Chat Back for March 28

Answering questions from comments and email.

Dorothy asked . . .

I didn't know you were taking a trip. Is it to Idaho? When are you leaving?

I'm leaving for Northern Idaho before the sun comes up on Wednesday, April 1. Granddaughter Sydney is having her 4th birthday during the week I'll be there, complete with two separate parties.

Here she is admiring her birthday socks that arrived a few weeks ago.


Son John also received birthday socks in March. I swiped both of these pictures from his blog, Tah Tales, where there are more Sydney pictures.

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Betty asked . . .

I was wondering if you had a not-so-difficult suggestion for making the knitting (of a 19 inch leg fencing sock) a little more interesting.

Having never knit socks with a long cuff, I'm totally unqualified to answer this question. I'm guessing a 19 inch cuff hand knit sock won't stay up without elastic, even if knit all in ribbing and especially when playing sports.

I would stick with the ribbing and see how it goes, especially for the first pair.

Do you have a pattern? For 19 inches, there's probably some shaping required?

Does anyone who really knows the answer have suggestions for Betty?

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Renna asked . . .

I do hope your vet bills have not been due to anything serious!

Nothing serious at the vet.

Glory had her annual checkup and shots and we bought a year's worth of heartworm preventative. She's twelve years old now and in good health for her age.

Pappy got taken in with an anal gland infection. I'll spare you the details of that. He's being treated with antibiotics and seems to be much better.

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Carrie asked . . .

You have two weird comments on your blog that I don't understand -- do blogs get spam??

Yes blogs get spam.

I’ve been deleting the spam comments as I find them.

I hesitate to start using the box where you have to enter the misshapen letters to leave a comment because I hate doing it on other blogs. If the spam doesn’t go away soon, I’ll have to reconsider. Haloscan is usually pretty good at keeping out the spam and I’ve been reporting it to them.

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Shirley asked . . .

Maybe you can wear your Trekking socks just for fun.

Regular 64 stitch socks knit for others don't fit my narrow feet as snugly as I like, so I didn't keep them.

They have a new home on Mom's feet. She's been wearing out some of her handknit socks and needed some replacements. Plus, she likes them!

Mom's happy. I'm happy because Mom's happy. The socks are happy to be loved.

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Sue asked . . .

Did you use your tried and true 7x1 rib pattern? (For the Panda Cotton socks)

Having no confidence in the Panda Cotton to stay up with a k7p1 rib, I used a k3p1 rib. Since there is no self-patterning in this yarn, they look fine with the narrower ribbing.