Socks and Latkes

I took a little break from soaker knitting and the horror that is stripes to knit up a quick baby sock. I tried out the figure eight cast-on and it worked beautifully this time around. I cast-on on my size 1's, knit for a round than transfered to my size 2's. For the first increase, I used a knit-front-and-back rather than my normal make-one increase because I thought it would work better. I do like the ease of doing a figure-eight cast-on, none of the mess of doing a provisional and then having to pick up and decrease for a few rounds to close the holes at the edges. I don't like the little bump created at both ends of the cast-on. I have to double check the directions to make sure I'm doing it correctly or if that is just a trade off.

Aside from the cast-on, my stellar moment came after the short-row heel -- no holes!!! I dread doing a short-row heel because I always end up with a gaping hole on one side no matter how hard I try, but I really like the way a short-row heel looks on the finished product. I finally figured out the right way to pick up and drecrease so I can close the hole up neatly on both sides. There would be pictures but the batteries only lasted long enough to take the pictures, not transfer them to the computer. Once I do a bit more work on them, I'll be posting the pattern on Knitty Keen as a free download.

It was a yucky, cold, rainy day today so I decided it was worth sacrificing my knuckles (and they were sacrificed) to make latkes. John picked up some potatoes, sour cream, and I must say sub-par apple butter (why, oh why do you have to put not only corn syrup, but high fructose corn syrup as well, in apple butter?) on his way home from work tonight. Thankfully, they were probably the best ones I have ever made. I think I could have achieved perfection if I took the extra step to grate an onion in it as well. It was really cute watching Michael march around the livingroom chanting, "Latkes!" while I was making them.