As I find websites that are helpfull, I’ll try to post them here.

http://www.daveramsey.com

http://www.marketwatch.com

http://online.wsj.com

http://www.colemill.com/FlightTraining.php

http://www.excelavia.com/

http://www.helistaraviation.com/Training.html

http://www.wingsmqy.com/

http://corker.senate.gov/public/

http://www.franklin-gov.com/parks/rules_and_regulations.html

http://www.state.tn.us/

http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/government/elected.html

http://blackburn.house.gov/News/

http://www.shelbyvilletnairport.org/info.htm

http://www.nathab.com/north/classic-polar-bear

http://www.wildernessmedical.com/worldwide-emergency-medical-service.htm

http://www.griffithobs.org/Skyinfo.html

http://gothamist.com/2008/05/12/nycs_smallest_c.php

http://www.warehouseskateboards.com/

http://www.gussetclothing.com/

http://www.flynashville.com/

http://lib.williamson-tn.org/

http://print.coupons.com/couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=13306&zid=iq37&nid=10&bid=alk06181606127d15d35f44314

http://www.redplum.com/

http://www.valpak.com/coupons/home

http://coupons2.smartsource.com/smartsource/index.jsp?Link=5S2ZUA6PWPEPO

http://www.amazingshaving.com/

http://www.classicshaving.com/Safety_Razors.html

http://artofmanliness.com/2008/01/04/how-to-shave-like-your-grandpa/

http://www.thelivingtreehouse.com/

http://nashville.metromix.com/

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/

Little Mickey was ill all weekend. He was worse than a baby, as he just laid around all weekend, and wanted us to hold him.  He wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t drink – I was sure he was a goner, and we had no reason for this to occur.  He had the ear mite treatment at the vet, but they were really bothering him – it wouldn’t explain him not eating.  Sunday, I got all bothered with it and started pumping him full of beef baby food and cat milk in a syringe.  He acted a bit better, even though we only got 40 mls of liquid in him.

By Monday, he was back to his little popcorn self – bouncing around and chasing anything that thought about moving.  He ate heartily – but now we can’t get him to eat dry food again.

We’ve had introductions with the other cats – Fat Boy doesn’t care if he is here or not, though Mickey doesn’t like the looks of him.  Miss Dot is not happy about his presence, and has thought about stalking him down a few times, only to be cut down by us.  Mickey just grumbles and growls at them all, even though they are up to 3X larger than him.

When I could, I passed on the little guy to the kiddo – she got to play momma for a bit.  I made her pirate shirt, using no pattern.

On the first fitting, we found that I didn’t give her enough ease, and the armpits were too tight.  No problem!  I actually figured out how to take care of both of these problems with one thing – armpit gussets running to the hem!

You’d never know it was there, and adds a decent amount of ease to the shirt.

Next item is the corset/tank top number using the skull fabric peeking out above.  Lots of shirring on the sides – should be fun.  Aaaarrgh!

Where I left off on Toe-Up Socks 101 – Part 1 was with how to do the toe increases, so I’ll jump back in right there.  (Remember, the pattern I refer to throughout is the Back to Basics socks from Knitty.com by Deb Barnhill – Rav link here)

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After the toe increases, you normally will work straight for several inches until it’s time to do the heel turning and gusset.

In this pattern, however, the shaping works slightly differently, which is why it’s worth noting.  After knitting straight for only a few inches (until total length is 4-5 inches — or specifically until it’s 4.25 inches shorter than total desired length as the pattern says, or more like 4.75 or 5 inches shorter when I knit it up), you begin to do increases in two places.

First, in this fun center increase:

Two stitches are increased every third row for a while, then every other row the rest of the way.  Eventually it gets really big:

At the same time, you also make a few increases along the edge of the foot:

I was trying to figure out how to put an arrow on the picture, and I guess I’m not computer smart enough to do so.  I’ll figure out eventually, but you see several increases directly in the middle of the picture?  No?  Oh well, don’t worry about it.  Just take my word for it–there are a few in there on either side just to make sure that the foot gets big enough for a real foot.

Anyway, in case you couldn’t tell, that’s a lot of increases!  After all those increases, you have a very large foot!

So, next, you do a short row heel to shape a little cup for the heel to fit into.

