Friday, October 21, 2005

The Orange Letter

Tutti Frutti is done! Ever mindful of the genteel nature of this audience, I tried to spare you direct bowl shots, but yes, you are in my bathroom again. Which really wasn't supposed to happen again. With just the toe shaping left, I was confident that Tutti Frutti could be completed by lunch today. I anticipated fun, outdoorsy frolicking pics with sand and surf, grass and sky, but alas, it wasn't to be. Instead, here I am at 11:30 pm, barely coherent, taking pictures of my feet in the bathroom. Indulge me, if you will, as I recount the sock saga.

Something was bound to go wrong today. It was one of those eerie days. Moms, you know what I'm talking about. The kind of day where the kids share with each other willingly, pick up their toys the first time you ask and apologize to their siblings without prompting, deluding you into some false sense of security about your competence as a parent. Yep, verrry eerie. All day, I kept waiting for the other sock to drop.

Eerie occurrence #1: Bossy and Stinky haven't seen Hairy Legs since Suday because he's been working till 10 pm every night. Which means it's been just me and them, all day, all night, all week. Which would normally set them off into a tizzy. It did yesterday, it will tomorrow, but not today, oh no. They kissed Hairy Legs goodbye and happily carried on.
Eerie occurrence #2: I take the kids to Wal-Mart to pick up some odds and ends and nothing happens. No whining, no crying, no poop hazmat explosions, no hiding my face behind grocery bags as I book it to the van.
Eerie occurrence #3: Bossy and Stinky eat lunch! Not only do they eat the pasta salad I serve, they also eat the broccoli and celery in the salad without any evil eye prompt.
Eerie occurrence #4: I park at gymnastics today. At the building, instead of 5 blocks away like I usually have to, hauling butt, Bossy and Stinky to make it to gymnastics 5 minutes late.
Truly Eerie occurrence #5: I am gifted with simultaneously napping children- children who never nap. Napping together. Simultaneously.

So I guess it should have come as no surprise to me when karmic justice came in the form of Tutti Frutti. Still, I was caught unawares. Subscribing to the boyscout motto, I was duly prepared for the antitheses to the aforementioned eerie occurrences, but I was completely unprepared for sock madness. I finished Frutti before dinner, with only the Kitchener left to go...or so I thought. Just for kicks, I pull out Tutti to compare. And realize that Frutti is over an inch shorter, in spite of following the same pattern. Which means frogging over half the sock to get back to the foot. Stupidly, I pull all the dpns out and start ripping with abandon, when it suddenly occurrs to me that I have no idea where needle 1, which should be perfectly centered over the heel, is supposed to begin. The ensuing panic attack could be likened to Joe Rogan appearing and unveiling the 8 goat testicles I have to eat to win Fear Factor. (Which, for the record, I would totally eat for $50,000. Do you know how much yarn 50 grand could buy??!)

I finally figure out where 1 begins and 3 ends, but not before endless trials and countless errors till past 10 pm. Then I get stocki-cocky thinking how boring all-stockinette is (You'd think I would've learned my lesson after the Hoodie pocket) and incur stocki-cocky-bachi (karmic crap) in messing up all my decreases. Again. Suffice it to say that I had to frog Frutti to the beginning of the foot more than three times today.

But, all's well that ends well, and Tutti and Frutti ended pretty well. Almost identical except for the distinction of Frutti's possessed orange toe. It's his Orange Letter, I suppose, the burden he must wear, brandishing the (many!) errors of his ways. Apparently, though, Frutti repented just in time....with only one yard left in the skein, his number would've REALLY been up!!

17 comments:

Mamma said...

They look great, despite the location of the photo shoot. It doesn't matter what's happening off camera.
I had a similar experience with a sock, where one was longer than the other, so I just took them off the dpns to frog and I never did get them back on the needles the right way. I ended up frogging the entire sock. After that I learned to do socks two at a time on circular needles. Which isn't to say my socks all come out perfect now with no issues, but no matter what other disasters may befall my socks, they are always the same length. :)

Jen said...

