FO: My First Cuff Down Socks

Primavera Sock

Pattern: Primavera Socks by Natalja (Ravelry link)

Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot (Wool, Mohair, Nylon) Color: Harmony-Iris – most accurate in top picture.

Needles: US 1 (2.25 mm)

Started: 23 March 2009; Finished 15 June 2009

Modifications:

I made it slightly smaller with 5 repeats of the pattern.  I fudged the heel the first time, but worked it out the second time.  Both look good:

Sock Heels

I am not sure about the toes and, if I knit more top down socks, I will have to work on these:

Sock Toes

They are very comfortable, but obviously too warm for July.  I was worried that the mohair would be annoying but it just seems to make the socks very soft.

WIP: Baby Blanket

Baby Blanket

Tasty Tuesday: Raspberries

Raspberries

These look  delicious but they are still as hard as a rock. When they are ripe, I hope I get them before the birds do.  This is my first year for raspberries and I don’t know how greedy the birds will be.  Yeah, these are not meant to fruit their first year, but I couldn’t resist getting a few raspberries.

Raspberries must be my favorite berry, if not my favorite fruit.

Murphy Monday: A New Collar

Murphy has a New Collar

Murphy likes the fact that I am spending lots of time lying around as he can join me.  Sometimes he gets a bit mopy that I haven’t moved for a few hours, but most the time he tells me to stop moving.

I bought him a new collar just before going into hospital.  He does not like the plastic collars you can buy at a petstore, so I get him collars from Moon Valley Collars as they make them in cotton.  They wear well so he only needs a new one about every two years.

Flower (and Food) Friday: Allium

Alium/Garlic Flower

I like allium flowers, and next year I am going to buy some with the big purple globes and plant them all over the garden.

The flower above is one of three that I believe come from garlic that was planted my first summer in the house.  As the only available garden at that time was under the tree in the front garden, I planted everything there depite the ground being full of roots and very hard.  Eight years later and I have  interesting flowers from some of the unharvested garlic.  There is no point trying to move them as I have plenty of garlic for eating in my raised bed garden in the back.

WIP: Homework for Sock Summit

Art Stocking

One of the classes I got into at the Sock Summit was Meg Swansen’s and Amy Detjen’s EZ’s Wearable Art Stockings.  The homework was to knit the sock from the cuff to the heel.  I’ve nearly finished one and will probably do my other homework before knitting the second.

Art Stockings 2

The yarn is Classic Elite Yarns Classic One Fifty 100% merino in natural and teal.  I am using US5 – Bryspun needles and I amazingly made gauge.  I guess two color knitting makes me a little tighter.  The one correction I did make as I did not want these to be over the knee stockings, is that I am stopping when they reach ~12 inches long instead of 16.  I guess Meg and Amy are taller than me.

Art Stocking Seam

There is a seem up the middle of the back of the leg.  I think if I was going to do this again, when my brain is 100% (i.e. no anaesthesia for several months), I would do the contrast color up the center of the seam to make it less obvious.  When decreasing for the ankle, I did a SSK after the seam and a K2tog before it.  This makes the pattern blend into the seam.

Art Stocking 3

For the pattern, I used the simplest one given with the homework.  I really couldn’t deal with anything more complicated.  As it is, there are a few mistakes.  I did correct some, but found that so stressful, that I decided errors were preferable.

It seems odd to be knitting long wool socks in summer, but it seems to be the right project for my convalescence.

Non Enzymatic Browning

My major interest in food chemistry is how food changes during processing and storage.  I am especially interested in how color changes take place.  The reactions I am interested in are called Non Enzymatic Browning reactions to differentiate them from the browning that occurs when you cut an apple or banana, which involves an enzyme.

Non enzymatic browning (NEB, non enzymic browning) reactions are the most important reactions in food, and, no, I am not biased.   Just image the aroma of melting chocolate, freshly baked bread or  a roasting leg of lamb, the golden color of a croissant, the dark amber color of a well brewed beer; caramels, toast.  These are all caused NEB reactions.

There are five different NEB reactions and I intend over the next few months to write about each of them:

1. Caramelization – browning of sugar, especially sucrose
2. Lipid Oxidation – the oxidation of fats and oils; including rancidity
3. Break down of flavonoids – highly c0lored compounds can also lose their color
4. Degradation of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) – AsA is unstable even without oxygen
5. The Maillard Reaction -  reaction between carbonyl compounds and amino acids

Numbers (3) and (4) are not typically on a list of NEB reactions, but I did my thesis on ascorbic acid browning and it definitely goes brown without oxygen and without enzymes.  The degradation of flavonoids is one I have added and came to me in flash of inspiration when at a conference.  I am sharing it with you now, so this is new even though I had the idea three or four years ago.

More later…

Lily

Lily

Home and Health Up Date

I got home from hospital Wednesday afternoon and slept for three hours.  I slept, read and knitted pretty much through yesterday’s downpour.  This morning I woke up feeling like I was one big bruise from the waist down, but a hot water bottle and pain medicine seemed to clear that up.

Meanwhile, I noticed this:

Woo hoo, so many visitors!

Thanks for visiting and reading. I will get back into blogging soon.

FO: After Thought Leg Socks

Start with this:

I have a foot, but where's the leg?

Eventually end up with this:

Yep, they now have legs

Once I feel well enough I shall write up how I did this. Or you can visit Cat Bordhi’s Houdini Sock Pattern and work it out for yourself.