Internet Anniversary

Ahem.

Today is the tenth anniversary of my very very first post to Usenet. Ten years of farting around the internet, wasting time, and boggling at crazy people. Time flies when you're having fun. :)

In honor of this little anniversary, I'd like to do something I don't often do. This is a meme I saw when I was first poking around Usenet, and I thought it'd be fun to do it again:

Take a look around you. Apart from your computer and its peripherals, and your computer desk/table/milk crate and chair, what, in order of their physical closeness, are the five things nearest to you right now?

1. An eyeglass repair kit

2. 2 AA batteries

3. A cat

4. A pencil

5. A stale beer

How to Knit a Sock

How to Knit a Sock

Plan sock. Do math. Do math again.

Change mind about pattern. Do more math. Check math again.

Find yarn. Find needles. Find spare time.

Cast on stitches. Knit 2 rounds. Discover that *&^%$#@! yarn company spliced two pieces of yarn by tying a *&^%$#@! knot instead of splicing or plying yarn together like any decent human would.

Swear a lot.

Write blog entry.

Feel better.

Rip out sock and start over.

ETA: When starting over, cast on half the stitches using the wrong cast-on. Rip. Start over...

Ode to Socks

I'd like to take a moment to discuss a very important matter: The awesomeness of wool socks.

Over the years, I've knitted probably twenty pairs of socks. The only pair I had knitted for myself was a nice thick worsted-weight wool pair that I wore when bitter cold demanded foot warmth.

Then, recently, I knitted myself a second pair in actual sock-weight wool yarn. I washed them and blocked them, and then, because it was, you know, summer, balled them up and put them away.

Soon after, though, my husband, for reasons known only to himself, set the thermostat to about 65 degrees and I found myself with freezing cold feet in the middle of summer. I pulled out my new socks and put them on.

Oh, my God.

They are soft. They are warm. They are comfy. And when I had to go outside in the 80 degree heat, they were still soft and comfy and--get this--not hot! I'm not saying that wool socks will be my footwear of choice all summer or anything, but my feet remained at the same pleasant warm temperature they had been inside.

So, that's it. No more store-bought cotton socks. Well, at least after I've knit some more wool ones. :)