2009 - It's the one year anniversary!

As I sit here watching all the news events of 2009, like the Balloon Boy, OctoMom, the indiscretions of famous and not so famous people, and of course the loss of people like Patric Swayze and Michael Jackson and others, I think yeah....  it's been quiet a year.  But the biggest thing for us is that today marks the one year anniversary that Jody had his LAST cancer treatment. 

He asked me last night what we did for New Years Eve last year.  I just looked at him without saying Duh?  I thought, this must be kind of like women not remembering the pain of childbirth or something....  "Don't you remember? You didn't have a voice, your throat and mouth were fried.... you had a dinner of 5 fried eggs and a big bowl of oatmeal...."  Maybe it's good that he doesn't remember that. 

But this year we're going to party hearty!  We're heading over to Chris' house tonight with Dawn and Mike for a huge Bluegrass jam session.  Of course Jody will be the designated driver, he always is.  He gave up drinking when we got married 28 years ago, no reason really, just gave it up.  He tells people now that if he starts again he's going to the moon with it.  I don't look for him to start anytime soon.  I'm not the boozer (ha, never was) I used to be, so I'll just sip on some Bailey's and knit, that way I can be the designated co-pilot and tell him where to go.

This past year has been pretty interesting.  Jody used the time wisely to heal and had some real eye opening revelations about the job market, especially his job market.  Like when he stood out in front of a church waiting for a hearse to arrive while a incompetent co-worker fiddled around trying to find out why the church didn't have power, when all he had to do was flick one switch.  Fiddling made the co-work feel more important I guess. Standing out in front of that church, Jody realized why Jolea will just walk away from what looks like a fantastic job to everyone else, when in fact the Captain is a total jerk (to put it nicely), sometimes the money just isn't worth it.  Life is short, you shouldn't have to put up with jerks at your job, weather it's a 8 hour a day job or a 24 hour a day job.  Do what makes you happy. Hold out, and or keep looking for what you want.  Good news..... Jody will be going to work for Texas Instruments, February 1st.  He's really excited. 

As for me...  I've never knitted so many sock in one year.... 12 pair!  That's a pair a month!  That's crazy!!!  I hadn't shown you the whole process of that last pair.   This was my first time to ever do Fair Isle knitting, for those of you just learning your knitting terms, that's when you do two or more colors to form a picture or pattern in the knit. 

That's one of Jody's socks on top of what he liked to refer as Big Foot Socks.  Yes, I made them that size on purpose.  They are 100% wool... they'll shrink! 

And they did...  it's hard to tell here, but they did shrink.  After the first run through the washer with a load of jeans I had to cut the strands of yarn running across the of all the stitches on the inside of the sock.  You know how it looks when you turn a sweater inside out and there are pieces of yarn running across the patten, and they are just sort of loose there?  Well that's where the contrasting color in the pattern hangs out until it's needed again.  So behind every color change of red, there is gray yarn hanging loose behind it and vis versa... When the yarn shrinks that yarn really shrinks so it has to be cut.  Yeah, with scissors.... we all know what happens when a sweater is cut!  (Don't go cutting the yarns of your sweater, unless you've shrunk it down and it's felted...) Oh, it's scary to cut the yarn in dozens of places on something you just spent a month designing, and knitting and frogging out and knitting again.  But once it's started felting it's OK, it doesn't run!  The fibers in the yarn lock up and don't go anywhere.  So I cut my little yarns and everyone knows what success I have with shrunken sweaters...  I have the handbags to prove it (when you shrink a sweater down to a toddler size 3 you make a purse from it.) 

There, that's a little better.  The white sock will stretch... the felted one won't so it has to stay a little big.  When I held it up to Jody's foot it was the perfect size.  But that's where it started making me nervous.  I don't think Jody's foot could go into it.... I could barely get my size 7 1/2 foot into the throat of the sock (that's the part just above your heel, it needs to be a little tight to keep the sock on but you have to at least get your foot in the sock....)

Enter the gynormous wine bottle!  





The socks have to dry on something so they won't shrink up too much so I tried stretching them over the bottle to form the shape I wanted and keep the throat open. 

Still too tight.  Thank goodness Jody got home when he did.  He shoved a couple of his Texas sized Iced Tea Glasses into them.  That should do the job nicely.

The recipient may not be able to get his boots on with these but he can at least wear them with his Crocs I gave him for his birthday last summer (that were too big) or wear them as slippers and I'll even sew some leather soles on them if he wants.  I can't wait until he sees the pattern on them.  Tee Hee. I'm sure I'll have to repeat this pattern on regular socks for him in the future. 

Jeff delivered the socks to Grandma and Grandpa earlier this week on his way to Corpus Christi.  They loved them.  Grandpa was going to sleep in his, I guess the color was a little much for him. I thought the looked sort of Camo-like.  Maybe I'll start a mission to get everyone I know addicted to hand knit socks.  Then just like a 'dealer' I'll leave them wanting more.  But first I need to knit an Aran (Celtic) Sweater, I think Jolea needed it about a year ago. 

Ya'll be safe and have a VERY happy New Year!!