Last post of the year

A monkey off my back and it's been there awhile. By my best recollection, I have had these socks in the works for 4 1/2 years. And they are done! I can start the new year off with a clean slate.

Wild-

This was a disappointing game. I thought that the team played pretty well overall. I hate to be pointing fingers, but I feel that a couple bad turnovers by a certain player contributed mightily to this loss. Game 5 of 6 with my daughter. I will be sad when she goes back to school. She is a fun companion.

Christmas and surgery and Mothers in Law, oh my!

My daughter came home from college. Yay! She got here on December 16th. And, of course, the rush was on to get ready for Christmas. The day after Christmas, said daughter, had surgery on her left wrist and elbow. Not too much time for fun and games. Also, the husband has been spending a fair amount of time in Wisconsin taking care of health issues with his mom. All this cuts into my knitting time a lot.

I do not have current pictures of the socks I am working on. I have put the "A Little Twisted" socks on hold for the moment and am working on the "Cascading Leaves". I need to have these done before the end of the year.

Wild-

Edmonton Oilers tonight. I need to get some pictures taken before this game. It is game number 4 of 6 that my daughter gets to see on her winter break. I don't know that she will be feeling up to too much photography though. Have to see what I can manage. The Wild should be able, if they show up, to win this game without too much difficulty. Nice to see Eric Belanger has been picking up his game of late. And I am hoping family favorite, Mark Parrish, is at the beginning of a goal scoring streak. Since the Oilers are one of my favorite teams, normally I cheer for them. But not when they play the Wild. Let's Go Wild!

Current project update

As is typical, there is some forward progress and some in reverse.

This is the February socks from the Luxury SOTM club. Name is Cascading Leaves Socks. Very nice yarn-a blend of alpaca, merino and silk. Seems to be knitting up quickly, which is a plus. I am getting a bit worried that I will run out of yarn. The ball is getting pretty thin.





And for the reverse, my first attempt at the October SOTM (A Little Twisted Socks)from this year. I have ripped them out and will reknit them with a 3 mm needle instead of a 2.75 mm. I was getting 7.5 sts/in. and need 7. I can see now why my mom always tried to work on dark colors during the daytime hours. My eyes are having a difficult time focusing on this at night. This is why I am working on the other socks-easy to see. This pattern includes instructions in doing the twisted stitches without a cable needle. After a few tries I kinda got into the groove of it. Works pretty slick.


Wild-

I watching the Wild/San Jose game. Looks like a repeat of the Detroit game. We are being schooled. What will it take to get some offense going? Last place in faceoffs and Power Play pts. Far down the list in shots and a couple of other things that escape me at the moment. Basically we spend all our time trying to keep the other team from scoring instead of trying to score. Seriously getting ugly.

Sad Day in Minnesota

Wes Walz retires

Sounds a bit melodramatic, but it is indeed a sad day for Minnesota Wild fans. I wish Wes all the best in his future endeavors. He was the heart and soul of our team for the first seven seasons and I hope that players in the future will look to his example. Class act, gave his all for the team.


Red Socks



This is a picture I took before I started to work on these again. I was about 4 rows into the heel flap. I am about an inch and a half or two from the toe now. Snowy day-good for knitting. When I take a finished picture, I will try to get the cables to show up more clearly.

Time flys (not necessarily having fun)

I have been busy knitting not blogging. I finished 2 and almost 3 pairs of socks this month of November.

The top pair have been hanging about for 3 or 4 years. Done mostly except for the final finishing. Plain laziness on my part. I don't even have anyone to give them to anymore since my daughter has long since grown out of them. Oh well, I'm sure I will find them some feet.

The other pair is the September Sock from the SoTm Club from

It is called Secret Love Socks. My first attempt at an afterthought heel. I will be anxious to see if I need to do any adjusting in that area for the future.

I am almost down to the toe of the third pair of socks. I started that pair in a class I took 4 years ago. It is quite a bit more complex and I spent as much time trying to figure out where I was in the pattern as I did with the knitting. Finished pictures soon.

My wrist is not happy.

Wild-

I think that I will choose to ignore the poor games we have played and focus on the more recent ones. Tonight we played pretty well. Not as well as on Wednesday IMO, but we ended up with the win. Seems to me we spend an awful lot of time passing and not enough time shooting, but what do I know.

Fall Has Arrived

After quite a warm fall, we have had frost several times this last week. Again tonight I hear. Time to get some yard work done in preparation for what I hope is a snowier winter.

I am making okay progress on my next pair of socks. Doing both at the same time again this month. I also hope to get at least one more pair that is lacking a single sock done this month as well.

Wild lost again last night. Came out well at the start, but acted like someone let the air out of their tires in the second. Got a head of steam toward the end of the third, but was too late. Bad penalties didn't help and of course our arch-enemy Mick McGeough. Next game, Calgary at home on Saturday. Rumor has it that the boys were taken to task about their work ethic at practice today. Will be anxious to see how that affects them tomorrow.

Crazy Over You

This title could apply to my socks and the game.



I really enjoyed working with this yarn-Panda Wool in the colorway Circus. I worked the socks using two sets of Crystal Palace bamboo dpns. I actually finished them on Sunday evening.

I started a new pair today. I will add a picture when I make some progress.

Hockey-
The Sidney Crosby show. I think the main benefit of being at the game was not having to hear about him the whole night. Not our best effort. Kim Johnsson left the game and did not return. I still haven't found out what his status is.

