It was a dark and stormy night.

It's amazing how much knitting you can accomplish when DD#1, who is almost 12, is at her first late night babysitting job. Granted, she was just a block down the street and I only got one fairly calm phone call about gum in someone's hair and how to calm a crying 22 month old who won't go to sleep, but it was one nerve-wracking, knitting-to-stay-calm night for this apron-string-loving mama. And since it was stormy and very windy last night, I fully expected to have to run down and sit with her after dark. Silly mama should have known better. This girl once went through an entire tooth filling procedure at the dentist without pain medication. She was too shy to tell the dentist that the novocaine didn't take effect and never shed a tear or even whimpered. She waited until the end of the procedure, walked calmly to the waiting room and collapsed into my arms and then proceeded to weep. This kid could break a bone and if she was in front of strangers, wouldn't make a sound. She stuck it out and was paid handsomely for a job well done. Oh, and she got the gum out with handy-dandy peanut butter and the baby to sleep with help from the mom who called with instructions to give a little medication for his cold.

Needless to say, DD#3's Widdershins are nearly done. I'm on the cuffs and plan to knit until I run out of yarn. Since my skeins collapsed and snarled up on me, I rewound the yarn into little balls and I'm down to 1" diameter balls, so I'm figuring it won't be long before I'm binding off these little cuties. I've been trying them on my little elf, so I'm sure they'll fit but they are the cutest little socks on the needles. They look like baby booties, they're so small. But then again, so is my littlest. When she outgrows them, they may get hung from my rearview mirror, they're so sweet looking. Pictures will be posted as soon as they're done and I can get DD#3 to model them for me.

I must say that knitting two socks at once has been an adventure. There were several factors working together to make this first time successful for me. 1) I was using a pattern that I'd used multiple times and I have the heel structure nearly memorized. 2) I was able to turn the heels in one marathon session, making keeping track of the rows I was on between the two socks even possible. Had I put the socks down at some point in the middle of the heel construction, I think I would have been hopelessly lost. 3) I kept the sock pattern basic - just stockinette. I did have to unknit two rows only once. Somehow, I used one sock's yarn on the other sock for a row and connected them. How bizarre was that. Unfortunately, I didn't see it until I had knit another row, so I had to unknit two rows on one sock. I didn't unknit two rows on the other sock and had to do some quick thinking on how to work around the needles to get my row counts even again. Just 2 minutes of thinking and a round of slipping stitches on one sock solved the issue. Fortunately, it occurred while making the gusset and it was easy to figure out how many rows I needed to even things out. Now that I've worked with two circular needles and two socks at once and have all the kinks worked out, I think I can tackle a patterned sock in the same manner.

Even though I was up well past midnight, I couldn't sleep past 5 am today. This blasted internal clock of mine works every time. I should be grateful, being a migraine sufferer, since altering the sleep schedule too much can trigger headaches. And I can nap later today, since we only have dance class on the agenda today. So I got up and folded laundry to Lime & Violet. Although their language and conversation is a bit on the bawdy side, I get a real kick out of them. I had about 8 loads of laundry backed up, so I dumped them all out on the office floor and folded away. With 6 of us in the household, my standard laundry procedure is to run laundry loads throughout the day while doing school stuff, and when I get a chance, I do marathon folding sessions. Usually, I fold in my bedroom, while chatting with my BF on the phone or watching Star Trek TNG in the late afternoon. But this week got away from me and my laundry was backed up to alarming proportions, thus the L&V version this morning. I must say, it was quite a diverting way to get through a very mundane and boring task.

For yarn addicts like myself, though, I have to say that L&V are serious Yarn Enablers! The Yarn Porn portion of the broadcast is causing me serious yarn envy issues. I am so on a yarn diet (more like a yarn fast) right now. I have everything I need to make all the gifts for Christmas and I cannot, must not, spend any money on yarn. I am so thankful they only broadcast once a week. And I am NOT clicking on the links at their site for the yarn shops (what does ETSY stand for, BTW?). I can't take the pressure. As soon as I get some birthday/Christmas money, though, Socks that Rock yarn is going to be my first purchase. With the buzz out there, I have got to try it. But I love their podcast, otherwise. Seriously.