A short row heel is basically a heel where you knit back and forth in the center of the full number of stitches available, knitting one less stitch each time, knitting back and forth without touching the outer stitches.  In this way, the center keeps getting bigger while the outside remains the same size.  Then, you knit back and forth one stitch more each time until you re-knit the full number of stitches.  When you’re done, you have a nice little heel-shaped area.  Perfect!

If none of that made any sense to you, it’s ok.  You can watch a video of it here.

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Anyway, after that you have this huge amount of stitches that you have to reel in to a normal amount for an ankle.  In order to do this, you go back and forth, knitting two together at one end and purling two together at the other end as you knit/purl back and forth in a 2×1 rib.

You continue in this way until you’ve gotten all the stitches back together at this nice little point here:

Then, you just knit in your fun little rib pattern as set until it’s as long as you like, or until you almost run out of yarn.  I love just going until I run out of yarn, because that way you don’t have an annoying little bitty ball left at the end, which is the very reason I enjoy making toe-up socks in the first place!

So when you are almost out, you VERY LOOSELY bind off (so that it can fit around your calf) and you’re done!

Here’s the method I used in these socks to make sure I got a super loose cast off:

–Knit 2 stitches, pass first stitch over second stitch. (one stitch cast off).

–Knit one stitch, pass stitch originally on right needle with stitch you just knitted. (two stitches cast off total).

–Pass the one stitch on right needle over to the left needle.  Re-knit this stitch, then knit one more stitch.  Pass first stitch over second stitch. (three stitches cast off total).

–Knit one stitch, pass stitch originally on right needle with stitch you just knitted. (four stitches cast off total).

–Pass the one stitch on right needle over to the left needle.  Re-knit this stitch, then knit one more stitch.  Pass first stitch over second stitch. (five stitches cast off total).

–Repeat previous two rows until all stitches are cast off!

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So that’s it!  I really enjoyed knitting this pattern and I think it was a very innovative idea for how to make a toe-up sock.

For more information on toe-up socks and how to do more typical ones than the one I just showed you, see these great sites:

Knitty.com’s toe-up sock toe tutorials

Amazing start to finish simple toe-up sock photo tutorial

OR any of these great sock books:

Sock Innovation by Cookie A. (I love Cookie A!)

Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson

Any of Cat Bordhi’s fun sock books

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Happy sock knitting, everyone!

Abby

I decided that I would switch my packaging for Bath Salts (both for Fine & Crystal) to a lovely resealable bag that has a gusset so it will stand up. One side will be silver and the other side clear so that you can easily see the product. Why the change? Well, after doing some market research I have found that there is a desire to be able to see the product in the packaging and all of it’s color and detail. That is why I am making the switch.

I will post new photos next week after the bags have arrived and I have had time to make new product to put in them and labeled them.

It will be the same product as alwasy,  just in a different package.

So, at this point we have a heel flap and a gusset and a little problem:

The sock has no top.   It’s time to put those stitches from the scrap yarn back onto their now empty pegs.

Then there is just closing up the gap along the top of the gusset.  To do that I knit  just the top/instep pegs, picking up a gusset stitch as I went along.

 To do the instep, start a new working yarn.  Go ahead and cut the old one, leaving enough tail for weaving in later.  Put the instep stitches back on the loom.  To set up each row, pick up the closest  loop (or pair of loops if you slipped your gusset edges) from each gusset edge stitch and place them on the peg with the first and last instep pegs (Normally that would be pegs 25 and 48, but for my sock it was 24 and 47).  For this first row, you’ll notice that there is a pretty big gap between the edge of the instep and the first gusset edge stitch.  For at least the first row I picked up loops from the gap instead to minimize holes.  Actually, I must have done this for at least three rows before I began to pick up gusset stitches.  That was definitely excessive and I think it showed a bit. I think either two rows or maybe picking up two separate loops on the first instep row will be enough.  If anyone experiments with that let me know.

Here the top stitches are back on the loom and you can see the gusset stitches that need to be joined.  I think the first picked up loop is already on peg 47.

With the new yarn, knit across just those 24 loops that were just replaced, knitting the picked up loops along with the original loops.  This seemed VERY bulky on the loom—knitting 3 over 1 on the first and last stitches.  I thought it might make an annoyingly stiff or uncomfortable  join, but it really wasn’t too bad.  I do wonder how it would look if you knit the bottom loop over the picked up ones before knitting the row.

