Mission Accomplished

Thanks everyone for your reassurance that the acopalypse was not at hand, and generations of in-laws for thousands of years had in fact managed to meet without killing each other . My parents met DF's parents with nary a hitch worse than several hours of awkward confersation on the first day. That's nothing that a good mango mousse and cat skinning (a.k.a. karaoke) could't alleviate. My apologies to all of you cat lovers out there. And *gasp* they found that they may have something in common: complaining about their children.

Also accomplished this weekend, a friend I've known for almost 20 years got hitched. It was worth the fondue set and the plane ticket to see half of my prom date get lassoed into matrimony while the other half stood by in utter shock like the rest of us. In case you missed that, I asked, strike that, told, two of my high school friends that they were coming to the prom with me. I believe it went something like this:

Me: Joe, you're not going to prom, are you?
Joe: No. *suspiciously* Why?
Me: Okay, you, Drew and I are going. I bought tickets for the three of us already. I think you and Drew should pick up dinner.
Drew: Huh. It's like an invitation and a bill all rolled into one.

Fast forward 19 years:
Joe: Drew asked me to be in his wedding yesterday.
Me: Really? Are you a groomsman?
Joe: No, I don't think so. He would have mentioned that. He just said I didn't have to do much.
Me: Are you sure? I was looking at the website and there were five bridesmaids and four groomsmen and all the other slots look filled.
Joe: No, I really think Drew would have asked me to be a groomsman, not just to be part of the wedding.
Me: okay... if you say so.

Two days later:
Joe: yeah. Apparently I'm a groomsman. I saw it on the webpage.

Poor Joe. How does he always manage to be on the receiving end of all of our crap? At least I managed to make roles clear even if I didn't manage to get around to asking for permission first. If only I could combine efforts with Drew, we could maybe get it right eventually.

To characterize Drew as saying that he's incredibly efficient with the words he does manage to utter would be selling him short. He's a genuinely good guy, and I'm happy to see that all the years of waiting to see if the right girl could possibly motivate him to date and move out of his parents' house have paid off. J is so sweet and giving, and he totally needs someone to take care of him. She brings out a side in him that we've never had the chance to see. That probably makes her perfect for him.

In less sappy news, I did manage to swatch for my Sockapaloooza Yukon Leaves socks. This Regia Stretch color is perfect. The variegation is so subtle that it just makes the fabric shimmer. And be proud: I actually SWATCHED and *gasp* blocked my swatch instead of making a full sized swatch. Roll your mouse over the picture to see Before Blocking pictures.



Incidentally, I found that my lace pattern gauge is the same as my stockinette gauge. Did you hear that? Not only did I swatch, but I swatched in two different stitch patterns! Hell is definitely getting a bit chilly these days.

I cast on Friday toe up again. I am all kinds of paranoid since I used up some of the yarn for the swatch and I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't run out (my sock pal apologized for having big feet). I used the Turkish cast on yet again, and I'm still loving it. I had to rip out my first attemp because I was using raised left and right increases to shape a standard toe, but then I ended up hating the way it looked. I changed the increases to M1B (insert left needle under the loop between the sts from the back and K), K2, M1F (insert left needle under the loop between the sts from the front and Ktbl) and I liked that a lot better.

So far, I've finished the toes and have gotten 3.75 inches into it. I'm not entirely sure what to do about the foot length though. My sock pal gave me measurements of her foot, but she didn't specify what she'd like the finished measurements to be. I'm going with the guideline of 90% of actual foot circumference for the sock circumference, but I'm not sure about how long to make it. Should I go with 90% of the length as well?

Hey, that's not burgundy, is it?

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. I didn't think Audrey would get such a positive response, so thank you thank you thank you for the little ego boost.

For those of you who expressed interest in making Audrey, I would definitely put out a word of warning. Shine is supposed to be a sport weight yarn, but I ended up getting something more of a fingering weight gauge out of it. I'm not sure if I ended up really stressed or what, but please keep that in mind so you can make adjustments. Also, I did end up making these gloves pretty small in comparison to my actual hand and forearm measurements: My hands are much more like 6.5" circumference. I did this because I had heard that Shine grows a bit after washing and I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be swimming in them when I was done.

Anyway, if you do end up making Audrey, please send me a picture or a link to your post, 'kay?

