Rodents, are vermin. Especially when they decide to come in the windows and make nests in my teenagers’ rooms. In spite of numerous discussions, there is a wealth of special treats in those rooms. Hands carry bowls, cups, plates and nourishment downstairs. However, we have neither Brownies or a magic cleaning fairy. Instead, if teens are lazy they could turn forgotten dishes into science projects featuring a wide variety of mold.
But where was I? Ah yes, feasts for mice. The small dark turds should have been a dead giveaway, but the site of said rodent had one of the crew screaming a couple of evenings ago and sleeping upstairs on the couch.
As of this evening, we have decontaminated two of the three teen bedrooms with the third on the slate for tomorrow. Having acquired some human trap, they are baited and waiting for prey in two of the three rooms. Our son feels confident his room is now ok and has promised to keep his door shut. The youngest stayed in Stuttgart so that she did not have to greet the dawn tomorrow in order to board an 0800 school trip bus.
This leaves the 18 year old with the futon upstairs in the office. Detritus has been removed, but we hadn’t a chance to check out the cupboards under her bed. She is not a happy camper, but I think will be all right with her loyal pup sleeping next to her.
Kauni
Didn’t spend all that long on this project this evening. The stitches are all picked up and I am part way through the first block row. After a mild bit of tinking under the arm when my mind woke up enough to remember that this is sleeve with pattern – not a steek area. And yes, it then does matter what it looks like! I made sure that it matched the placement of the blocks in the sweater rows. Knitting also went more smoothly today after I picked up a 40 cm 3,5 mm needle. This will completely avoid going to dps, since I will use two circular needles (somewhat like a number of you do for socks).
Sockapalooza4
Ruth and Marit were definitely correct – the heel pattern needed to be knit in hearts. Watching it develop over 38 stitches
To make sure that they matched exactly on length and were mirrored on the cable crosses, I knit both at the same time. Literally knitting the same row on each heel before moving on to the next row. This is not exactly a fast way to knit. I even kept check marks on the graph paper as I completed each row pair.
Especially in those rows that had 14 opportunities to make an error on the cables. I had enough of the pattern charted out to guess at the final appearance.
Which only left figuring out the numbers for the Balbriggan heel, popping on some stitch markers so I would know where to position the decreases and complete the turning.
In order to make sure that the feet match as well, I am going to knit down both at the same time. Given how insane I felt with the single row at a time, I might go for two at a time tomorrow.
-Holly
Hi Holly,
Love your Kauni as well as your red socks! Your knitting is gorgeous. I wanted to contact you after you posted to my blog but couldn’t find your email address. I also lived and worked in Heidelberg (HQ USAREUR) during the mid-80’s. It was very nice then but how about now? I couldn’t resist all the beautiful yarns and at that time had never learned to knit! I would love to hear from you! My email is on my blog.
Thank you for supplying me with a teaching tool. As soon as she is home my teenager is going to read your post as a warning. I am forever screeching about supplying rodents with food when we find a half eaten Easter egg behind the door and the like.
Those heels are a feat of engineering! Gorgeous.
Lovely cables, my favorite thing to knit. I just ordered the Kauni myself. A sucker for colorful things, I chose the rainbow colorway.
PS…add a cat to your collection.