You learn something new every day!

Especially when surrounded by knitters that know what they are doing. Ok, sitting near A knitter that knows what She is doing. I have been knitting wrong. WRONG! I knew there was a problem with my stockinette (knit a row, purl a row) but since my plain knitting on things like hats and the round part of socks (where just knitting gets the look of stockinette without the purling)(no, I dont know how, it's magic)(or gnomes!) looks just fine, I thought it was a problem with my purling. Nope, I'm actually purling correctly - I was knitting into the wrong part of the stitch, and backwards. Whoops! Somehow the magic, er Gnomes, made it OK for the most part which is very cool, especially since this new/correct way of knitting is kind of a pain in the arse. I noticed something was wrong 4 pairs of socks ago, but since I couldnt figure out how to fix it, I let it go because the twistiness of the stitches gave it, um, character... yeah, thats it. Becides, people are happy with handknit socks even if they arent perfect, and it's not like they're carrying around the pattern and know that I didnt do that on purpose, right? Tomorrow I'll take a pic of what I had been doing and what it is supposed to look like. You'll see then! But hey, they are socks, and they fit and they are cute and comfy. It's sad that the part I thought was right was wrong, the part I thought was wrong was right and I still cant do a damn toe graft correctly? Some day I'll figure that out, Tracie's hoping that someday is before I get to the toes on her Christmas socks.... we'll see.

Speaking of Tracie's Christmas socks, here is what I decided. She knows about them, so this isnt a suprise, and I can talk about them! I decided to knit like I had been doing because it looks just fine, until I get to the heel flap (the previous area of contention) and knit the right way so the stockinette comes out right. So far, so good - I'm about 4 rows into my heel flap and it looks like it's supposed to. Imgine that.... fix the stitch and it looks nicer! Magic. So I will go now, watch the rest of a not-so-great football game, and work on the sock. I'll post a pic tomorrow. If I forget, remind me.

Happy Sunday y'all.