New Socks

Here’s my third pair of socks for 2007 finished! Hope the colours are somewhat close to what they really look like. It’s been raining here for several days.

The Ninja's New Socks

Begun: Dyeing – January 14, 2006. Knitting – January 17, 2006
Completed: February 4, 2oo6

Yarn: Sandnesgarn Sisu, 80% wool/20% nylon, 160 meters = 50 g, colour 1042 dark grey, dyed blues/purples. 2+ balls.
Needles: Clover Takumi bamboo dpns, 2 mm
Gauge: 9 sts = 1”

Details: My classic plain top-down, flap-heel socks on 72 sts. 9 inches total before heel flap, foot 8.5 inches before toe decreases. Honking huge!

Next sock project is another pair for my mother-in-law. She liked the last pair I made her so much and it’s her birthday next Sunday. No, of course they won’t be done in time! I started a pair using my last 2 balls of Regia 6-ply which is what I used for her first pair. But I’m Not Liking these for her. I was just too lazy to dye some white Sizu. So these may be moth-balled until I have time to finish them for me or someone else who has smaller feet. Or until I need my aluminum 2.25 mm sock needles. Heading down to the dye studio shortly — right after I wind this yarn into skeins.

I still miraculously have ink in my printer cartridges, though the colour one is running out of yellow so it only works in streaks. I’ve been using it anyway for printing out the lace patterns I scanned from my knitting magazines so I can combine them in a book. Must be old-fashioned because I don’t like just having an electronic copy. I think I’ve lost all my files once too often over the years (through theft and hardware failure). And yes, I do back up! However it’s getting to the point where I need a portable hard drive to do it properly. I have way too many files. I want to have one system where I copy everything over and move the copy far away from my computer. At least the price of USB-connecting hard drives are down to a reasonable price. I need at least 200 GB and they’re around $150 or so. Believe me, if you lose all your important files, you would be willing to pay a lot more than that to have it back again!

As I was saying before I got technical on myself — I have all these papers kicking around my study in little heaps and piles. If I’m going to ever get around to vacuuming the dust dinosaurs up before they attack my legs and eat my cats, I need to file all the paper away. But first I have to print out a few more things. I really need to change the printer cartridges. Can I print and wind skeins at the same time?