it’s more of just a “be creative”-a-long): Project Spectrum. This year’s theme is the cardinal directions. Each compass point has been associated with a colour and it’s our job, as participants, to create something using that colour as inspiration.

The exercise begins in March with North. The colour for North is green.

I toddled off to Flickr in search of green inspiration and, among a couple of real standouts, this photo just grabbed me:

This is someone else’s photo so I can’t show it here but you really must go see it

Now that, my friends, is inspiring. Inspiring enough, in fact, that I charted out a pattern to make some “Rush” socks. Each round is made up of only three repeats and the pattern takes 25 rows to finish a single iteration. I have some ivory Regia Silk sock yarn kicking around so I started working on them.

After finishing the cuff ribbing and about half of the first set of rows, I decided the gauge wasn’t working for me. The sock was ripped out and started over, this time with 66 stitches instead of 60. That meant rejigging the pattern for the extra stitches. No problem.

Right around row 20 of the next version, I realised that the pattern wouldn’t work out to be as random as I wanted. Each needle being worked would be great but, when considered as a whole, the sock wouldn’t be a series of three repeats. Obviously, that wouldn’t do…

The sock was ripped out again and restarted. This time, Needle 1 started with row 1 of the 25 row pattern, Needle 2 started with row 8, and needle 3 started with row 16. (My inspiration for this approach was singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” in the round during Grade 4 music class.)

Yes! It worked!

I had the randomness I was after and it looked like I had rushes growing up my socks!

Too bad I didn’t like them.

Yes, that’s right…I didn’t like the way the segments in the rushes were formed (with purl stitches) and so I ripped out the whole works, turned the page on my charted pattern, and decided to head off in another direction.

On the way to somewhere else has led me here:

I’m loving the pattern of these lacy little numbers (which, unfortunately, you can’t see very well because they’re not blocked) and, so far, they seem to be a very, very quick knit. That last bit might be because I’m using US 2 needles. After my Peapod Socks (72 stitches on 00s, oh my!), I thought I wanted something quick. Unfortunately, I forgot that one reason why I love the Peapods so much is the density of the fabric produced.

So, these will be a prototype pair and I will finish them just to see how the pattern looks overall. After that, the pattern will be reworked for tiny stitches on tiny needles.

I think TJ Simers just cooked his own goose.

And just who is TJ Simers, you ask?

He’s a sports columnist for the LA Times, currently covering the Westminster Dog Show. Yes, I wrote sports columnist. Even though I have dogs and even though I participate in a dog sport with them, even I have trouble with the concept of a sports columnist covering a dog show. It really just leaves me wondering what old TJ did to piss off his editor.

So why has TJ cooked his goose?

Well, his latest column on the dog show has got the hackles up of the subscribers to doggy email lists, prompting many visits to his column and almost as many indignant letters to the editor. TJ’s readership just leapt into the stratosphere.

It’s TJ’s latest column, Dog show makes a mess of things that has the pack circling in for the kill. The teaser line is “Nobody likes an ugly dog, except the judges at Madison Square Garden”. Ouch! TJ pretty much doesn’t have a nice thing to say about anyone or any dog and his comments were conflicting enough* to make me wonder “Whoa! Who pissed on his cornflakes this morning?”

Yeah, I’m the sort to wonder what would make a sports columnist so grumpy as to write such a negative column. (Well, besides the obvious of being a sports columnist forced to cover a dog show by what must be a vindicative-beyond-hell editor.) In search of answers, I went back and read his previous columns.

After doing that, I think I know why TJ is so upset.

The first clue is right there in TJ’s first column.

The Celtics are playing across the street in Madison Square Garden, while here at the Fashion Show on the 18th floor of the Hotel Pennsylvania, hundreds of guests and dogs are dressed alike, Eli the Chihuahua wearing a wonderful silver satin fabric shirt, full vest, of course, with black and clear rhinestones.

TJ’s obviously feeling a little pouty about covering background events while he could be watching a Celtics game RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FERCHRISSAKES. Okay, I feel your pain, TJ. Had it been a Rangers game, I’d be slitting my wrists.

TJ perks up a bit when he introduces us to Rolex, a Dogue de Bordeaux. It seems Rolex appeals to Teej, enough that he dedicates the entirety of his second column to the massive doggy and even proclaims him “the one to watch”.

In that final column, the “mess” made by the dog show has nothing to do with dog shows in general. (Well, maybe it does but that’s in the subtext and, let’s face it, most sports journalists know as much about subtext as dog show judges know about pretty dogs.) The mess is that TJ’s dog didn’t win; poor Rolex didn’t win the breed.

Everything makes sense to me now!

TJ, smarting from being sent to New York to cover a dog show, tries his damnedest to make the best of things and puts his money on Rolex, only to lose it all the very next day. What little enjoyment TJ could squeeze out of the assignment (assuming that TJ is able to enjoy anything) has just gone down the tube.

As for TJ’s goose, I bet it’s well and truly cooked. His latest column provoked enough response that his editor already has him booked on a flight to London.

Crufts, anyone?

* TJ dismisses the Hound Group winner, a Scottish deerhound, as being “a malnourished mangy mutt […] who appeared as if he’d just been pulled from a local pound” but then holds up the poodle winner as proof positive that “this is a hobby only for the elite”. Huh?

In my house, the standard response to that question is “La fiesta está en mis pantalones.” However, on Saturday, the party was in the sitting room…a knitting party, that is!

Carol and Margaret from book club were interested in learning to knit so they and Leigh came over last Saturday afternoon. Leigh taught all of us how to do a long-tail cast on and I showed everyone how to knit stitches onto the needle. Despite my protestations that knitting stitches on was WAY easier than a long-tail approach, I think they all preferred Leigh’s method.

What knitting get together would be complete without a trip to a yarn store and so we made a hot-footed jaunt to Babetta’s. I picked up enough Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool for another vest. It was initially destined for an Aleita Shell (Rav link) but, after giving it more thought, it might just end up as an Eyelet Rib Vest instead.

As I’m still working on my alpaca pullover vest, I’ve got lots of time to change my mind again…