I haven't had much to report on knitting wise lately because it's just more and more of the sleeve on DF's zippered raglan. I swear the man has arms of a length to suggest that he may be the missing link between apes and man. Why oh why can't DF be a little person? I still have one last increase on the sleeves and then ANOTHER 3 inches of straight knitting before joining the sleeves to the body. It's the neverending sweater.

What do y'all think by the way of the increases in the ribbing? I have think that increases in ribbing looks a little strange, but maybe I'm just weird. Sorry for the dark picture, at least the sweater's not bright pink this time.

Sorry for the bland background. The porch is about the only place in my apartment building to get natural sunlight and prop up the camera for a self-portrait, so get used to the green stucco.

On another note, DF's parents and my parents are meeting for the first time tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed. I'm keeping the hard liquor handy. At least the plane ride will give me ample time to swatch for my Sockapaloooza socks.

Something Pink

Audrey
Pattern: My Own
Materials: Knitpicks Shine (60% Pima Cotton/40% Modal, 110 yards). Exactly 2 skeins in Blush. Size US4 Addi Turbo circulars, 24" and 32".
Gauge: 27 sts and 40 rounds = 4x4" in stockinette st
Finished Size: 6 inches around hand, 9 inches around widest part of forearm, about 13 inches from tip to cuff

Started: February 7, 2006
Finished: February 17, 2006

Pattern
Cast on 38 sts using long tail method, divide between two circular needles and join in the round being careful not to twist. Cast on for second glove and work simultaneously from here. All sts on Needle 1 will be worked in St st and will be considered the palm side.

Beginning with a purl round, work 4 rounds in garter stitch. Knit across 19 sts of needle 1 and then K1 on needle 2, work across chart, K1. Continue in this manner for 2 pattern repeats. On last row of chart for glove 2 on needle 2, work across chart, pm, then cast on 10 sts using backwards loop technique.

Thumb gusset shaping
Knit across needle 1 for glove 1, pm, then cast on 10 sts using backwards loop technique. Cast on an additional 10 sts on glove 2 (a total of 20 sts, including those cast on at the end of the last round), then knit across. Continue on Needle 2 glove 2: k1, work next row of chart, k1, sl marker, knit to end. For glove 1, cast on an additional 10 sts, pm, k1, work next row of chart, k1.

The cast on sts between the two markers on either glove form the thumb gusset. Continue working the hand sts in stockinette on the palm side and in chart pattern on the back of hand as before. Work the thumb sts in stockinette on even rounds, and decrease on odd rounds as follows: after working hand sts, sl marker, SSK, knit to 2 sts before marker, K2tog. When 2 thumb sts remain between markers, on next decrease round consume 1 hand st on either side for the decreases.

Wrist shaping
Continue working hand sts as before for one more pattern repeat. Continue working the chart, but switch palm side sts to 1x1 ribbing for two more pattern repeats. Switching back to st st on the palm side, work to row 4 of chart.

Forearm shaping
Next row palm side: k1, m1, knit to within 1 st of end of palm sts, m1, k1. Continue working from chart for sts on needle 2. Work this increase row 2 more times every 8 rows, then every 4 rows 6 times.

Border
Finish working chart, then work row 1 of chart one more time. Work in st st all the way around glove for 6 more rounds. Switch to garter st for 5 rounds. Bind off with picot bind off as follows: BO 2 sts, *return st on R needle to left, cast on 2 sts using cable cast on technique, BO 4 sts repeat from * to end of round. Weave in ends and close gap between thumb gusset and hand sts.

Discussion
I started off making these because I wanted to make use of some gift yarn and I wanted to keep my hands warm while sitting in front of my drafty window at the computer all day. That definitely called for fingerless gloves if I'm going to be able to type at the same time.

I have never worked with Shine before, so originally I thought that a cute grapevine cable pattern would dress up an otherwise plain tube. The Make Bobbles though, about drove me crazy so that idea was abandoned. I then tried a lace panel going up the back of the hand, and I'm not sure if it's me or what, but I tried 3 different lace motifs and all of them looked terrible. Maybe it's the Shine, but I finally settled on a simple knit and purl motif you see here. Maybe it was the subliminal messaging from reading all about Eunny's adventures in argyle that did it. Who knows.

These gloves could have easily taken only 1 ball of Shine for the pair if I had stopped at the ribbing for the wrist, but I decided to just continue until I ran out of yarn frankly because I had no other plans for what would have been a leftover single ball of Shine. The result, practically elbow length gloves harking back to Breakfast at Tiffany's.

