Socks, Finished

The Candy Stripe Opal socks are finished, and on my feet!

Please note that those flipping stripes match perfectly.

Details:

Yarn: Opal, #518, from the 2002 collection. I named it Candy Stripes. Pattern: Basic top-down, flap-heel, stocking stitch. I used a picot hem on the top, which I shamelessly copied from Claudia. This is my first picot hem, and it is fun, easy, and flirty. Perfect for girlie socks. Needles: 2.25mm dpns. Started in February 2006 as the Wintergrass knitting project, finished 4-9-06. What I learned: I love plain socks. I think all those other fancy socks are very pretty, and no doubt fun to knit, but I love the process of just knitting around and around mindlessly in plain stocking stitch, and coming up with a sock at the end. The picot hem was new, and I might put it on everything else that I ever knit, it was that much fun. This was also my first experience with Opal yarn, and it is indeed as wonderful as everyone claims. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's A Big Gaping Hole Where The Deck Used To Be*

The guys came back today, with reinforcements. It seems that we have it all: wood rot, termites, huge cost overruns. The deck is nearly gone, and the "first pass" estimate is that at least one or two of the beams holding up the kitchen (that glass curved wall) will have to be replaced. The kitchen windows and all the surrounding wall will have to go as well.

That big three-story beam in the left of that last photo may need to go too. Yee-ha. The guy driving the Bobcat is having a blast in our backyard, and I'm pretty sure that our contractor (the Bobcat driver's dad) has a guaranteed job for the summer.

It's a good thing that I have a good Yarn 401K plan. I might be knitting from it for the foreseeable future.

*That could be the title of a hit honky-tonk song, don't you think?