After the first row, pick up another loop (the next closest one to the instep) from each side of the gusset edge and put it on the outermost top/instep peg.  Knit back across those pegs.  Just keep doing that until you run out of gusset, and you can start knitting in the round again.

You can see the finished closed up gusset after a few more rows.

Next time I think I’ll try a very plain sock so I can really see any holes and joins.  I think I’ll also try not slipping the gusset edges so I can just pick up one edge loop.  I am afraid that I’ll have trouble seeing which loop to grab, though.  I usually do.   It’s so much easier for me to see a slipped edge. 

Thanks for taking a look at my experiment.  This is clearly more complicated than doing a heel flap on needles, but it is certainly do-able and the socks do fit me a bit better than short row heels.  So that’s a functional success, but still a design in progress.

So now we have a gusset of 21 rows (up to 24 or the same number of rows as there were stitches put on scrap yarn should work easily).  It’s time to turn the heel.  I’m not going into much detail here.  Just work short row decreases however you like as if you were turning a heel.  DON’T do the increases.  I decreased until there were 8 pegs on either side with 2 loops (turning pegs) and 8 with one loop between them.                                                                                  

Note working yarn is just to the right of the last turning peg.   

Here’s the 1/2 heel cup from the inside. 

Now the sock needs a gusset.

Pick up stitches along the edge of the heel flap.  Since the edges were slipped, It’s pretty easy to see the 2 loops forming the nice chain edge.  I put each pair on one of the empty pegs.  First the stitches from the left of the heel flap get picked up onto empty pegs.

It turned out that there were 11 loop pairs to pick up for this sock.

Then the stitches from the right edge of the heel flap get picked up.

See all the double loops.  The one on the left is actually a turning peg from the heel.  Remember, I did my heel on pegs 48 + 1 to 23 to preserve symmetry on this stitch pattern on this particular sock.  The other pegs are heel flap edge stitches.

Keep picking up edge stitches from the heel flap until all are on the loom.  I got 11 from this side too.  If the flap had been 24 stitches, all the pegs would be full now.  I had 2 empties.

The short row decreases left the working yarn back at the final turning peg. 

Complete that turn and knit the 8 center heel stitches and continue to the left, knitting the double loops on the turning pegs and the double loops from the heel flap as one.  WY ends up on the left edge.

I slipped the first stitch in this section just like for the heel flap.  It might be better not to, for the gusset at least.  That will be the next experiment.

Knit back to the right, again treating any double loops as one.       

To complete the gusset, for each row, slip1 then knit until 3 stitches remain.  Move the last 2 loops in one peg to decrease.

Knit last 2 stitches treating the doubled loops as one.

Continue decreasing one stitch on each row until there are stitches only on the original 24 pegs of the heel flap.

Next: My sock has no top!

For this sock I used the Tulip Sock pattern at dalooms.com as the base pattern.  I cast on 48 pegs on a FG mini wonderloom with a cotton wool blend (60/40 Serpendipity Tweed, striped coral root for those who care about such things).  After doing 4 pattern repeats I had this:

The actual color is closer to this one.

It’s time to start knitting the heel flap.  Eventually it will be a bother to have the instep (top) stitches on the loom, so now is a great time to slip the loops on pegs 25-48 onto a piece of scrap yarn and prepare to knit on just pegs 1-24.  That would cause an asymetrical break in the pattern I was using, so I slipped pegs 24-47 onto scrap yarn and would knit peg 48 and pegs 1-23 as my heel flap.

 Half of the stitches have been removed and we’re ready to knit the heel flap.  Knit the flap as a flat panel. Just continue  working in pattern (or you could try a heel flap stitch like R1: *k1 s1*; R2: k all.  I believe that I slipped the first stitch in each row, but I didn’t write that in my notes, so possibly not.  I did NOT slip the     stitches in my 2nd test heel (at least that’s what my notes say, lol). 

You will probably want to knit about the same number of rows as you have stitches on pegs.  Three more pattern repeats was 24 rows, so I went with that.

Here’s the back of the heel flap.  You can see the edges stitches.  One side looks like the edges were slipped, the other maybe.  Hmm….I thought they were slipped.

