La Nadadora

Last spring I was swimming one day, getting all woozy from the sun shining through the water and refracting along the bottom of the pool, when I had the inspiration to try to recreate that shimmer in a pair of socks*.

What? That doesn't make perfect sense to you? Come on!

In any event, I dashed home and perused multiple websites, looking for the perfect semi-solid colorway. After much searching, I found it, along with a couple of others. I ordered (too much) yarn, stalked the post-person (sometimes male, sometimes female, so I'm trying to be inclusive here), swatched, knit deliriously, swooned over the yarny beauty, started writing a pattern, swore, pulled out my hair, threw my calculator out the window**, wrote some more, took some photos, put everything together, submitted, got rejected, got a test knitter, revised pattern (changing the entire heel construction), resubmitted, got rejected again, and decided to offer the damn thing for sale myself. So here it is.

La Nadadora
Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight
"Blue Moonstone" and "In the Navy"

The pattern is toe-up and includes charts for the tile pattern on the body of the sock and on the heel. Sizes include women's S, M and L (~7, 8 or 9 inches around). Size L (pictured) used less then one skein of Socks that Rock lightweight in the main color, and about 80 yds of the contrasting color.

Enjoy! And let me know if you have any problems (see contact info in sidebar).

* Since then, I've noticed that I get lots of design inspiration while I'm swimming. Must be the lack of brain input...
** Not really.

All over but the finishing

Which in my case is as difficult as the shouting.

TdF designing

I've been hard at work on mental designing* over the past year or so. Lots of socks. Some mitts. A lovely square neck pullover. But the actual putting down on paper and in yarn of my mental ideas has been somewhat lacking, since there are only so many hours in the day, and so many patterns out there already (damn Ravelry!). But there's an idea that's been stuck in my head for over a year now that I think is ready to come to frutition, and I'm going to share that process (partly because it helps me figure out what I'm doing and gives me some pressure to make progress, and partly because I have no pictures to show you today).

Four years ago in May, I was somewhat frazzled, extremely underwhelmed with parenthood, and stuck at home on maternity leave. We don't typically watch a lot of TV, but we broke down and got cable, in part so I could watch the Giro d'Italia at home. And then the Tour de France. And then the Vuelta in September, with ample exposure to Phil and Paul during the classics, the Tour of Georgia, etc. It was a cycling-filled few months, and repeated for the next few years until OLN dropped off of basic cable and then switched it's name. That was about the same time that Lance retired and they stopped really televising any cycling in the States.

The current design project is four pairs of cycling socks in honor of the Tour de France. One for each of the main jerseys (Maillot Jaune, King of the Mountains, the Points Jersey) and one for the Lanterne Rouge, who doesn't get a jersey, but probably should, just for sheer persistance. I've been charting out patterns and playing with swatches for a couple of weeks now, and yesterday I fell down and ordered a cubic buttload of Cascade Fixation to do the actual knitting of said socks. I'm hoping to get the patterns done and available by the Prologue, which gives me not very much time**. Five months may seem like a gracious plenty, but this is four pairs of socks to chart, test knit, and write up. Yikes! Not to mention another pattern I want to knit/write up for submission in June, and a pattern already written that I absolutely need to get up on Ravelry this weekend.

Anyone out there want to do some test knitting? Bonus points if your feet are small (6-7) or medium (8-9) as opposed to my large (size 10) clodhoppers. I'll provide pattern and yarn, you knit them and let me know where my arithmatic skills deserted me. Leave me a comment or shoot an email to porpoiseknitsATgmailDOTcom if you're interested. These will be ankle socks, so factor that in to your knitting time estimates, but the first pattern won't be ready for at least a month.

Now everyone be quiet while I go fight with Excel. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

* For instance, last night I paused my episode of Alias so I could make a sketch of the cabled turtleneck sweater Sydney was wearing, with the absolute goal of writting up a pattern for it. It was gorgeous.
** Appropriately enough for Lance's return, Le Tour starts on July 4th***.
*** And, given that we're going to be in the UK, we seriously might get to go see some of it. Squee!

Happy Birthday Charles!

I am busting out of my thrice-weekly posting schedule (had anyone noticed that?) to wish Mr. Charles Darwin a very happy bicentennial birthday. As one of the parents of modern biological thought, he is a hero of mine (although I have yet to read either The Voyage of the Beagle or On the Origin of Species - must work those in to the list by the end of the year). And I am amused that my current sock project is somewhat applicable.

I guess these would be even more appropriate for Dr. Mendel's birthday, but his bicentennial isn't until July 20, 2022. By which time these damn socks had better be done!

On the docket tomorrow: yet another Fiber Friday post. 8 oz of superwash BFL spun up in three evenings makes for a happy Porpoise.

I shudder to think of the therapy bills

that will result in my future because of the pictures I am about to show you. But so be it. They are too good not to share.

Wednesday morning, I noticed when Boo woke up that her right eye looked a bit swollen. Sure enough, someone (damn February mosquitos!) had bitten her right at the corner of her eye, and her lower lid was reacting in typical Boo-fashion (welt, welt, welt!). I didn't think much of it until I picked her up at school.

This is how she looked when we picked her up on Wednesday night.

Mosquito: 1, Boo: 0

The next morning it was even worse, Benadryl not withstanding, so we made an appointment with the doctor. One ped visit (complete with every parent's favorite words: Staph infection), and one large bottle of antibiotics later, we had this:

And as of Saturday morning, her eye looked totally normal, if a bit discolored around the edges. Poor thing. Thankfully she didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that her binocular vision had disappeared overnight. Or that she looked kind of freakish. In fact she took great glee in going up to unsuspecting people, sticking a finger in her right eye and shouting "Skeeto!" It worked better while it was still visibly swollen (the cashier in the grocery store yesterday just smiled and nodded).

Thankfully, Boo had some new socks to console her in her time of travail:

Pattern/yarn: the same as Devil's pink girly socks, only using Grumperina's helical stripe technique and two shades of Kool Aid dyed Knit Picks Bare sock yarn, dyed in Fall, 2006.
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm
Gauge: 7 sts/inch
Comments: Socks for the girls are my new love. Fast, sweet, and they use up yarn amounts that are silly for almost anything else. I'm still hoping I'll finish the geeky nerdo genetics socks by the end of the month, but in case I don't I've got February's pair covered.