"When I tell you something is dangerous, I mean it. And, I never forget the Victims"
T.J. Hooker
"Everyone can master a Grief but he who has it”
William Shakespeare
”I had given him a life not worth living, but I had also given him an iron will to live. This was a common combination on the planet Earth”
Kurt Vonnegut about his character, Kilgore Trout.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Sock of the (Ten) Month Club and baby tort progress report.

Knitting report:

Finally, I've decided on 9 sock yarns to knit this year, not including the Sundara (Ice color) that I'm making into Hedgerows by Jane.  A very generous friend of yore had sent me the Sundara Yarn, and since Jane loves that yarn I decided to knit the pattern she created with it.  I know, they are a hold-over from 2011, (perhaps even 2010?) but what the heck..  These are keepers so they are staying with me!  Yay!   I weighed the balls of yarn and there should be plenty. Fingers crossed after that last thing. 

That last thinga, and some other stuff, is in the mail to my friend North of here.  Friend to the North, watch your mailbox.  :-)

Here are the nine other finalists.  There is no trekking because I can't find it!  It's in there in the stash, somewhere!


You can see all the labels except for the wine colored stuff on the right.  That is from Garn studios.  I've never used that yarn nor the Elann, so we'll see how it goes, too!  I've been waiting a long time to knit socks from the Opal, and that will be next on in line. 

The patterns I'm not sure about yet, but I'm not crazy about a lot of fancy patterns.  I've found a few that I'm willing to try, including a weird new knit the heel first one, but it will be the LAST one I try because my frustration level is already high.  Helen at Golden Apples just finished a pair of that pattern, and it looks impressive.


Tort Report:

Button eats, therefore he lives.  We almost lost him a couple of times.

Dusty faces down his Big Bro.  

Even though they are from the same clutch (nest) Milagro eats twice as much as Dusty.  I've put a quarter in the boxes so that you can see how small Button still is, though he is growing!  He's a good eater now that he's decided he wants to stick around!  I think he spent at least a year pining for his lost life out in the wilds of the backyard, under the warm, bright sun, and his tiny digging spot under the last unexcavated  root of the elm .

In the bottom picture, Milagro, ever the Hoggie, is a lot bigger than Dusty.  I take Milagro out of the box so that Dusty can eat more.  Other wise M hauls out on top of him and rams him away from the food.  That's just the way tortoises are!  They are little eating machines who don't want to share.  Milagro usually just climbs up on top of the food pile and eats it down.

PJ is in town!  I hope to meet up with her tomorrow or sometime this week.  Happy Dance!  The weather is post card Southern California Sunshine.  I have to water it has been so hot and dry and the heater only comes on in the early morning and after the sun goes down.  It is, after all, Winter in SoCal.

Organization Report: Well, off to the excavation site.  Now that there is a largish path out there, it looks a lot more normal.  Studios are always a little messy but that place just got ridiculous!  At one time, it actually looked really nice, in a working studio sort of way.  If I want beauty all around meat the back of the house, I have to step outside and go stand next to the lime trees and look at the sky!

I still haven't touched the spinning wheel.  I'm still getting over not having my kids here.  I know, they could be living in South America up a dirt track.  I try to be grateful that they are not that far away but it's hard.



6 comments:

  1. well maybe by the time you are ready to knit the crazy heel first socks--i'll be knitting them again, and will have a pattern for you--

    Though, there are other patterns out there for similar socks.. (at least 4 that i know of, and likely more)

    I usually try on my socks as I go--so they usually end up fitting--even if not being perfect.

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  2. I am quite interested in knitting a pair of socks from your pattern if you develop one, Helen. They are very intriguing.

    I try on my socks while they are being knit the first time for a pattern, because you never know how it all will behave, the yarn the pattern, etc.

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  3. Hope things go well with the socks.


    I never had a turtle for a pet, they look fun.


    Glad to hear he's growing.

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  4. By the way, I like that thing on the side of your blog that says, "Works in Progress".


    Did you make that yourself or is there someplace I can get something similar to that?

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  5. Thanks Z! ♥ Button is so little that every time he eats we just watch him chowing down and rejoice. When the DDs were here, they took all the small tortoises out to eat in the grass patch (weeds) in the front for them to get sun and dried grasses. 30% of their food in the wild is dried grasses and weeds.

    I will post tomorrow about those bars. That way you'll have a hot link to click through on. Someone has given we knitters a great site for picking up progress bars.

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I’m going through some stuff but I will peek in now and then and will be back when it’s over..