Standing hose and What I do and What I don't do

“Let us enrich ourselves with our mutual difference.”  Paul Valery, poet and philosopher (1871-1945)

So I started making a pair of Kilt Hose for my uncle last Friday.  Kilt Hose are BIG socks.  Knee-high Man Socks.  These are knit on US Size 2 knitting needles, with sock-weight yarn and start at a staggering 108 stitches per round.  Breathe deep with me, because there is hope, as they diminish with the lovely curve of the human calf to a more manageable 76 stitches for the ankle and the rest of the (man) foot.  

Here is what they looked like sometime earlier this week, with the cuff folded up.  Maybe about five inches total.  

Here is what they look like this morning.  With the two inch cuff folded, they now come in at just a shade more than seven inches, and they still stand up on their own.  Pretty impressive since they’re not knit in a tight gauge.  In fact they are squishy-soft and completely yummy to hold in my hands.  Any bets on how much longer they’ll stand on their own?  Nine inches?  Twelve?!

In other news of the crafting type, I am still elbow deep in Halloween costumes.  I came across this Suburban Kamikaze post the other day.  I love this—both the idea and the loving and irreverent sarcasm—and if a knight had been requested in this house, there’s an entirely good chance that we would have sought an acceptable substitute for chain mail.  Like window screen maybe.  

Before you go grumbling in your tea about Suburban Overachievers, I think a defense is in order.  

It takes time to do these insane things that I do.  Time that gets deducted from other things, like sleep and eating.  I don’t like giving up sleeping and eating, so the time that I take to make ridiculously large socks or insanely complicated Halloween costumes for small children that will be worn once and then relegated to the dress-up bin has to come from something else.  

I have three kids.  Partner and I do all of the things that three kids need parents to do.  Including a lot of laundry.  When I’m not writing, I do sew, I do knit, I do walk an awful lot, I do volunteer a little bit at the school, I do bake all of our bread, I do cook weird things sometimes.  I like to color in coloring books with my kids and to build things with K’nex.  

Whether I’m writing or not, I do not watch more than two or three hours of television a week.  I do not wear make-up, paint my nails, shave my legs, or color my hair.  For that matter, I do not blow-dry, curl or style my hair beyond combing it—sometimes with my fingers.  I do not ascribe to the consume-as-much-as-possible model of democracy and patriotism.  I do not believe in the “Bush Doctrine” (unless we’re talking about sex).  I also do not iron, my house is generally messy, and I spend an absolute minimum time shopping for anything.  

How much time out of the week do/would these things take me?  

These choices obviously do not suit everyone, and that’s great.  How boring would a world full of me be?  (Oh hush, you know it would be maddening.  After a while anyway.)  Every parent has limited time.  Every parent has to seek a kind of harried balance in one way or another.  Trade-offs will be made for the things you find important and happy-making and useful.  This is my balance point.  It teeters this way or that sometimes.  But so far it hasn’t fallen over completely.  

I won’t kick myself with guilt over the things I do and don’t choose, as long as you don’t kick yourself with guilt over the things you do and don’t choose.  And we can get together over kamikazes.  Or tea.  Whatever you choose.  

I have a tendency to Over-Do

In case you hadn’t noticed.  

I over-do with knitting, and sewing and teacher-gifts and occasionally cooking.  A couple of months ago, I declared this ridiculous to do list.  Look, here’s another thing finished! (The socks, not the child)

 

Those are the new, Hogwarts-inspired, Sonar X3 socks.  I finished one of the shirts mentioned in that post, the other is half-finished.  The other two were cancelled due to a glut of long-sleeved dress shirts.  The Partner Hoodie is done.  The three stealth projects are done.  

I have finished one Deployment sock.  BIL has commenced to being less than familial, and as much as I’d like these socks to be about his service and sacrifice and not about his contribution to our family…. Well, let me just say that a lot of my emotions (and time) go into the things I make for people, and when I’m feeling particularly Not Good about someone, let’s just say that it makes it hard to knit for that person.  But that is one seriously cool sock.  There is a chance that a joke I made about finishing them for Partner, rather than for BIL, was recently misconstrued. But I digress.  

