I have knit a fair amount in the past couple of days – due
to a brief road trip to Portland
– and am refreshed!  Renewed in spirit
and re-energized in mind.  Like a
withered houseplant that has been watered at last.  

Even better, I have finished Jordan’s socks!!

I had completed the actual knitting about a week ago and had
only the toe kitchnering to do.  Well,
day followed day without a quiet day-lit half hour so I could settle down and
finish the job (that rich tweedy sock wool has been the most difficult yarn to
see!  it just melts into the shadows –
and the difficulty I had differentiating between knit and purl stitches on the
needles slowed my progress and made the relatively simple pattern fatiguing to
work).  When I packed my knitting for the
road trip, I left out the socks – figuring I would not be kitchnering in the
car.  But then I remembered that we would
have a free morning and decided I might just get it done then.  So, I packed the socks.

What I did not pack, however, was kitchnering
instructions.  I have kitchnered many
times, but can never quite remember how it is done.  Even when I do get going, I have to have
total silence so I can talk each stitch through (front needle: knit off, purl
on;   back needle: purl off, knit on –
over and over and over).  So, there I sat
with time and daylight and two lovely socks knit down to the toenails – and
nothing but a vague in-and-out idea of how to finish them! 

Viva technology! 
George pulled out his iphone, hit the Internet, googled “kitchner
instructions,” and there it was.   I
copied the essentials down on a 3×5 card and stitched away.  Wove in the ends.  Done.

Last night, I wrapped the socks in a red bow and added a
“Merry Christmas, Jordan” note.  I left
them by the coffee maker where he would find them in the morning. 

Now, I am free to work on the No-Longer-Forbidden Summer
Sweater guiltlessly.  I can devote my
stockinette-knitting-capacity to Max’s pants (knit in the round – kind of like
knitting a sock for a baby elephant).   I
can start another pair of socks…. wait, who said that?  SOCKS? 
After the heel fiasco, the interminable rounds of hard-to-see pattern
work on size 4 needles, the inevitable “2^nd Sock” issue, the usual
agony over sizing.  Really? Really?!

I confess I did have a sock-hankering as I walked down to
get the newspaper this morning.  A brief
hankering, but if it persists, I have half a sock on the needles in my
stash.  A cheery self-patterning yarn in
autumn colors – if I started it up again now, I could have them done in the
fall….toasty toes by the fireside….