Time flies when you're having fun

Hey!  I realized yesterday that I missed my blogiversary last week.  3 years!  Of course, I managed to miss most of 2004, so is that just a 2 year anniversary then?

It's been another busy few days here at Chez Sockbug.  I actually showed the house on Tuesday, so that meant Monday I ran around making sure everything was in tip-top shape.  I did glance out my window at one point and saw this...

Standing on my dock is a Great Egret.  You can also see a Cormorant in the water along with some Widgeons.  I think all the Mallards are hanging out on the opposite bank.  Gonna miss this place...

On to some knitting!  After a posting on Socknitters, I pulled my Olympic Training Socks back off from hiatus and started work on them again.  I added another repeat of the first 13 rows of the pattern, worked the heel and started off down the foot.  I am knitting these in Brown Sheep Nature Spun Fingering and I've got to tell you, after those Travelling Socks, I really think this yarn is much better suited to stranded knitting.  After I got this far last night, I caught Howdy admiring them, so I let him try them on.  They are pretty snug on him, but I think I'll give them to him for his birthday in April anyways.  Hope they don't felt immediately!

I am mildly irked at KnitPicks.  I placed an order on Sunday and it still doesn't say it's shipped.  Grrr.  They did answer an email from me and say that they were adding some more colors to the Essential line, but not until the fall.  "4 brights and 4 neutral/tweedy colors" is how it was described to me.

Another comment from the mail bag:
From Judi:  "I finished my first sock; the lava sock. I was so happy, and they are so comfortable...but... where I joined the heel flap to the main body I ended up with a huge hole that I had to darn. I would much rather do short rows then a gusset, since I hate picking up stiches. any suggestions for the next pair...."
Well, I have a few suggestions:
1.  Make sure when you are picking up in the corners that you are not picking up the strand that runs between the stitches.  I did that on my first couple of socks and it has the effect of making a huge YO hole there.  Yuck.
2.  I don't usually look at the number of stitches the pattern says to pick up.  I just pick them up until it looks like I've got enough that I won't have a hole.  Then I just decrease until I have the correct number of stitches that the pattern calls for down the foot.  If picking up one stitch in the corner didn't work, maybe you could try picking up two? 
3.  Another thing, on the row following the pick up, I knit those stitches through the back loop so they are twisted tighter.  (Actually, now I pick stitches up by wrapping the yarn around the opposite direction which achieves the same result and I don't have to remember which ones to twist on the next round.) 
4.  Something you can do if you still have a hole is to tug one of the sides of the "V" of the stitch to close the hole and then work the slack around the sock following the row that stitch is on.  This is not for the faint of heart, because I've done it and sometimes it is really hard to get that extra yarn worked evenly back into the row. 
5.  Washing/blocking will sometimes minimize holes. 
6.  If you like short-rows better, go for it!  That pattern was originally made with a short-row heel, too.
As always, chime in if you have more suggestions! 

One last thing.  It was pointed out to me by a couple of people this week that my instructions for the SSK in the River Rapids Socks are wrong.  I said to slip from right to left instead of the other way around and that just wouldn't work.  I have uploaded a corrected version of the PDF file to fix that error.

We are on Spring Break next week here!  If we don't chat again until after that, have a great week!