And then to see the Oilers lose the game to the Red Wings with less then 30 secs. to go. Not the night for my teams.

My Halloween socks are done!

I finished these socks on Friday. Not bad, it only took me about 3 years to finish the pair. The one thing that I really found interesting is the progression of my knitting technique in those 3 years. If I were starting them now, I could do a better job with the fit, but as it was I just wanted them done so I can wear them this Halloween. Also, I joined a KAL and needed to get them done, and I did!

My other pair is just about there as well. I finished the first except for the toe grafting. The second is done up to the toe. I hope to finish them today.

Hockey-

I don't believe I want to comment at length on the last two games. Except that they didn't embarass themselves in the second game. We play the Avs at 2 this afternoon. Three players out for this game: Backstrom, Demitra, and Gaborik. Here's hoping the rest of the boys step up today and acquit themselves well. Cal Clutterbuck (what a cool name!) should get an opportunity to play his first NHL game. Our rookie, James Sheppard, got his first goal in the Edmonton game.

I haven't died....

Knit content:

I am currently working on 2 projects. Both are for KALs that I currently belong to. The first is for the Sock a Month KAL 4. I am getting concerned that I will run out of yarn before I finish these.

The second is a project I started in 2004. Just need to finish about half of the garter stitch edging. These socks are for: SocksintheCityKAL.

Both projects are from theknitter.com and her Sock of the Month.

Hockey content:

Wild 3, Avs 2-A pretty fast paced game after we quit taking so many penalties. Refs were calling things very tight. Second game of a back to back, but we seemed to be skating pretty well. Burns was beginning to get on my nerves as he has been getting quite a few penalties lately (2 last night), but again he redeemed himself, this time by sweeping the puck out of the crease and saving a goal. Mark Parrish scored a beautiful goal and took a puck in the face. He didn't come back out at the very beginning of the third but shortly thereafter. I really liked the grit that Mikko showed. Almost like he decided-somebody's got to step up and it might as well be me.

Random observations:

-Ryan Smyth looks wrong in an Avs sweater. During warm-ups without his helmet, it was enough to break your heart.

-I want Bruno back!

-Stephane Veilleux is working his butt off and I really feel bad that they took away his goal a week or so ago.

This year's first holiday puck:

Latest sock and Opening Night

Here is my latest sock. This is the second sock of a pair that I started in 2004. I have been trying to finish up the pairs of socks that having been waiting for mates. Obviously, some have been waiting for a long time. I keep telling myself that I can start a new pair each time that I finish another. This is the September 2004 sock from TheKnitter.com. I still need to learn how to link to things, but one thing at a time, I guess. The sock is toe up using the crochet chain cast on. Ready to put it on 4 needles and knit the foot.

Opening Night-Season VII

Here is my attempt at getting a picture during the Opening Night ceremony for the Minnesota Wild. This is during the player introductions. Pretty hard to get a picture as they had the house lights turned down.

The Wild played a pretty sloppy game, but came away with the win. 1-0 shutout for Niklas Backstrom. Only goal to Pierre-Marc Bouchard. Next game is tomorrow night against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Two pairs finished

Two pairs finished in one day. The red, white and blue are "Betsy"; the June sock from TheKnitter.com SOTM. The other (not quite sure how to describe the color) is "Hugs and Kisses" the February kit from the same source. My pictures doesn't show the patterning very well. I hope that I will learn to get more detail to show, and I need to learn how to link things in my post.

Too much technology

I can't imagine what I was thinking. Not only do I get a new computer with a new operating system (Vista), a new digital camera; but then I decide that I must have a blog. I could write volumns about all the stuff I don't know. And so I am attempting to learn on the fly. I am determined not to let all this technology defeat me.

My last post ended up getting deleted. I was trying to add a picture to the post. For some reason, the picture ended up being rotated by 90 degrees. Try as I might I couldn't figure out how to rotate or delete it. So I ended up trashing the whole thing. I am still trying to find a source, either written or on-line, of easy to understand directions for blogging.

Not too much progress on my knitting. I am working on two socks simultaneously-changing back and forth after each pattern repeat. I am down to the heel flap. The last time I worked on them, I was drugged up from my migraine medication. I ended up ripping back most of what I did. Not a good plan.

I am watching the new Ken Burns documentary on World War II. I wish that my mom was here to watch with me. She could put things in perspective for me. I miss her.

Computer problems seem to be fixed

I am reluctant to even say that. I don't want to bring down bad karma or anything. New anti-virus software loaded and working.

I am still working on the second sock of my June SOTM from theknitter.com. I should be able to have it finished by tomorrow at the latest. Then I will get some pictures up here.

Hopefully good news: I have a ton of books requested from the library on blogging. Maybe I can figure out some of the nicer bells and whistles to make this more interesting.

More coming when I get those socks done. I'm anxious to start a new pair. I have been pretty good lately about not starting a million new projects.

Trying to resolve technical difficulties and add photos

I have been having problems with the computer that has my pictures downloaded onto it. Problem not entirely resolved, but I am doing a test to try to get a picture to show up here.

What's in a Name?

Why Wild? Why Knitting?

I think that the knitting part is pretty obvious. I pretty much think about, indulge in, and talk about it all the time. The Wild part of the title is a bit more subtle. Yes, I am obsessive about knitting, but in this case; Wild also refers to my favorite sports team, the Minnesota Wild. My idea of a play on words.