Next: Turning the Heel

So, I’ve finally downloaded some photos from my camera.  I did a couple of test heels with chunky yarn on a knifty knitter.  I’ll post the full instructions next time, but wanted to get a couple photos out until then.  The idea still needs some tweaking, but I’ve definitely ended up with something that resembles a heel flap and gusset.                                                                                                    

KK heel flap test 1

see all the not so pretty holes

 Heel flap test 2.  For the second test I did a smaller heel (because I’m lazy, lol)–just 18 pegs.  The heel was decrease with short rows and the result was much better.  This one doesn’t fit anyone in my house, so no “on the foot” shots!

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s the full sock along with the sock that made me try this madness. 

same sock/two heels

On the left is the original short row heel.  (Pattern is Isela Phelp’s Tulip Sock from the daloom site and adapted for FG.)  It was much too snug in the instep and the 80/20 cotton/wool blend yarn isn’t very forgiving of a poor fit.  On the right is the same stitch pattern done with my attempt at aheel flap and gusset.  It did give a bit, although not a huge amount, of extra ease and does look  pretty close to a needle knit heel flap, but I need to work on my stitch picking up technique.  I haven’t done a lot of that and sometimes I’m not quite sure exactly which loop I’m supposed to pick up.

Well, I need to edit my step by step photos and write out the instructions.  Hope to get the first part up by the week end. 

Okay, I have a sock problem.  There, I’ve admitted it in public!  I’ve discovered that I like to knit socks.  I like the feel of lovely, handknit, woolen socks.  I love my little mini-wonderloom.  Sock projects are wonderfully portable when I’m on the go with the kids.  But…..I…..have……a…..problem.

My socks, with just a couple excemptions exceptions, don’t fit.  It’s not that my feet are terribly fat.  Certainly they are well within the range of any adult sock loom.  I do however have a high instep, so socks with short row heels that are sized to fit the ball of the foot are a terribly tight squeeze over the ankle.  In theory, I could just make wider socks.  Unfortunately, I also am a very tight loom knitter.  I’m already using most to all of the pegs on a mini-wonderloom.  What’s a loomer to do?

Well if I were knitting with needles, I’d make socks with a heel flap and gusset, like this one, perhaps: http://www.crafty.greenkri.com/heel-flap

But, sez I, doing this on the loom would seem to require more pegs than I have available.  I can’t find any loomies knitting anything like a heel flap with a gusset.  What to do?  Why obsess over it non-stop for a couple weeks, of course!  What else could I do?  I think I’ve found a way.

Stay tuned……

A passable sock that wouldn't pass my ankle

This one squeezed on, but cut off all circulation below the ankle

A reinforced gusset in the underarm of a shirt

A gusset is a triangular or square piece of fabric added to a seam to reduce the stress experienced at that seam and add strength to that portion of the garment while enhancing the ability of the garment to shape to the body. Gussets are traditionally used at the shoulders, underarms, and hems of traditional shirts.

Why you want it: If you’re a shirt fanatic, it may be something you care about. But in all honesty, there’s very little reason to bog down over gussets. They rarely add anything to a shirt. People like to think they do.

Not only has this poor pale girl not got a head but she also owns the most perilously low gusset know to man. Someone tell her.

A frivolous game of ‘have you seen all the movies Obama gave Brown‘, because I got tagged by The Bristol Blogger, who was in turn tagged by Kezza McCarza EmPee.

Here’s the list of films:

• Citizen Kane
• Casablanca
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Schindler’s List
• Vertigo
• The Wizard of Oz
• Psycho
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Chinatown
• The General
• ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
• The Graduate
• The Godfather
• The Searchers
• Star Wars: Episode IV
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• Some Like it Hot
• The Grapes of Wrath
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Sunset Boulevard
• On the Waterfront
• Raging Bull
• Singin’ in the Rain
• Gone with the Wind
• City Lights

Apparently you score two points for every film you own and a single point for any film you’ve seen. Now, I take it that this is a harmless bit of fun, and in no way the sort of thing that might be considered as evidence in any MPAA shenanigans, so hypothetically here’s my hat in the metaphorical ring:

Got (2 points):

• Citizen Kane
• Casablanca
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Schindler’s List
• Vertigo
• The Wizard of Oz
• Psycho
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Chinatown
• The General (heh – I’m sure it wasn’t the John Boorman Irish crime thriller, but it wasn’t explicitly stated, so I’m having it)
  
• ET: The Extra-Terrestrial

Seen (1 point):

• The Graduate
• The Godfather
• The Searchers
• Star Wars: Episode IV
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• Some Like it Hot
• The Grapes of Wrath
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Sunset Boulevard
• On the Waterfront
• Raging Bull

