Sock it to me

Amidst all that rending and sewing yesterday, I had to start a pair of socks. My eyes were crossing after I sewed the sleeves and side seams of the Seville jacket. Knitting a simple sock, round-and-round on a 12-inch circular needle, is a comfort and a relief.

Now that the weather has turned cooler [and, by the way, we have had a most gloriously colorful autumn], I'm digging into my sock drawer every day. Except for the cotton athletic socks, every pair there is handmade and all but two are wool. This is a luxury right up there with fresh flowers every week, in my opinion.

I have two pair that are black-and-cream, but no solid black, or even dark grey. There's a reason for that. While I am a mostly neutral kind of girl when it comes to color, it's kind of boring to knit neutrals and the older you get, the harder it usually is to knit dark colors. However, black and grey are what I want to wear most, so I searched in the yarn closet yesterday for a hank of Briggs & Little Sport in a deep charcoal color.

Using a size 2 Addi Turbo, I cast on 52 stitches and knit two inches of 2x2 ribbing. I then switched to a size 3 needle and will knit the rest of the leg in straight, no-nonsense stockinette stitch. For the heel and foot, I'll go back to the smaller size – or maybe even drop down to a size 1, to make the fabric dense and less resistant to wear and tear.

I thought about using my Pretty Comfy pattern for these, but they take some counting and concentration, and I really need simple, both the socks and the knitting. Besides – they're dark grey. Who's going to notice a stitch pattern on dark grey socks hidden under my jeans?

As for the Seville, I tried it on sans edging and I'm going to love it. LOVE IT! It's so elegant. [And you know out here in the Middle of Nowhere how many times we need elegant.] I'm glad I made it in sportweight, rather than worsted. I'm glad I made it a little longer than the pattern called for. And I'll be damned glad when I get the edging completely sewn on.

I started twice on the lower edge; neither attempt worked. So I started at one of the shoulder seams and am working my way down one front. That's working better, but I had to undo [there's that rending again] about six inches last night because it was kind of wavy-looking, instead of stretched and smooth, as it's supposed to be.

I bought this pattern several years ago, because I loved its sophistication – quite different from most of the handknitting patterns I'd tried at that time. I also knew that it wouldn't be flattering on a short fat person. So if I want to keep wearing it, I'd better stick with my program. I just hope I can get the edging on properly or I'll never wear it at all!

An exercise update: I'm doing great on the rowing machine, but only every other day. On the good days I've managed 40 strokes per minute for 30 to 35 minutes. CalorieKing says that's about 500 calories burned. The next day, after 20 minutes, I'm completely whipped. So I'm not getting many minutes in, but it's a good, hard, sweaty workout half the time, and a half-hearted effort the other half. I'm doing my foot exercises and feel no pain at all in my heel at this point. I'll try a short outdoor walk Monday or Tuesday to see where I am with that.