The sock that wasn't quite...

If you go back a few posts, you'll see my speculation as to whether or not a teeny tiny ball of yarn was going to be enough to finish the foot and toe of a teeny tiny baby sock. Well...I decided that our trip to the beach yesterday was the perfect time to find out. You can see from the picture here that I was able to finish the foot and about half of the short rows for the bottom of the toe. I was stupidly optimistic even as the ball shrunk to the size of a grape... "It's thin yarn, and tiny needles - it just might make it!" The thought even crossed my mind to trim the extra inches off of the loose ends and try to knit them into the rest of the toe, but I abandoned that foolish plan once I really thought it through - would an additional foot of yarn really get me through the half top of the toe and the bind-off? Yeah - I don't think so.

Yesterday we took a too-long-in-coming trip out to the Oregon coast so my brother-in-law could teach my husband how to surf. The water was a chilly 55 degrees, so I wisely decided I would sit in the sun and knit instead. It turned out to be a beautiful if slightly windy day, and the kids had a blast (which kept them from pestering me while I was knitting, for the most part). Bill even managed to get three really good and several shorter well-started-but-poorly-ended
rides in. He's now threatening to take up regular surfing, which I will encourage as long as he stays in little surf away from man-eating sharks. If you want to see the full photo spread from our fabulous day, click here. I also added an Albums section in the sidebar and will post more pictures there as I continue to get organized, so check back soon for more.

On the way home, to soothe my hurt from the sock that didn't quite make it, I started yet another of Ann Budd's little sock patterns, this one with a braided cable running down the front. I really love the short-row technique for the toe and heel, and they are so teeny that they knit up really fast and don't take up much room in my bag. We'll see if Owen ever actually wears them, but I do enjoy making them!

On a final note, while re-reading some of my earlier posts, I realized that I do a lot of complaining about the kids. This is true in my real-life conversation as well, but it only reflects my sorry attempt to keep a little distance from them since I love them so fiercely that losing one of them would be like losing myself. No, it would be worse. They spend a lot of time driving me crazy, but it is all forgotten in the moments when Sydney climbs into my lap and curls up to watch tv, or Owen falls asleep on my shoulder with his velvety little cheek tucked into the crook of my neck. These kids are the finest thing I've ever produced, and while the day-to-day mundane can certainly make life less magical, my little optimists always manage to find, if just for a moment, a way to make the day instantly brighter.