Not seen (nul point):

• Singin’ in the Rain
• Gone with the Wind
• City Lights

Total points:

33

Right, I shall tag:

• Nigel from I Spit On Your Taste/Dear Lucio…/Bloody Italiana;
• Our house-trained local ToryBlogger El Barlow;
• Violet Blue over in the Bay Area;
• Affable green leftie Derek ‘At War With The Dictionary’ Wall;
• And – just for a laugh, you understand – former Mandelson spear-carrier Benjamin Wegg-Prosser. That’s if he can tear himself away from lucratively playing bagman to various Russian ‘businessmen’, obviously. But then, doesn’t his mum still do his laundry for him? Plenty of spare time then!
• ETA: I forgot I wanted to tag Gusset too

These are my favourite increases for sock toes and gussets:

M1L/M1R and
KLL/KRL

See this article for videos, and a few other types of increases.

For Baudelaire, my toe increases are as follows:

R1: [k1, KRL, knit across, KLL, k1]x2
R2: Knit

Knit without increasing until the narrowest part of the sole. Then start the gusset.

For the gusset, my increases are as follows:

Odd rows: Knit
Even rows: Knit instep pattern as established, KRL, knit across, KLL.

For example:

Circumference: 60 (64, 68) stitches
Top of foot: 30 (32, 34) stitches
Bottom of foot: 54 (56, 58) stitches, after the gusset increases

‘Gusset’ is definitely not a non-descript filler of a word, there merely to help bulk out the dictionary; it may not crop up that often, but when it does it’s bold, it has impact, it’s a word that conjures up a definite image in your mind, and used in conjunction with ‘soiled’ is maybe one best kept away from the breakfast table.

Red Bull gives you wings.

Oh yes, me, my name’s Mac and I look after them, which aint easy cos when they met it was MOIDER!!

I’m Mac and I’m being permitted into these hallowed grounds to say a bit about myself although I can assure you I’m not actually a pervert. Just a regular guy doing regular things, with regular interests and, oh yes I get to regularly take home these fine ladies’ knickers and in the privacy of my own room, have a right good sniff!

It’s an understatement to say I’m delighted with my situation and to be honest I thought Claire and Suse were taking the piss when they firts asked me to be their quality control/ unbiassed expert nose. It was like some really dodgy porno. The worst thing is I’m not allowed to brag about it to my mates but I must admit I want the action all to myself.

It’s hard actually to give them an unbiassed appraisal as to be honest it’s all good stuff, but they know their science and it’s amazing what they’re coming up with. I’d never really thought about pants before and had certainly never been “into” them, like sniffing gussets and all — no actually that’s a lie, I snuck into my Auntie Carolines room when I was about 13 and had a good rummage in her laundry basket, but I was more into bras!

I digress.

Suffice it to say, I enjoyed the pants fairly early on – I came easy into being a pet-perv and am now finding the process amazing, especially now that they are somehow concentrating the good stuff and eliminating the bad stuff.

I think uni is indeed The Best Days Of Your Life!!

(p.s and I’ll not be embarrased writing this – but I just wish I could get more involved in the production department – ok Claire)

One of the CNA’s that I work with just became a new grandmother to a 6# baby boy.  So I knitted some baby socks for him. 

I used US size one double pointed needles and sock yarn.  I cast on 36 stitches and did a ribbing of K2 P2 for 1 inch.  Then I did 3 rows of stockinette.  The heel flap came next for 1 inch in length.  Then I turned the heel. Once the turning was complete, I proceeded to the gussett and picked up 9 stitches on either side.   After decreasing down to my original 9 stitches per needle (I use a total of 5 needles, 4 to hold the stitches and 1 to knit with), I knitted for 1 1/2 inches before decreasing the toe area.  Once down to 3 stitches per needle, I cut the yarn about 8 inches out.  Used a large eyed needle and slipped the yarn through the remaining stitches and fastened off.

Here’s a couple of pictures of the finished socks and the proud grandma.

Here’s the pattern for those of you who want to knit some baby socks:

Sock yarn

Set of  five size US 1 double pointed needles

Large eyed sewing/yarn needle

Cast on 36 stitches and divide evenly (9 stitches each) over 4 needles.  Join.  K2 P2 around for 1 inch.  Then do 3 rounds of stockinette.

