Darning for science

This weekend, it was time to fix some sock heels. I find this chore only marginally preferable to hurling the holey socks into the nearest trash can. And that's mostly because my sock knitting has been lagging behind my sock damaging. If I just put holey socks out of their misery, I'd end up with naked feet.

In the interests of science, this time I used two repair methods.

The left-hand sock had looked fine when it last went into the washer, and then it emerged with a giant gaping fully-formed hole. I repaired it with my usual weaving-type darning.

The right-hand sock had aaaaaalmost worn through, but not quite. It seemed like a great opportunity to test out duplicate stitch as a darning substitute, so I did. (As you can imagine from the image, my duplicate stitch skills are not quite mad enough to attempt duplicate-stitching over an actual hole. I feel like I can barely follow along intact stitches.)

We shall see if one repair outlasts the other. This may happen soon--as is, these socks only existed about two months before springing holes. (Did I mention I'm a terrible sock owner?)

Mr. Chilly Cold Pack Cozy

New free pattern! Mr. Chilly Cold Pack Cozy

  

I love reusable cold packs—they’re soft and squishy, and enclosed in durable plastic to prevent leaks and drips. But the covers they come with are too thin to really insulate my skin from the direct chill of a frozen pack. Hand-knit washcloths worked much better, but the coverage wasn’t quite right, and cold packs tend to escape. The solution was clear – my cold packs needed their own little envelopes.


Available free on Ravelry.

Spinning spinning wheeee!

This week I learned to spin!

Thursday's work--a four-ounce bunch o' Corriedale roving, halfway spun:

Saturday I finished the spinning, and Sunday I plied, with the "help" of my faithful assistant, French Fry (seen below, with my full cop of plied yarn). He loves my spinning more than any other thing I've ever done involving yarn. Yes, even more than the bamboo DPNs he stole right out of that one project. So far the roving is his absolute favorite stuff in the world, but the spindle itself is a close second.

And here is the yarn, skeined up before its bath Sunday night! Yay!

Now, if only yarn dried faster.

Revenge Eyeballs

My coworker traumatized me (for a whole afternoon, omg!) by talking about a horror movie scene involving eyeballs. . . . So, after some trial and error with the pattern, I knit up a dozen and pelted him with them, a week after the original incident. Don’t mess with me; my revenge is eventual and silly.

You probably know someone who would appreciate some eyeballs! They would also be handy for Halloween decorating, hanging on your morbid Christmas tree, or stringing together for a festive year-round alternative to bunting! They could even be attached to a knit or crochet toy, for that hand-made je ne sais quoi that you just can't get from commercial safety eyes. Truly, the uses for stuffed eyeballs must be endless!

The one thing I wouldn't do with them is give them to small children and pets. I suspect they'd come apart into choke-y bits of yarn, if they were played with roughly.

The ones I made were roughly the size of human eyeballs. If you're not a stickler for quasi-accuracy, you can change the yarn weight and/or gauge as desired to make larger or teenier eyeballs.

Get the pattern on Ravelry!

Edit, 7/18/12: Now, a Ravelry download!
Edit, 8/22/11: Fixed busted images.