William Henry: A Photo Essay

See him?

How about now?

There he is!

I don’t know how he got up there, but I had to stand on the counter to get him down.

It’s here!

From Sorcha!

My Wee Tiny Sock arrived with a great deal of fanfare on Friday. Since I got to pick who was making my sock, I picked someone without a blog so that I could be surprised. And I am – I have never used any of the bamboo yarns and really find it hard to believe that a plant that is used to make furniture can also make yarn! Thanks again, Sorcha, you’ve made my day and the sock is cute enough to eat.

Which I guess I could do…since it is made from bamboo…

My Mom was visiting this weekend so I am a little behind on my email, but for all you Wee Tiny Sock Swappers out there:

Please email me if you haven’t received your Wee Tiny Sock. I can check on the sock status for you (and see if your Wee Tiny is Making an Overseas Journey). I want to make sure that everyone ends up with a sock, because these are just about the cutest things I’ve ever seen. Next year, I pledge to keep better records when people start to tell me that socks are arriving!

You heard me right: next year. I have decided to make the Wee Tiny Sock Swap an Annual Event! So mark your calendars for March 2008 (and somebody remind me in February).

Great Gran called me yesterday to tell me that she had received the “most darling little sock in the mail!”

It’s from Jennifer.

It’s made from a drop of hand-dyed, hand-spun superwash wool so it is truly one of a kind. You can get a good look at the lace stitch on the leg and instep in the picture, but what really made Great Gran’s (and mine) heart melt is the wee tiny picot edge! Great Gran loves her sock, Jennifer, and I love your Etsy shop!

Since I was too lazy to make a swap page (It would have taken me days to get that together and the swap only lasts about three weeks), as your Wee Tiny Socks Arrive, please tell us in the comments. Add the permalink to your blog post if you’ve got one (incidentally, my permalinks are the little needles at the end of the posts)! I’ll add the permalink to this post to the Flickr group page for all posterity to peruse.

PS The Flickr gallery now has 47 socks in it!
PPS The sock Great Gran made arrived at Darlene’s without incident!

The Fort Walton Ham* Fest was Saturday. Fort Walton is next door to Mary Esther and only about 2 hours away from here. Being the good little Amateur Radio Operators that we are, Michael and I hopped right in the car**. I snapped this of the Mary Esther house as we drove by:

Hi, house! I miss you so much in the winter time!

If you’ve never been to a Ham Fest (I am pretty sure you haven’t), it is a big radio flea market: junk, radio innards and antennas everywhere. I worked on my socks while Michael poked around.

That’s still Bloomin’ Feet Sock #1.

The 3×1 cuff is MUCH better and the only reason I didn’t go with it the first time I tried it is that it curls a little at the top (not enough purls in the ribbing to keep it flat). I have a plan to fix that***.

While I was standing around knitting, it occurred to me that we were very close to a yarn store! After a small amount of whining and an antenna purchase, I secured a visit.

You’ll notice that there seems to be enough yarn of one color to actually MAKE something!

It has changed ownership since I was there last. Now called Unwind, the shop carries a much better selection for “serious” knitters than before. There wasn’t a whole lot of sock yarn, but it IS Florida (home of the flip flop) so I can forgive that. There were a bunch of people in the back sitting around and knitting. EVERYONE was very friendly and helpful – not just the girl who was working the counter. I ended up buying a book (the new Interweave sock one) and no yarn. Oh the shame! I didn’t expect them to have enough of anything so I didn’t bring the yarn requirements or colors for my upcoming projects with me. I won’t make that mistake again.

*Ham like radio not like smoke-cured – although the sausage festival was in Pensacola this weekend. Mere coincidence? I think not.
**To tell the truth, I was not planning to go until 20 minutes before we got in the car. Otherwise I would have tired to harass Becky into coming with me. Trust me, Becky, you are better off this way, Ham Fests are not exactly my idea of a Good Time. Sausage Festivals on the other hand…
***Just because I have a plan doesn’t mean that curling solution suggestions aren’t welcome!

Ladies and Gentlemen, mail your envelopes!

It’s on the way – I even remembered to put a stamp on it!

If you haven’t taken a look at the Wee Tiny Fickr Group, it is totally worth a peek! There are 26 socks in there so far and I’ve added a lot of yarn to my List.

I’ve gotten a pretty good start on the other sock swap I’m involved in (these take a little longer since they are Regular Size).

It’s raining. Front porch pictures are the best you get today.

You can see how the mixup between Lucy and Bunny FooFoo happened. I have restarted these sock so many times with so many leg patterns. After I picked the basket weave, I started over several times trying to figure out the ribbing. I am still not happy with it. I wish I had gone with the 3×1 my gut told me too. Michael has forbidden (HAH) me to start over again, and truthfully, if I do I will never ever finish. My current plan is to pull out the cuff when I finish the sock and knit it back on upside down. I can bind off in pattern. Which is pretty cool. The bad part is that I will have to make the second sock the same way so that they match. 1.5″ of cuff to redo is better than 4″ of leg don’t you think?

Except…now that I think about it…there are two cuffs that I have to redo…so that’s really 6″ of cuff total (if you figure that it is 1.5″ the first time and 1.5″ on the redo multiplied by 2 cuffs)…

…so it would actually be faster to pull it out and start over…

Maybe I will make another little sock and think it over.

**Update: I just pulled the sock out. I knew I was going to end up doing that and I decided that the sooner the better. I am now casting on 64 stitches.**

I know that some of you are finished with your socks. But some of you are not. Please don’t mail them until Friday! The idea is to have them all arrive at the same time(ish) so that it can be a shared experience! The exceptions to this would be Wee Tiny Socks that are traveling to other countries.

Drum-roll please!

Here is Wee Tiny Sock Swap of 2007 Flickr Group! Hurry! Post your Wee Tiny Pictures here!