Happy Socktober to all. I am making the Log Cabin Socks from Handknit Holidays, and I thought I would share the process with you in case you were at all nervous about making socks for Socktoberfest.

This pattern is a normal sock pattern.

That means that you start by knitting a tube. Some people hesitate to use double pointed needles, but after a few rows, they quit poking around and start behaving themselves. Just persevere.

This sock has nice complicated cables and a short leg -- which means a short tube -- but you can make simple ribbing and have it be as long as you want. A tube the size of your ankle is the main thing.

Having gotten the tube as long as the pattern says or as long as you want, you must then work back and forth on half the stitches for the heel.

The Log Cabin Socks have 48 stitches in the tube. So the heel is on 24 stitches. That means you severely ignore 24 of the stitches (there they are on the lower two dpns, being severely ignored) and knit back and forth on 24 stitches. The fourth needles is sitting in the yarn right now, but it will be used to knit back and forth as soon as I get back to knitting.

I usually cast on 60 stitches for a sock, because I use a smaller gauge, so I usually work the heel on 30 stitches. You might choose a pattern with 84 stitches or 56, depending on the size of the sock and the yarn  -- it doesn't matter. A normal sock pattern will always do the heel on half the stitches. This is because of the way the human foot is shaped, and nothing is improved by trying to change that.

I usually do a knit 1, slip 1 pattern, this being a traditional sock heel stitch, but this one is k2p2 ribbing. Doesn't matter. You knit back and forth until you have a square. I'll show you what happens next tomorrow.

    Socktober has arrived!

Good thing, too, as the temperature is going back up into the 90s. I made some progress on Pipes while it was a little cooler, with signs that fall would soon arrive, but now it is once again too hot, so Pipes must go back into estivation with Erin.

I went in search of sock yarn yesterday morning, but was not successful. I do not want self-patterning yarn, as I am just not a fan of variegated yarn. But I intend to start with a pair of Log Cabin socks from Handmade Holidays anyway, and they require 5 or 6 stitches to the inch, depending on the size. So I will be using up some Wool-Ease I have on hand. Kali Mama commented over at Formerprincess's place (I was eavesdropping shamelessly) that smaller gauge socks are more comfortable, but a nice thick wool sock can be very pleasant on a cold day.

I also did not find a vise. Not of the kind I wanted, at least. I returned from my shopping trip and brought a picture of what I wanted up on the internet to show my husband. Had he ever seen such a thing, I asked him.

He pointed out with gentle reasonableness that there was no great hurry with my project, that I had already checked the stores that would be likely to sell such a thing, that it would cost more to make one than to buy it, and that I could just order it from the site I was showing him. I am, therefore, doing that, and waiting for it to arrive before continuing with my soldering adventures.

 So I did the laundry -- here is what purple paint looks like in the laundry room -- and sundry household tasks, hung out with the family a bit, and got back to my needlework.

I got some more stuff done on my jacket. The seams are all now finished, but it needs pressing, and the sleeves are not hemmed, and the whole issue of the buttonholes looms.

In fact, you may wonder why I even am showing you a picture of this, since all the changes since the last picture are on the inside.

It is because I realized that this is the sixth garment for the SWAP. The SWAP consists of 11 garments, so this half-finished jacket means that I have half-finished the SWAP.

The jacket was distinctly not completed in the month of September as I had planned. And while the remaining pressing and hemming are no big deal, the buttonhole question could take me the rest of the year. I will have to learn to make buttonholes, and practice, and gather courage to try it. Or find someone to do them for me, and who knows what that might cost?

This half a SWAP took me only slightly longer than the serious SWAP-meisters take to do their entire SWAP.

Of course, I have sewn other things in that time, including pieces for #2 daughter's SWAP. And I had no TNT (tried and true) patterns. And now I can actually set in a sleeve. That all by itself ought to take a month off the total sewing time.

So there I was, thinking these thoughts and thinking that I could actually do a SWAP in the challenge time next year. I had to shake my head and return to reality. Just the amount of dithering I do when sewing takes a lot of time.

I am still attempting to read The Little Friend, my first creepy book for the RIP challenge, but mostly I am reading and enjoying Caroline Graham's Faithful Unto Death. There is a little creepiness there, or at least suspense, but really it is a classic detective novel.

However, I am well supplied with creepy books, thanks to frugalreader. My nightstand stack of unread books is growing, and full of gothicism.

I'm ready for fall.