They're totally impractical because let's face it, who wears elbow length fingerless gloves anyway, but I still think they're fun. And well, they only vaguely match the pajamas I tend to wear all day while working at my computer...

So much for being regular

And it's not because I don't eat enough fiber. It's just that I thought I'd be able to post a bit more regularly that I have been. I'm all spurty for lack of a better word. But anyway, life just has a habit of getting in the way, eh?

So rather than spoiling you with pictures of a WIP that's this close to being done, I'd rather just unveil the whole thing all at once. Seems more magical when you haven't even seen anything about it before.

But I really have been knitting. I swear. Even on things that have been in my sidebar for ages. Like DF's (pink) Zippered Raglan sweater. I finished the body up to the armpits and have worked a few sets of increases on the sleeves. I carefully consulted Alison's corrections to the arm instructions (thanks for the reminder IronSteph!), and I realized that all she was trying to say was just make sure that you replace the ribs that you take out from the body with the ones you're adding back in for the sleeves. It doesn't really matter how much you increase or whether you finish with knits or purls under your arms so long as it matches. In my case, I'm taking out 4 purls, 4 knits, and 4 purls from the body where I'll attach the sleeves. So, that means that when I increase for my sleeve, I need to end up with 4 purls, 4 knits, and 4 purls centered around the underarm "seam". So pathetic that it took me reading through Alison's post about 40 times and tearing my hair out to figure this simple thing out.

Because you guys just can't get enough of the pink (burgundy) sweater...
I've also been planning out my future projects. Namely my Sockapaloooza socks. I just received my yarn in the mail. I went ahead and purchased the Regia Stretch and it's just as fabulously subtly variegated in person as it is on Sue's website. I think this should pass nicely for solid, while giving a little bit of oomph in the visual texture department.
As for the pattern, I've been debating this at length. My sock pal wants lace socks, and there are so many lace patterns that I've been wanting to try, but frankly, I'm a bit selfish. I know that if I make something for my sock pal, I won't get around to making them again so that I can keep them (serious 3rd and 4th sockitis here my friends).

Then it hit me, I should pay it forward. I was recently gifted with an amazing pair of Yukon Leaves socks that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE and wear as many days as I can without grossing out DF with my smelly feet. But, I figured, hey, I love these socks that I already have, but I haven't had the opportunity to knit them yet. If I make them for my sock pal, everybody gets what they want. She gets lace socks, I get to work on a pattern that I think I'll enjoy, and I'll still have a pair of these socks even after I give them away. I think we have a winner people!

Only question: is stretch wool a bad idea for lace?

Next up, DF's cousin has twins due in April, so with my lightning knitting pace, I should probably be starting their welcome present now or two months ago. Probably the cardigan (shown left) from Debbie Bliss' Baby Knits for Beginners book. At least I managed to start swatching with yarn that my future MIL purchased for me during a shopping as therapy session. Normally, I don't like novelty yarn so much, but this stuff I swear feels like a fluffy bath robe. Perfect for baby. Despite fondling the swatch, I didn't think too far ahead until I got home with my loot and actually read the label. Yes, it does say "eyelash" yarn on it. And what's up with not putting a knitting gauge on the label? Crochet only?

So if you actually rolled your mouse over the picture to see the back of the label, you may have noticed that they suggested a US8 crochet hook. So I figured I'd swatch with the same size needles. Disaster. I finally got a reasonable fabric after going down to size US3 needles to get 18 sts/4 in. Anyone know if crochet gauge is the same as knitting gauge, because damn I've never had to go down 5 needle sizes to get gauge before.

Here's what the swatch looks like BTW. I'm thinking that for the solids, I don't like the way the knit side looks as much as I like the purl side. There's a remarkable lack of stitch definition on the purl side that almost makes it look like I didn't even knit it but rather wove it that I really like. The colors come out funny on the purl side with the variegated yarn so I think I will use the knit side as the right side in this case. What do y'all think? Again, roll over the picture to see the purl side. I blatantly stole this HTML trick from Nona btw.

Oh, okay. Here's a sneak peak of the almost FO. Anyone up for Name that Yarn?

Patently untrue!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Knittingspaz!

