Chasing my tail

And it seems the hurrier I go, the behinder I get. However, for a quick fix of almost immediate gratification, I recommend these. Brigid Socks, done in Socks that Rock Heavyweight. I've been wanting to cast on for these for a long time, I love cables on anything. I didn't have any unicolor sport weight on hand, so I surrendered to the lust and used this busy colorway, Saratoga. Finished in 2 days. I added an extra repeat to the cable chart, next time I'll do it with an even longer cuff, and continue the cable further down the instep. They are really cozy warm, and I love the purl bump stimulation on my feet. I used to wear these every summer, and after the first week every spring of "ow ow ow" I have worn out several pairs. I do love me some foot reflexology. Nowadays I rarely go without socks, so purl bumps will have to do.

I'm also trudging along on the Tesserae Socks for #1 son in Austermann Step.

I have turned the heels, and hope to get almost to toe decrease area on the train to San Diego tomorrow. Eleven hours of knitting ought to do it. Then I can try them on his feet in person, and finish them off before the end of the week.
In some fit of insanity I decided to knit another pair same pattern for Sean, in Fleece Artist Somoko. The yarn is luscious, but handles and knits very differently. I've done about 3 inches on the cuff, and I am still not sure it's going to be stretchy enough to suit Sean. He keeps feeling it and reassuring me, but we'll see. And if that wasn't crazy-making enough, a friend from the knit group gave me two already wound balls of ArtYarns merino; I love pooling, she hates it and claims she couldn't get this yarn to stop pooling. I cast on for some toe up socks, WendyKnits' Double Eyelet Rib Socks.
No pictures of these projects yet, you'll have to trust me.
I'm also still working on Imogen, but it is sadly neglected. Maybe I'll get all these odds and ends of socks finished and can be devotedly monogamous to her. Hah!

We've also been working on taxes. Please tell me why a major tax software company would have the wisdom to produce 47 versions of their software in both Mac and Windows varieties except the Business Partnership kind? This genius decision means that every year we have to fiddle with installing some kind of Windoze emulation on our Macs, then the Windoze version of the tax software itself. Sounds easy, but after 17 days and hundreds of hours and the help of a professional Windoze IT person, we gave up and resorted to borrowing a, shudder, Dell laptop. This involves trickery, bribery and brute force in connecting the beast to the internets for all the security and virus and other Windoze updates, which seem to occur every few seconds. But finally, that part is done. We can discontinue the IV Prozac, and go back to our sweet macs and do our personal taxes. Mine took about 45 minutes, and it was pretty complex. Sean's takes all of 10 minutes. The cats' personal tax returns take no time at all. They are content to lay on the deck, eat tuna and watch the sunset.

no words necessary

We don't usually get vivid sunsets here, unless there's been a volcano I don't know about, or forest fires, so this was a real treat. Although the extensive contrails are a little troubling. Global dimming and all, you know. But spotting the tiny new crescent moon is always a thrill to me.




The Ekeby vest is finished. Since it is mostly holes, it was fairly fast; it's light and has nice drape, and not terribly warm. Mostly decorative. Oh, and it serves to slow me down as I go racing around doing my usual 4011 things at once, by catching on doorknobs and stuff. Useful. I may decide to try a tiny bit of controlled fulling, to make it tighter, with smaller holes and more body.