This and That

I have been miserable with a sinus infection and even after four days on antibiotics I'm not feeling great. But life goes on whether we feel like joining in or not. The Country Socks are finally finshed.

Pattern: Country Socks from Nancy Bush's book, Folk Socks.

Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport Weight in Natural (50 grams) and Grey Heather (100 grams)

Needles: US size 2 double points.

While I was waiting for the yarn I needed to finish them, I got started on the New England socks. I am almost at the toe of the first sock and just realized I've done it again. The not enough yarn thing. I bought two skeins of Koigu for these socks. I've used Koigu before for socks and it take two skeins for a pair of socks that fit me. This time I'm almost finished with the first skein and still have to finish about an inch of the foot and the toe. So NOW I check the pattern, and guess what, it calls for three skeins of Koigu, something I failed to notice before. So I'll head to the LYS after work and hope they have another skein. Sigh.

I decided to put the house on the market and see if it sells. The realtor is urging me to list it on March 1, so I am really pushing myself to get it ready. The sinus problem has interfered of course. There is a crew of men at my house as I type this, stripping wall paper, painting, recaulking the bathtubs and doing many small repairs. The dog is traumatized from the invasion of strangers and is pooping on the carpets from nerves. I have to clean out every closet, declutter, wash and iron all the curtains, shop to replace the really shabby ones, get a new bedspread, the list goes on, and on, and on. I'm getting heartburn.

Saturday I leave for a week's visit to my parents in Texas. This was planned before deciding to sell the house. I can't back out, the airline tickets are not refundable and I don't want to disappoint Mom and Dad. It may just be my inflated sense of self-worth, but I believe they are looking forward to my visit.

How the heck am I gonna to get it all done?

A blogger silent poetry reading

Well, I'm a day late and dollar short, as they say. The blogger silent poetry reading was yesterday, February 2, but I think I'll post one anyway. I love a wood burning fire in the fireplace on our snowy winter evenings. This year has been so unusually warm, that I've had very few. I always think of this poem when I light a fire, because it's about firewood. It's an old verse, and I have no idea who wrote it, but I like it.

Beachwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year.
Chestnut's only good they say
If for long 'tis laid away.
But ashwood new or ashwood old
Is fit for a queen with a crown of gold.

Birch and fir logs burn too fast,
Blaze up bright and do not last.
It is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elmwood would burns like graveyard mould-
Even the very flames are cold.
But ashwood green or ashwood brown
Is fit for a queen with a golden crown.

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Apple wood will scent your room
With an incense like perfume.
Oaken logs if dry and old
Keep away the winter's cold.
But ashwood wet or ashwood dry
A king shall warm his slippers by.

Thank you to Grace's Poppies for the suggestion of silent poetry reading on St. Bridget's Day!

Progress on my knitting has been slow this week. The Country Socks are stalled at the heel of the second sock. I ran out of gray yarn. Turns out I bought a 50 gram skein instead of the 100 gram skein called for in the pattern. Doh! So I'm waiting for a new 50 gram skein to arrive. I just hope Patternworks can come up with the same dyelot for me. I suppose I could have worked on Beadwork, but it's still in the basket. I chose to cast on for the New England Socks as part of the KOTR-Sock-KAL. First I had to learn the Double Start cast. Once I accomplished that, I began knitting the leg, following the chart provided. Except I didn't follow the chart because I ended up frogging and reknitting the first ten rows four times! My concentration must really be off, because I would correct one mistake and then make a different one in another place. Four times, I tell you. Very irritating. It must be a bad week for my sun sign or the wrong phase of the moon. Or something. I finally do have the first ten rows plus a few more correctly knit.


The double start cast on is pretty, but you're left with a tail plus a loop to weave in. Unless I didn't do it right, but I'm fairly sure that I did. I'm using US size 1 double points and Koigu KPM in shade 118021. It's a little more red than in this picture, sort of a geranium color. For now, that's all, folks.