1. Japan provides over thirty percent of the world's Knittingspaz supply!
2. The international dialling code for Knittingspaz is 672.
3. If you toss Knittingspaz 10000 times, she will not land heads 5000 times, but more like 4950, because her head weighs more and thus ends up on the bottom!
4. Knittingspaz can drink over 25 gallons of water at a time!
5. 68 percent of all UFO sightings are by Knittingspaz.
6. Ancient Greeks believed earthquakes were caused by Knittingspaz fighting underground.
7. Forty percent of the world's almonds and twenty percent of the world's peanuts are used in the manufacture of Knittingspaz.
8. There are 336 dimples on Knittingspaz.
9. The horns of Knittingspaz are made entirely from hair!
10. Knittingspaz can be found on a Cluedo board between the Library and the Conservatory!

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Saw this one on Beth's blog, and I just had to pass it along.

Not without comment though:
1. And here I've gone my entire life telling people that I'm in fact NOT Japanese but rather 100% chinese as far as I knew.
2. Wow, I didn't think my a$$ was big enough to warrant a whole dialing code. An area code, maybe.
3. Actually true. Why do you think I talk about myself so much?
4. A wholesale lie. People who have managed to observe me for a weekend in the desert have made comparisons of me with kangaroo rats.
5. That's only because most observations of the world around me usually go over my head.
6. Probably true. DF calls me quite scrappy when we wrestle. I have been known to kick and bite and pull hair. Quite the feat if you noted DF's hairline in that last picture.
7. I'd believe it. DF always claimed I was nutty!
8. Again, all on the a$$ the size of a country code.
9. Hey, if I can have hairs in my bathroom stuck to the CEILING, then I'd believe I have horns made out of hair somewhere that I have yet to find.
10. Wouldn't that be Colonel Mustard in the billiards room?

Finally... a Clapotis!

So I realized that it probably takes most people about a week to 10 days to finish this project, but lo and behold, it wouldn't be a project at Chez Spaz if it didn't look like this at some point. This was taken on 1/31. Note that at least this time, I had enough sense to remember to put in a lifeline. I debated about this one for a while actually. I had changed needle sizes and the ball looked quite large for some reason and I just thought, well heck, maybe changing gauge will be enough to lengthen the scarf without altering the number of increase repeats. I'll go another repeat. I should learn to never trust my judgment on these things.

I have to say that I've become trusted friends with my ball winder. With the number of times that my ball winder has turned a mass of ramen into something more manageable, I'd have to be. I should get it a Christmas present... And with as much as I trusted my ball winder, I never thought that shortly after this picture, it would conspire against me to be the Stupidest Thing I Did This Week*.

* Blatant swipe of a brilliant idea by Carrie over at Every Word's a Purl. She does an occassional, but hilarious series of the Dumbest Thing I Did this Week. See Here for an example.

So, have you ever thought, darn... I wish I could wind my yarn barf back into a center pull ball with my WIP still attached and not have to work from the outside of the ball. Well, I'm here to tell you that yes, you probably can do this if you wind by hand (I haven't tried), but please, don't try this with your ball winder. I did. It doesn't work.

If I must elaborate, I attached the yarn going up to my Clap-in-progress to the winder, strung the yarn through the guide, and started to crank. I quickly realized that my winder was going to try to wind from both ends (and frog the Clap) so I clamped down on my WIP end. Well, it didn't wind around the spool, but all that turning had to do something. A couple dozen cranks later, I found out what: my beautiful flat ribbon yarn turned into a dense single ply tube. Yes, my first experience with spinning, and wow was that effective. An hour later, I managed to de-spin less than a yard's worth of yarn and start working again from the outside of the re-wound ball.

Thankfully, this one's done:Clapotis
Pattern: by Kate Gilbert in Fall 2004 Knitty (as if you didn't know)
Materials: Southwest Trading Company Phoenix (100% soy silk, 175 yards). Exactly 3 skeins. Size 8 Addi Turbo 32" circulars.
Gauge: 5 sts/in
Finished size: 14" x 46"

Started: January 1, 2006
Finished: January 14, 2006
Frogged: January 16, 2006
Finished: February 5, 2006

Notes:
Followed pattern, except repeated increase section a total of 6 times and repeated straight section a total of 12 times. And frogged a lot. Kate Gilbert doesn't tell you to do that.

Discussion:
I actually liked working with Phoenix. After reading the review on Knitter's Review I was a bit skeptical that I'd eventually get the feel of working with a "wet noodle", as some had described. But the reviewer was right, and the very occassional snags were unnoticeable. I highly recommend this stuff if you can find it on sale somewhere. For the first time though, I couldn't meet gauge and get a fabric that I was satisfied with. I ended up meeting gauge for the lighter weight version of this yarn, Oasis. Makes me wonder if I'd turn Oasis into a sport weight yarn...