The Mystery Stole is about 1/3 finished.  I love it.  I love making it.  But it requires quiet and concentration, both of which have been in short supply here lately.  It goes on, bit by bit.  

The Urban Aran, Cardiganized is still in the dreaming stages.  

That shopping bag, though not on the list, also managed to sneak into the knitting queue.  It is, as mentioned in a recent post, finished.  

I cast on Kilt Hose *this morning* in the vain hope that I can finish them by early to mid-November.  I’m using Chasing Bunny’s very lovely pattern for Professor Moody’s Kilt Hose (because we just can’t seem to escape dear Harry around here, ever).  

The sanity of that November goal is in question, especially since, right now, I’m in the midst of Halloween Crafting.  I love Halloween.  I think it is a good opportunity to let your imagination run wild and then see if you can make some reality out of it, even if it’s only an approximation.  The educational institution that the elder two sonars attend has, rather cleverly I think, for several years held a Storybook Character Parade on October 31.  Children are invited to choose a character from a book, dress up as that character, and sashay around the campus before the flashbulbs of an adoring set of parents, books in hand.  Various literary and pseudo-literary activities ensue.  This allows any Halloween controversies to evaporate.  

The Sonars, being such imaginative little buggers—er, I mean, darlings, have come up with several lovely ideas.  

Sonar X8 has been inspired by Cornelia Funke’s When Santa Fell to Earth to be, well, Niklas Goodfellow (you might know him better by another name, ahem, Santa).  I dug around in the cupboard and came out with several yards of red felt gifted by a neighbor a while back.  He now has a coat and pants.  Also in the cupboard, some black and red neoprene and fleece, which became spats to resemble big black boots.  Hat will follow.  There will be no beard.  

Sonar X5 had toyed with Animalia by Graeme Base for some time, hoping first to be a Great Green Gorilla Growing Grapes in a Gorgeous Glass Greenhouse, then later to be a Zany Zebra Zig-zagging in a Zinc Zeppelin.  Thankfully (I wasn’t looking forward to using or approximating fur, or stripes) we later came across Enigma, by the same author, and a fascination with a magician has ensued.  It’s going to take me just as long to put this costume together, but it’s a bunch of small things rather than one big complicated (hot) costume, and it can all be done with fabric I have that isn’t a pain in the butt to sew with.  A vest and pants (done).  A bow tie (awaiting tying).  A cape.  A hat (half-finished) complete with “bunny” trick).  

Sonar X3 also started with Animalia.  He was totally fixed on being a Lazy Lion Lounging in the Local Library.  I have made a lion-ish suit before.  A simple lion-colored hoodie with great loops of felt sewn to the hood.  Unfortunately we no longer have it.  Still, it wouldn’t have been too hard, especially after I found half a bolt of upholstery fabric in another neighbor’s trash that was just about the right color to be a lion-y.  But then, we started talking.  We started looking at books.  We started looking at patterns.  And lo, we will soon have the White Rabbit.  Yes, That White Rabbit.  Before you start hyperventilating about fur rearing its ugly head again, know that I’m making only the rabbit’s head, and with white double-nap flannel rather than fur.  And no, it won’t cover his face.  He’s three.  I don’t think that would be wise.  Or cute.  To go with this wonderous head, there will be a vest and of course, a pocket watch.  

What?  For me?  Well, I don’t have much reason to wear a costume, except that there *is* a home football game on Halloween night here.  And I think it would be a shame to pass up the opportunity to do some small thing.  So there’s a very good chance I’ll break out my pink Hallowig and put on the Hawaiian dress.  If it’s not too windy.  Pictures will surely ensue should that take place.  

We bought a few apples yesterday.  Six different varieties to be exact.