I'm glad that everything worked out for you in the end! And, even better, only one yard left over. I LOVE it when not an inch of yarn is wasted in a skein... Of course I get all kinds of panicked but the temporary adrenaline rush of will I make it or won't I subsides and gives way to my cheap side satisfied in the knowledge that I didn't have to buy an extra skein of yarn that would then go into my stash to never be used again!

Sorry, got side tracked there. I hope you enjoyed the angelic behavior day.

Lynda said...

Hee hee... yep - those "perfect scary days." And what is with self-striping sock yarn..... never quite seems to go exactly right - I think it's an evil plot of all self-striping yarns - so we don't get too full of ourselves! They can't just let us have a perfectly matched pair of striped socks.

Acornbud said...

Great story. Bilateral napping kids just seems like such a miracle! And great socks, too! That yarns looks like so much fun. Hey, now you can tell left from right sock since the toes are different. ;) Man you are on a roll. 3 pairs so far (or is it 4?)

knittinmom said...

Oh, so close! Love how you posed your feet so the stripes match up. You can just pretend that you have one foot shorter than the other and they're SUPPOSED to be like that ;-).

And I, like Jen, love that adrenaline rush from knitting to the end of your ball of yarn. Did you ever see that Seinfeld episode where Kramer takes a Saab for a test drive and he and the sales guy try to see how far they can go before running out of gas? It's kind of like that!

Uh, oh, Owen is chewing on my checkbook - gotta run!

Jillio said...

wow, you're rollin' on the socks! great job! i probably would've frogged the same way you did. they have that tip where you can run a needle through the stitches where you stop frogging so you'll know when to stop and still have some of your stitches lined up. i either forget or catch a stitch in the wrong row and end up having to re-do everything anyway. gaaahhh!!
and omg, i TOTALLY commiserate with you on the socks mismatching. that's the thing with self-patterning yarn...you could use the same needles and the same pattern and cut the yarn so you start in the same place, and STILL end up with a different colored toe?! must be the yarn. HAS to be! ;)
but for being up so late, you sure to get up early!

Anonymous said...

They look amazing!!! Sorry to hear about all the frogging though. That's part of why I'm so in awe of people who can knit socks. You totally have to create a clone of something you already created. With my cross-eyes there's no way I could ever do that. :P

And as far as your eerie experiences, pleeeaase send some eerie experience karma over to my house 'cause lately I could really use some. Sadly, the only time my son behaves like that is when he has a really high fever. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

'Hairy Legs?' Thanks for the code name.

"007, where's Hairy Legs?"
"In the bathroom, on the catwalk, modeling socks."
"Who's the new model with the orange socks?"
"His Latin lover..."

I was once called 'Sexy Legs' in the past, but I'll live with 'Hairy Legs'.

Jillio said...

haha... ^^^that's^^^ funny :)

and sorry to play devil's advocate, but i'm inquiring about a certain "under the hoodie"... hehe... i am soooo going to get bachi...

SAM said...

Even one eerie occurance is enough to make a mom sweat - I am impressed you were able to hold it together and not finish, but photograph your triumph! They look great.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful work!

stricken madchen said...

What fun socks! Congrats on finishing them, even with the little battle they brought to your perfect day. By the way, I love those days. I pretend those are my normal days and the others (more frequent) are the odd ones...hehe.

Unknown said...

One yard left! That is almost as amazing as two kids napping at the same time.

I laughed so hard at your description of a perfect kids day...they are scary.

Great looking socks!

Anonymous said...

There's nothing like self-patterning sock yarn to make you realize just how little control you have over the universe, eh?!

I just had a painful experience with my own stripey socks and I can totally empathize. (Not gonna rip though, nope!)

Your socks look fabulous and I love the description of your eerie day with the kids! :)

Unknown said...

Oh, I forgot to mention...you really should try the kool aid. It is a lot of fun. Just dress them in something you don't mind getting dirty. I know they say it doesn't work on cotton yarn, but their shirts are very colorful now.

Anna said...

The socks look great!!

P.S. Thanks for your comments on my blog. I don't have your e-mail and I like responding to comments via e-mail. If you'd like, you can send it to me at luvtocraft2001[at]yahoo.com

JustApril said...

Very, very cute! I love ankle socks =P