The pattern is about what I expected it to be. Pretty mindless, but it kept me motivated because I just wanted to get to the next dropped stitch. I just can't figure out how to get the edge stitches on either side of the dropped stitch column to stay tight. Yes, they stay nice and taught when pulled the rows tight, but when you pull the columns tight, the edges of the columns, despite their twistedness, still loosen up. Sigh. I'm living with it, and hopefully the recipient won't notice.

If I ever make this again (doubt it since I already made this one twice) I'd definitely do it in stole size instead of small scarf size. See how it's not as Mr. Yuck short now? I only managed to add 5 inches on to the length, but because of the gauge change, I also took out 4 inches in the width to make it a bit more proportioned.

Previous posts about this project:
Good to be back on 1/11/2006
Too square on 1/14/2006
Beware! on 1/16/2006

Blogging grand rounds

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I had a chance to get out and see what everyone's been doing lately and try and be a better blogger.

Caitlyn just finished up a fair-isle hat and was daring enough to show the floats. Suffice it to say that she wrestled with those floats a bit before she was happy with the outcome (like most of us would... except if you're Eunny and have such ridiculous fair isle skills that you can design a beautiful pattern for which the rest of us have to join the knitting olympics to tackle... just ask IronSteph). It's weird how the knitting world is so small. I happened to get my VK winter 2005/6 issue yesterday, and while I probably wouldn't make a single pattern in this issue, they happened to have an entire article on Armenian Knitting by Meg Swansen. MS described a fair isle technique that ends up looking like intarsia, where you float ENTIRE BODIES of solid colored sweaters before getting to the little intarsia panel at the neck. Interesting enough to at least check out next time you're browsing the knitting magazine racks.

I did finally get my Sockapaloooza match after anxiously checking my email every hour last week. My sock pal wants solid color socks, but I sort of thought that this was so incredibly subtly variegated, that it might as well be solid. What do y'all think?

Also, there's yet another fun You Knit Too Much contest going on over there to test your fiber and pattern knowledge. I think the signups might be closed, but definitely play along!

And finally, I was tagged by Cristina for a meme way too long ago, so at long last...

Four Jobs you have had in your life:
1. Lab teaching assistant
2. Princeton Review instructor
3. Chemist
4. Professional nag

Four movies you could watch over and over:
1. The Princess Bride
2. Sixteen Candles
3. Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone
4. When Harry met Sally

Four places you have lived:
1. Brooklyn, NY
2. Houston, TX
3. Boston, MA
4. Princeton, NJ

Four TV shows you love(d) to watch:
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Friends
3. ER
4. That's Incredible!

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Disney (world/land)
2. Maui
3. Caribbean cruise
4. London

Four places you want to visit:
1. New Zealand (Honeymoon, baby!)
2. Australia
3. China
4. Japan

Four websites you visit daily:
1. google
2. amazon
3. bloglines
4. web mail

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Does Chinese count?
2. sushi
3. soup (ANY kind)
4. NY style pizza - lots of sauce, minimal cheese, one or two toppings max

Four things currently on the floor in your car:
1. Windshield wipers
2. umbrella
3. climbing gear
4. rice (it's not my fault the bag broke 9 months ago...)

Four bloggers you are tagging:
I don't really believe in tagging, but please join the fun if you haven't done this one already!

Next up: Another FO!

Jaywalkin'

First of all, thank you to everyone who extended their well wishes to DF's family and me over the past week. It was very much appreciated. We returned from Ohio last night in a haze, so I guess that means we're back to our regularly scheduled programming.

When we last left off, I was traveling and having a fantastic time (an anomaly for travels involving work, I must admit). I hopped up to San Francisco for the week and managed to make it to TWO knitting related events: Chicks with Sticks and Knit and Wine at Urban Knitting Studio. The ladies (and gentleman!) at Chicks with Sticks were very open and friendly and two are even fellow knitbloggers. Cristina has tagged me for a meme (I swear I'll get to it) and Beth made sure I didn't get lost on the way back to my hotel (she also managed to find a way to stretch a turkey from here to Friday). Go check out Cristina's and Beth's blogs to find out what the heck I'm talking about.

