October Flurries

It's hard to capture snow flurries in a photo, especially when you're also trying to show a pretty maple at the same time but I had to attempt it. Yes, it's October in Minnesota and the schizophrenic nature of our weather is typical. It was in the 80's only a few days earlier and now we have snow showers. I'm just thankful we didn't get hit as hard as some areas farther north and east. I'm not ready to break out the shovel or snow blower quite yet.

The 2 in 1 socks are progressing apace. I have 4 inches done on the cuffs and am researching sock patterns for the short row heels now. Because the article at www.knitty.com is more a how-to than an actual pattern, it requires that you have a pattern in mind. However, I didn't read ahead enough to realize that she recommended a short row heel and not a heel-flap sock pattern. Being a heel flap kinda gal, this came as a bit of a shock. Moral of the story: read the full story before beginning the project. Not that I mind so much. This was a learning project, anyway.

What prevented me from reading the pattern in it's entirety was really something pretty silly. You see, in my efforts to save a few pennies (after all, I'm on a yarn fast because of severe budgetary restraints caused by the onset of annual autumn school expenses and putting DD#1 in braces this summer - big words make me feel better than saying "I'm broke") I printed half of the pattern on one side of the paper, then turned the sheets over and printed the rest on the back of the papers, not realizing that the order would be completely wonky and out of whack and hard to follow. Add a paper jam and reprinting a page or two out of order, and I had a real confusing mass of papers. So, being the less than persistent person that I am (a'la Scarlett O'Hara, "I'll think about it tomorrow!"), but too cheap to just reprint everything, I didn't finish reading the article, just the part about casting on and beginning to knit. Now that I've looked ahead, I find that my current pattern will not do and I have to regroup.

So, time to dig in my library. I'm sure I have some basic sock patterns somewhere with a short row heel that can be adapted to the number of stitches I've cast on. I just should have read first, then started the project. Wise words about hindsight being 20/20 sound about right here. I just hope none of my knitting students see this post since I'm always telling them to read the entire pattern at least one time and to make notes of any new skills or stitches that they might have to learn before they tackle the pattern. Oooohhh, bad teacher! You should practice what you preach!!!!