The Sock That Was Never Meant to Be
So I had all this orange sock-weight cotton yarn lying around and no project on the needles. I was scheduled to go to the library conference mentioned in my last post, which meant a long commute downtown by subway and - ack! - no knitting to take along with me. What to do to avoid panic? Make socks of course. Ugly orange socks, as it turns out.
From the cast-on it was tough going. Cotton is a poor choice for socks as it does not stretch much, which makes tasks like picking up stitches for the gusset that much harder to do neatly, and working with the unyielding fiber is tough on the fingers. As I progressed, I grew to hate this project so much that I made a really short cuff, just to get it over with. At the toe, I was relieved to be nearly finished but too lazy to graft the stitches together, so I just bound them and tied them off. You can see where I've done this by the odd point at the end.
Later at home, I had a fit of conscience and tried to salvage the sock. I took some scrap yarn and made a crenellated border so that it would look like a carrot - carrot socks, what fun!
But when I tried it on, the border was too tight to go over my heel and had to be ripped out. ARRRGH! Here it is after I frogged the border. You can see the hole where the gusset stitches were picked up. In a wool blend that hole would not be visible.
I guess I could slog on and make the other sock to have a complete ugly pair, but I really, really detest the one sock I've made. Ehhh, these socks just weren't meant to be, and the yarn isn't so expensive that it's worth frogging, so into the pile of junky swatches it goes.
In other news, the weather has been so warm this week that we've been spending time in the in-laws' pool every evening. It makes for late bed-times for the kids, but it's summer, and we don't often have such nice weather.
In still other news, my test for the 6th kyu ranking at the dojo fast approaching. I've been taking aikido for a year and a half, but started at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in the aikikai style only a few months ago. I used to go to the Toronto Aikido Centre, where they teach the yoshinkan style which I find to be harder on the joints. It's also too macho of a style for my tastes. If you recall, the spousal unit was injured at a yoshinkan dojo, and our pal AK recently got his nose broken by someone practising with a bokken (a wooden sword).
Last weekend I was thrilled to see my favourite yoshinkan aikidoka at JCCC, PT himself! The kids were with me and they were excited to see him too. They remember when he used to amuse them by puffing his cigarette like a chimney. It turns out that PT takes the occasional class there as his son goes to JCCC for shorinji kempo. The spousal unit, who was there helping out with the kids class even though he can't do any demonstrations himself, also chatted with PT for some time. PT is a long-time student of Karasawa Sensei, and they caught up on where his senior students ended up in the diaspora after his retirement. Some of them have moved on to other dojos (Renseikan
was mentioned - the Sensei there is also a long-time student of Karasawa), and some have taken up other martial arts like judo or
iaido.
The thing that impressed me is that the Japanese martial art scene in this city is quite small when you really look at it. My own Sensei, Obata Sensei, is an old friend of my spouse's Sensei, Kimeda Sensei, and they are both old friends with the iaido Sensei, Ohmi Sensei. A brief but good history of aikido in Canada and the personal connections can be found here.
From the cast-on it was tough going. Cotton is a poor choice for socks as it does not stretch much, which makes tasks like picking up stitches for the gusset that much harder to do neatly, and working with the unyielding fiber is tough on the fingers. As I progressed, I grew to hate this project so much that I made a really short cuff, just to get it over with. At the toe, I was relieved to be nearly finished but too lazy to graft the stitches together, so I just bound them and tied them off. You can see where I've done this by the odd point at the end.
Later at home, I had a fit of conscience and tried to salvage the sock. I took some scrap yarn and made a crenellated border so that it would look like a carrot - carrot socks, what fun!
But when I tried it on, the border was too tight to go over my heel and had to be ripped out. ARRRGH! Here it is after I frogged the border. You can see the hole where the gusset stitches were picked up. In a wool blend that hole would not be visible.
I guess I could slog on and make the other sock to have a complete ugly pair, but I really, really detest the one sock I've made. Ehhh, these socks just weren't meant to be, and the yarn isn't so expensive that it's worth frogging, so into the pile of junky swatches it goes.
In other news, the weather has been so warm this week that we've been spending time in the in-laws' pool every evening. It makes for late bed-times for the kids, but it's summer, and we don't often have such nice weather.
In still other news, my test for the 6th kyu ranking at the dojo fast approaching. I've been taking aikido for a year and a half, but started at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in the aikikai style only a few months ago. I used to go to the Toronto Aikido Centre, where they teach the yoshinkan style which I find to be harder on the joints. It's also too macho of a style for my tastes. If you recall, the spousal unit was injured at a yoshinkan dojo, and our pal AK recently got his nose broken by someone practising with a bokken (a wooden sword).
Last weekend I was thrilled to see my favourite yoshinkan aikidoka at JCCC, PT himself! The kids were with me and they were excited to see him too. They remember when he used to amuse them by puffing his cigarette like a chimney. It turns out that PT takes the occasional class there as his son goes to JCCC for shorinji kempo. The spousal unit, who was there helping out with the kids class even though he can't do any demonstrations himself, also chatted with PT for some time. PT is a long-time student of Karasawa Sensei, and they caught up on where his senior students ended up in the diaspora after his retirement. Some of them have moved on to other dojos (Renseikan
was mentioned - the Sensei there is also a long-time student of Karasawa), and some have taken up other martial arts like judo or
iaido.
The thing that impressed me is that the Japanese martial art scene in this city is quite small when you really look at it. My own Sensei, Obata Sensei, is an old friend of my spouse's Sensei, Kimeda Sensei, and they are both old friends with the iaido Sensei, Ohmi Sensei. A brief but good history of aikido in Canada and the personal connections can be found here.
posted by ax174 at
5:45 AM
