After being immersed in the Olympics for two solid weeks (not counting a few weeks of anticipation/preparation), I miss them...........

Here are some things I learned:

1) Figure 8 cast on. I knew this as "invisible cast on" around one needle and one strand of waste yarn, but didn't know it around two needles. I like this way of starting sock toes! One thing I did that was different from all the different figure-8-toe-starts I read was that I did NOT evenly space the first round of increases. I couldn't see what the point of that was, so I started my increases at the sides, where I meant to continue.

2) Use a waste yarn for afterthought heel insertion. On my first pair, I had to cut the yarn to make the heel. I was telling someone that I had a hard time as I didn't want to cut the yarn, and she said "so use waste yarn when you get to the place where the heel should go!" Um. Right! Thank you, Diana! :-) I did that with the new sock (started last Friday), and it was an excellent idea. I haven't put the heel in yet, but I won't have to cut anything to do it.....

3) Take note of the size of the repeat in your yarn, when using a yarn with a regular color pattern. Dealing with those big stripes was more trouble than dealing with a yarn that doesn't have such a big repeat. I wanted the heel to follow the stripe pattern, so I had to cut the yarn and start the heel from the appropriate stripe. (My Olympic socks have LOTS of woven ends from all the stopping/starting I did.......) Someone suggested to me that I could have gotten a skein of, say, plain blue, and could have just done the heels in that. I did think of that, actually, but when I looked at the yarn at home, the blue in the plain blue was totally different from the blue in the Olympic socks. Sigh. I bought that blue yarn at the same time I bought the Olympic sock yarn (which, you may recall, was orange and chartreuse in my memory), so maybe the plain blue changed colors in the bag, too....................... I am perfectly happy with the rings of Olympic colors in my socks, but I note that they did not follow along in sequence without thought (and added work) in the heels.

4) Ripping part of your ribbing is not to be undertaken as lightly as other ripping. I never mind pulling the needles out of my work, as I don't think it's that big a deal to put them back in. Well, if I did more stitch pattern work (read: "*any* stitch pattern work".....) I wouldn't be so cavalier. On sock2, when I was deciding how much ribbing to do, I did 4 stripes. I decided I liked 3 better, so I blithely pulled the needles and ripped. Picking up ribbing is a MUCH bigger pita than picking up stockinette. Obvious, if you stop to think, but I hadn't stopped or thought. Do-able, but nasty. Just saying.

5) Having decided definitively that the time it takes Does Not Matter (repeat after me: "This is not my livelihood!") has made it easier for me to go forward and try something that may need to be ripped. This is a Very Good Thing as it leads to more action and less dithering/procrastinating. I see this lesson helping me make faster progress in most parts of my creative life......

Here is something I already knew:

When you want people to NOT look at something (uneven stitches? increases facing the wrong way? whatever...), give 'em something else to look at. A yarn that is interesting in its own right will draw attention away from less-than-perfect knitting. This yarn has white twisted around the base colors, and also lets the base colors vary (darker/lighter).

I like multi-colored yarns, anyway, and this is a good reason to use them in addition to their intrisic appeal. :-)

How many of you are looking at the dog hair, rather than at the yarn at all? See what I mean? A bit of bamboozlement will direct the attention away from what you want them to NOT look at. I'm reminded of something Miss Piggy said: "If you don't want them to look at your new haircut, stick a big piece of spinach to your front tooth." :-)



Here's a bit of eye candy to leave you with. I found this metal box at my favorite thrift store. It protects my bamboo needles from getting broken when not in use, and is plenty big enough to carry a small project like socks.