The first STR club shipment

It started off in the great frozen North, cut off from civilization (okay, we were just missing wi-fi, but that really sucked), with the challenge of performing Judy's Magic Cast-On without benefit of instruction.



I did eventually get it, but not without involving law enforcement.

Upon arriving back home, in what passes for civilization on the rock known as Frenchboro, I made the difficult decision to pass on not one, but both, patterns included in the Socks That Rock club shipment.
Not an easy decision to make.

But I was determined to do a pair of toe- up socks, and would not be deterred from my mission.

I'm very glad I did, as it turned out.

I settled on a seemingly random stripe sequence, inspired by Fibonacci numbers.
What, you think we knitters just grab whichever string lands in our hand to decide when to start and stop stripes? There's major planning in that!
Oh, it's just me? OCD? What?
Whatever. Fibonacci numbers are way cool. We spend HOURS in the Math room at the Museum of Science in Boston. Lots of budding engineers in our brood. (And, we always know where to look for Daddy, when he goes missing.)

The colors were every bit as delightful as expected.



Toe-up, man, is the way to go!
Short row heels! These heels are, by far, the most wearable with shoes.

You know, if you actually wear socks with shoes. 
Which I do not.
I'm taking a lot of heat from a particular non-knitting friend, who wants to be shown to knit something called a 'tube sock'.
I will not show her how to knit a 'tube sock'. If she knits it, it will have a proper heel, or I will find her sock-in-progress, and rip it out. We're in tough negotiations right now.
In retaliation, she has threatened to 'out' me, for being a compulsive sock knitter, who does not wear socks.
I'm just beating her to the punch.

I'm not a wearer of lace shawls, either, but that doesn't stop me!
It's all about the art, not so much the practicality.



My favorite funky thing: mismatched toes, heels, and cuffs.
Let your freak flag fly...especially where nobody sees it.



Look- no gaps. Wrap and Turn, baby!



Toe pic!



Love.

I have gifted the socks to a friend who lives in Brewer, who was very happy to receive them (and surprised!).

And that was the best part of knitting them.

NOT public urination!

We just came back from a great week up in the North Woods of Maine...but more on that later.

My goals for the week of vacation were few. I was determined to finish Charlize, and to get as far as possible on my Very First Toe-Up Socks.
Anything else was gravy.
I spent the whole of one day painstakingly packing the Knitting Bag with everything I thought I might need or want.
Sadly, it only took me about 15 minutes to pack a week's worth of clothing for all four of us, though the Outerwear took an afternoon in itself. You can't 'forget' things like ski pants and extra, extra gloves when going ice fishing in minus 17 degree weather.
 Gore-tex and neoprene. These are our BFF's.

My goals were completely derailed when we made it to the lake.
No wi-fi.

I did finish Charlize. She now languishes on the To Be Blocked pile, with three other items.
Someday...

She looks great. The pattern was perfect for that crazy yarn. I have a feeling it will be taking a trip to Greece with a certain person I know this April...if it makes it out of the Blocking Pile!

That left me with plenty of time to work on The Socks.
I had done some homework before I left. The two patterns included in the STR club shipment gave me some confusion. They are sport weight. They are stranded. They are not toe-up.
I don't know what I saw to give me that impression. Brain fart.

Having still not settled on which pattern to follow, I went online, and stored every file I could find on my hard drive on toe-up socks, in case I got stuck. (I had been forewarned that wi-fi might be an issue.)

We made it to the lake, unpacked, set out tip-ups, and I got cosy with the 2 patterns and my freshly wound balls of yarn.
And that, my friends, is when I realized that neither of these patterns are written toe-up.

Not one to be deterred, ever, I 'read' the pattern backwards. I compared the stitch counts to a few other toe-up patterns on my hard drive.
But, I wasn't all "Raise your hand if you're Sure!"confident. The stitch counts varied, enough to concern me.

And I couldn't get online to ask anyone.

Well, I can begin the toe, anyway. The rest is just increasing to the right stitch count. I can get to that point, anyway.
Um, no. I neglected to save the file with the magic cast on.
I had no magic.

The next day, we did some sightseeing, because Momma cannot live on lake alone. She requires restaurants and the occasional yarn shop.
And, wi-fi.

I found all three of these things in the next town. Huzzah!
We buzzed about, did the tourist thing, and then I dropped The Big Guy and Thing One off at a store so I could spend some quality time with a 'borrowed' wi-fi signal nearby.

I found the link to the cast on, and was elbow deep into it when Thing One called to say they were being  ushered out of the store.
Nooooo!
I had not counted on the fact that the streets up there roll up even earlier than here!
The store was closing. I told them to sit tight, I'd be up to get them as soon as I could (translation: when I finished both toes...).
It was then that Thing Two made a funny strangling noise, half-laugh, half-gag.
He finally got out, "Uh-oh, Mom. I think you're in trouble....!"

I looked up to find a police cruiser blocking me in. The signal I was 'borrowing' belonged to a church, which was not in use. Mine was the only vehicle in the lot, and, seeing no reason to hide, I parked at the street end, in full public view.
I had a moment of discontent, as I wondered about the legality of borrowing an open, unprotected wi-fi signal. I'm no hacker. I'm just a knit blogger!
He sauntered over. I smiled, held up what was in my hands (it took him a minute to figure it out- two 'toes' on magic loop...it sort of looks like knitting, but not in the traditional sense, right?).
He looked at my laptop on the seat next to me, saw the pages open to multiple knitting notes and patterns, and laughed like a madman!
"THAT'S a first!" he said, as he walked away.

And, true to knitterly form, I was bummed out that I didn't get the chance to ask him if he knew anybody who might be able to help me out with this sock pattern...

Here are my toes, in all their glory:

I tried one more time, later in the week (again, in the church parking lot) to further my progress, but was still uncertain. I've gotten no more done than what you see above. pfft.

I did do a birthday gift and a couple of dishcloths, and had a fabulous fishing trip without any incidence of frostbite or hypothermia despite a record low temp of...seriously....-24'!