Ohio visit

Before October is over, I thought I'd include a couple or three pics from our visit to Ohio. We went to Ohio to attend a friend's wedding. We stayed with a couple dear friends of our while there. (My DS came out from Oregon to take care of our mom here in Illinois while we were gone.) The wedding was one of the nicest I've ever been to. It was held in the Franklin Park Conservatory. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to the wedding, and so I don't have any pictures from there or from downtown Columbus.

But, here is a picture of our old house. Whoever is living there is taking really good care of the place. (We like to look at our old houses. Last time we were in the UK, we drove by the house we rented in GX plus some more of our old haunts.) The big tree in the middle of the picture was planted by DS2. It was given out at school for Arbor Day.

A trip to the area wouldn't be complete for me without a visit to Leatherlips. Here's the statue. And below that is a picture of the Scioto River that the statue overlooks.

We went past the Columbus Zoo as well. It's really changed. It now has taken over the Wyandot Park area as well. It always amazes us how much the zoo has improved over the years and continues to improve.

aol again

Just when I thought I was caught up, aol announces that it is closing its picture section. So, it looks as if I have more work to do, moving things around.

On the knitting front, my DD, who is visiting, is having a positive effect on me. I've finished the socks I was knitting as well as a scarf. Plus I'm making progress on the sweater I'm making for DS2. (The cat who likes to nap on the unfinished sweater is now spending much of her time with my DD.)

And lastly, but not least, here's a picture from a Blackhawks (vs Edmonton) hockey game we (including my DD and her BF) went to last week. It was a really good game . They played what I consider real hockey and played it well. This was the first NHL game my DD's BF had seen. He enjoyed it immensely as did we all.

the end of October

I feel I'm ahead of the game now. My aol journal is transferred before the deadline of October 31st. But, in addition, we've already given the Trick-or-Treaters their candy. We had 204 come by yesterday (Sunday, between 1:00 and 4:00, as dictated by the city). And we've voted. (Illinois has early voting.)

It looks as though I shouldn't have panicked so much about aol closing its journal and home page sections at the end of October. AOL ended up having a deal with blogspot to transfer journal entries directly to blogspot blogs. Now I have a couple more blogspot blogs, another one on knitting and one for recipes (if I ever keep that one up). The only entry from my home page that I thought was worth transferring was a walk-through for Sim City 4. (I occasionally really get into Sim City.)

The transfer wasn't perfect. A lot of pictures didn't transfer. So, I had to reload them. The spacing between words is iffy. But, it's still readable. Then there are the links. I hope that I've gotten most of them changed now.

I've deleted entries that I duplicated here. I've also added a few patterns from my old aol blog to Ravelry. It was interesting writing them up in "final" form. Oddly enough, I started the aol journal way-back-when as a way to share patterns. (I started this blog to join the Cinxia KAL and then later to talk about this, that, and the other.)

I'm still behind on knitting. There were so many great projects this year! In fact, I have enough projects to keep me busy for years.

Widdershins heel

Here is another entry moved from my aol journal, which thanks to blogger and aol and a little bit on my part is now here. The original entry was heels and toes. I'm expanding the entry and limiting this part to just heels......

One of my favorite heels for a toe-up sock is the Widdershins heel – which looks almost exactly like a cuff-down heel flap heel. My other favorite heel for a toe-up sock is Fleegle's – which looks almost like a short-row heel but isn't. By the way, widdershins means backwards, "in the opposite direction".

Here is a paraphrasing of the directions for the Widdershins heel:

Gusset increases: The first question in making the heel is when to start making gusset increases (to mirror gusset decreases for the usual cuff-down heel flap). The answer is:

1. Figure out how long you want the heel flap. For an average cuff-down heel flap, one picks up 15 sts on each side of the heel flap – which means the heel flap itself has 30 rows.
2. Start making gusset increases this number of rows before the end of the sock. So, for a 30-row heel flap, you'd start making gusset increases on every other round starting at 30 rows less than the total length of the sock.

Next determine how many gusset increases to make:

1. Divide the number of sole stitches by 9. Round down.
2. Add 1.
3. Double the result.
4. Subtract this number from the number of rows for the heel flap.

For a sock with 62 sts around (31 instep sts and 31 sole sts), you would divide 31 by 9 and round down. The result is 3. Add 1 to get 4. Double it to get 8. Then subtract this from 30 to get 22. So, you'd make 11 pairs of gusset increases to arrive at 53 sole sts. ( 53 = 31 + 22)

Finish the bottom of the heel: After finishing the gusset increases, place markers to mark the sides of the heel flap. For this example of a 30 row heel flap, place markers 15 sts in from either side, leaving 23 sts between markers. The stitches between markers are called heel sts. The sts outside the markers are called gusset sts. Then, working only on the heel sts:

• Row 1: k to 2 sts before marker, inc1, k1, turn
• Row 2: s1, p to 2 sts before marker, inc1, p1, turn
• Row 3: s1, k to 2 sts before gap, inc1, k1, turn
• Row 4: s1, p to 2 sts before gap, inc1, p1, turn

Rep rows 3 and 4 until the number of sts between markers is the same as the original number of sole sts – for the example, 31.

Note: For a more rounded heel, replace “2 sts” in Rows 3 and 4 with “3 sts”. For an even more rounded heel, change it to “4 sts” or maybe even “5 sts” for the last repeat of the two rows.

Note: For a squarer heel, repeat Rows 1 and 2 until the number of sts between markers is the same as the original number of sole sts. (Do not do rows 3 and 4.)

Heel flap: Then start making the heel flap:

• Row 1: s1, k to last heel st, ssk last heel st and 1 st from left gusset, turn
  
• Row 2: s1, p to last heel st, p2tog last heel st and 1 st from right gusset, turn
  

Repeat Rows 1 – 2 until there is only 1 st to be picked up, a right gusset st. You'll be ending with a Row 1. Do not turn. Start working in the round. When you reach the sole sts again, start with a k2tog to get rid of the last gusset st.
The heel is now finished.

aol journals

Aol Journals is closing down at the end of October. So, I'm taking the opportunity to write up some of the entries as patterns to post to Ravelry and to transfer other entries here. That was my blog for patterns, etc.

I started this blog because I wanted to join a Cinxia KAL. Since I needed to join blogger to take part, I thought I might as well start a blog here as well. This blog is much more personal than the aol one. It has progress reports on different projects, including all the frogging I've done and will continue to do, plus quite a few non-knitting-related pictures, including some sea gulls in the backyard of the house in Kent we used to live in.