On the next round slip 9 stitches from the second needle to the first needle so that you have 18 stitches on one needle.  Slip one, knit one alternately to the end of the needle.  Turn. Slip one, purl to the end of the needle.  Repeat these two rows for 1 inch ending after a purl row.

Turn the heel.  Mentally divide these 18 stitches by 3 (6 stitches).  Knit across the first 2/3 (12 stitches), slip the next stitch, and knit the next one.  Pass the slipped stitch over the knit stitch, and turn. * Slip one stitch, purl over the middle 1/3 (6 stitches), then purl two together.  Turn, slip one, knit 6, slip one, knit one, pass the slipped stitch over the knit stitch. Turn.*  Continue in this manner until all stitches have been worked.  You should have 8 worked stitches on your needle and have the knit side facing you.  Knit these 8 stitches.

Pick up 9 stitches along the side and knit them.  Knit the next two groups of 9.  Then pick up 9 stitches on the other side, knit them.  Then knit 4 stitches from the next needle.  You should have 13 stitches  each on two needles and 9 stitches each on the other two.

Decrease the gussett stitches.  Knit 10 stitches, knit 2 together, knit one.  Knit 9 stitches on the next two needles.  Then knit one, slip one, knit one, and pass the slipped stitch over the knit stitch.  Knit one round even.  Continue in this manner until you have 9 stitches on each needle. Knit even for 1 1/2 inches.

Decrease the toe stitches.  Knit 6 stitches, knit 2 together, knit one.  On the next needle, knit one, slip one, knit one, pass the slipped stitch over the knit stitch, knit 6.  On the next needle, knit 6 stitches, knit 2 together, knit one.  Then on the next needle knit one, slip one, knit one, pass the slipped stitch over the knit stitch.  Knit one round even.  Continue in this manner until 3 stitches remain on each needle. 

Cut the yarn about 8 inches out.  Thread your yarn needle and slip the yarn through the remaining stitches.  Slip the yarn needle down through the hole in the toe area and turn the sock inside out.  Pull the yarn tight and secure the stitches by running the yarn needle through the stitches several times.  Cut the yarn leaving about 1/2 inch tail.  Turn the sock right side out.  One little baby sock made.  Repeat for other sock.

I figured it out and didn’t even need to go to the LYS! It was pouring rain yesterday and super windy. I did not want to get in the car and go to the LYS to get this sock done. There wasn’t even a guarantee anyone that could help me would be there. So, with the help of the links below and my own common sense I gave it a try. If I messed it up then I would go to the LYS and beg for help.

First thing I did was what seemed obvious. I picked up the first set of gusset stiches with the needle end I left off with. It made sense. To complicate things, I had too many stitches. I had to backtrack a little and get rid of some yo’s that I had inadvertently done. My yarn ups cam out great and I picked up the extra stitch and left the marker. OK, it looked good.

Picked up first set of gusset stitches

Now I had to figure out what the heck she meant by ‘the distant 10′. She says to pick up with the other needle (I will refer to this as the ‘instep needle’) and it sounded like she meant the distant 10 stitches that were on the working needle (we will call this the ‘heal flap needle’). What was throwing me off was that left a big gap where the other side of the gusset stitches were waiting to be picked up. What about them? How was I to get them on the instep needle if I had these 10 stitches hanging on the end? Just to play around I put the stitches on the other needle and looked at it. It didn’t make sense. 

This is where I had the aha moment. If I knit half the instep with the heal flap needle that would give me the required stitch amount + 10 on the heal flap needle.  I would leave the distant 10 on the heal flap needle and go ahead and complete the instep with the  instep needle and then be at the right spot to knit up the other gusset stitches. After I knit up the gusset stitches, then I would transfer over the Distant 10! That made perfect sense!

Here I am after I knit up the second set of gussets. You can see the Distant 10 there ready to be transfered over. Now I have the correct amount of stitches on each needle and I am happy as a pig in $h!t

The Distant 10

Now I could work on the gusset section of the sock. It was quite easy and now I was loving the 2 circular needle method! 

Gusset stitches all picked up

Knitting the Gusset

And here is the progress I made by the end of the day. Smooth sailing from here!

Toe here I come!

Oh happy day!