The Urban Knitting Studio hosted a great little get together. The owner Helen has fabulous taste in yarns and I've never seen that kind of selection of yarns before. Helen stocks more than just the standard Debbie Bliss/Rowan/Cascade mix, so if you're in the SF area, go by and check out her store. I managed to extend the non-yarn purchasing stretch just a bit longer. I scored back issues of IK (Fall 2004) VK (spring/summer 2004, winter 2004/2005) and Rebecca (25) for half off. I also picked up Rowan 37 for full price, but the LYS around here don't have any in stock, so I figured that was a find. I'm not sure that I actually like the Fall 2004 IK, but since it was sold out on the IK site, I figured that it must be a commodity of some sort. Heck, if I didn't already own the FBS pattern, it would have been cheaper to buy the whole magazine at this price rather than just the pattern anywhere else. I may put it up for trade at some point, but I'm debating about trying to collect the whole library of IK magazines...

Since I had the opportunity to stay in SF for an ENTIRE WEEK, I did get a chance to breathe a sigh of relief at the return of common sense. For example, when your parents told you as a young child to look both ways before crossing the street, what did they tell you to do in the following scenarios?

At a crosswalk with cars coming:
a. step out in the street and hope the cars have good enough brakes (which are never required to be formally inspected by the state) so that they can slow down from twice the speed limit to zero within 20 feet
b. wait for cars to pass, then cross

At a red light with no cars coming:
a. wait for walk signal, then cross assuming that all the cars who run the light will swerve to get out of your way
b. cross

Not at a crosswalk with no cars coming:
a. Walk over two blocks to find a crosswalk and step out into traffic
b. cross

I'm happy to report that pedestrians in SF tend to choose B in most of the above scenarios. I can't vouch for LA pedestrians.

Speaking of the road rules, I did manage to finish DF's birthday present and only be a few hours late!

Jaywalker Socks
Pattern: Jaywalker by Grumperina
Materials: Vesper Sock Yarn by Knitterly Things (100% merino wool, 440 yards). 1 skein in Neapolitan (test batch so it's different from what's available now) gifted from Keohinani. 2 Size US1 Addi Turbo circular needles (24", 32")
Gauge: 10.5 sts/in in pattern
Finished size: 8" circumference, didn't measure length of foot and cuff, but fits SNUGLY on DF's size 11 feet

Started: December 26, 2005
Finished: January 29, 2006

Notes:
Worked as 2 socks on 2 circs. Cast on 38 sts with Turkish cast on and turned short row toe (decreased to 20 sts unwrapped). Knit one round across cast on row and toe sts then increased evenly around to a total of 84 sts. Worked in stitch pattern as for larger size. When length looked "right", turned short row heel on half of the sts (decreased to 16 sts unwrapped) and continued in pattern. Started ribbing when DF complained the yarn left over wouldn't be enough to make ribbing as long as he'd like. Kept going until I ran out of yarn.

Summary:
I think I get why everyone in blogland is making a pair of these. First of all, they count for my J in the Sock-A-Month KAL (thanks Chrissy for posting these pics for me in time). More importantly, they really show off self-striping yarns and make it look like you did a whole lot more work than you really did.

For the knitpicky (ahem, *me*) there were some things I thought worth pointing out. First of all, I still can't quite close up the hole at the ankles when turning a short row heel. The toes don't have this problem, but it's a whole lot more noticeable on the heel. SEE?

If you didn't notice so much from the picture above, somebody up there decided to align the sun, the moon, and the stars so that the striping went completely uninterrupted across the cuff and the instep despite not doing an afterthought heel. Makes the OCD knitter in me extremely happy. And for the thrifty knitter, the beauty of knitting toe-up:

Yes, that's less than 1/2 yard of leftover yarn. A word of caution though, binding off takes a whole lot more yarn than you think it will, especially if you go up a needle size to avoid the tourniquet effect. I thought I had enough for one more round before the bind off, but the bind off ended up taking what seemed like twice as much yarn. So I had to tink back ON THE NIGHT OF DF's BIRTHDAY. I tell you, if it weren't for that, they wouldn't have been done on time!

Clearly, I didn't really follow the pattern as written, but I'm still calling them Jaywalkers!

I'll leave you with one last pic of how DF feels about his new socks...

*note to self: do NOT take pictures of DF after he's had a nightcap*

Previous posts about this project:
I'm on the wagon on 1/24/2006
Pretty in Pink on 1/18/2006
Gotta love having a camera on 1/17/2006
Beware! on 1/16/2006
Good to be back on 1/11/2006