I was really making progress on my first attempt at a sock…. until I finished the heal flap. I got to the section entitled picking up the gusset stitches. I then became totally clueless. I wasn’t sure which end of the needle to use to pick up the stitches first off. Then it tells to you to pick up a stitch at the end and place a marker. A marker for what? Then she says to look at the other end of your needle to see the other stitches waiting to be picked up. Yes I see them. OK. Uh, what do I do with them? The yarn is on the other side of my sock, so I can’t pick them up. Then the directions state to transfer 10 ‘distant stitches to the other needle. What ‘distant stitches’? I have no clue what she means by this. 

I was a little disappointed, but not too worried. I just went to bed and was quite confident I could google around and find answers. Well it wasn’t so easy. There is nothing on the web (that I could find) demonstrated what Cat means by the ‘distant stitches’. What I really need is to see it done. Then I will get it for sure. I checked UTube but there was nothing demonstating the gusset. I searched the Ravelry forums and there were plenty of people stuck at the same spot as me, but no clear answers.

I did find one thread that was a little helpful here. This person was stuck at the same spot as me and he does get some excellent advise that helped me a lot too, but nothing about those ‘distant’ stitches.

What I will have to do is go to the yarn shop with my directions and hope that someone can help me figure out what this means. Otherwise I will email Cat Bordhi with the question and hope she will help me out.

Here is how it looks now:

The Sock

and here is my heal turn. Not too bad.

Heal Turn

On a happier note, I fixed that dropped stitch on the Mangia Shawl. It doesn’t look perfect. You can see it looks a little pulled, but I think it will settle in and loosen up a bit as I continue to work on it.

Here is picture of the fix. A big thank you to Kelley Petkun for her knitpicks podcast number 52 on how to pick up dropped stitches. It was a great help!

Here is the shawl now. Can you see the tightness?

You know how odd words pop into your head for no reason at all? Well, this week it was gusset.  No no, tittereth ye not…  well go on, if you must – I did.  It’s one of those words that is both inherently hilarious and cringeworthy.  My OED says this:

gusset – a piece let into a garment etc. to strengthen or
enlarge a part
[Middle English from Old French gousset 'flexible
piece filling up a joint in armour, from
gousse 'pod, shell']

See – it started as a perfectly noble word describing a piece of apparel for knights.  Surprising eh?

Nowadays of course we associate it with knickers (although modern day tailors and costumiers still use the term in its original sense “We could just put the teensiest gusset in here to make Sir more comfortable, perhaps?”) Even the flimsiest, most sensuous pair of knickers has a gusset, the mention of which must surely lower all but the most vigorous of libidos. The exception is of course those garments which have no crotch (another of those words that send schoolboys into gales of laughter) but we’ll speak no more of those…

Gusset – go on,  say it several times, it gets funnier each time.  Can’t you imagine a  Dickensian firm of solicitors at law, based perhaps in chambers off Chancery Lane – Gusset, Fotheringbottom & Gusset [discretion guaranteed]?

Almost inevitably, I went on to remember directoire knickers, also known dolefully by generations of men as ‘passion killers’.  When I was a schoolgirl working a Saturday job in a very old fashioned draper’s shop, I remember selling these capacious garments.  They were made of cotton interlock and reached almost to the knee, where they ended in elastic.  Our best selling colour was a colour known as ’salmon pink’ – think of the hue of sticking plasters and you’re close.  The ladies who bought them were of a certain age and the shop also supplied them with their ’stays’ or corsets, also salmon pink.  You might be surprised to know that directoire knickers are still around and are positively de rigeur for pantomine dames, for whom they are sold only in Extra Large.

Hey, Mark Hoedel here! I’m in charge of making sure this BMW R75/6 gets finished before the International Rally in Gillette Wyoming. That means coordinating the work from outside vendors as well as doing a fair amount of the work as we move through the process. I’ve got years of experience on and around BMWs, so I know what it will take to make this project something worthy of a Beemer!

Last week we headed over to Thoroughbred Cycles to join Glen Bishop (owner) and Aaron Haefer in the gusseting of the frame. Aaron and Glen both have prior experience in this type of fabrication and know how to do this according to how the racers in the seventies did.

We put some gusseting at the front steering neck, back of frame, as well as front to back frame stiffing tubes. That should get the wollow out of that stock frame. (Been there, felt that!) Then we added the tubular, truss type reinforcement on the underside of the swingarm. Very cool.

You can see all the photos here. We’ll be posting the video soon!

Mark