5 Needles and 3 Guns

I've been working on the second Joseph's Coat Sock. The cuff is done and the leg is just about finished with less than ten rounds left. So it's rollin' along. And it looks pretty much like the cuff and leg on the first sock.

I need to be thinking about my next project. I'll stop for a bit on this sock after Saturday and finish my SIL's Poem's Socks. She and my BIL are coming in to celebrate her birthday. I'll have her try on the socks and hopefully I'll just have to do the toe decreases. I wouldn't mind if I have to knit a bit more on the foot or frog back some. I just hope I don't have frog them.

I'm thinking about casting on for another pair for Mr WK. The last two pair I knit for him I finished in just under a month. That way he'll start the colder part of the year with several pairs of warm hand knit wool socks. I bought extra yarn last December and January when I got the yarn for other socks so it'll be just a matter of which color and a pattern.


This past Sunday Mr WK shot his first 3-gun match. Everyone had a blast, literally [see video below]. He will be shooting a 3-gun again. There were five stages and 14 shooters. I didn't shoot well ... any guns, anyway. I wielded the camera. It was hot and sweaty and I think everyone fumbled at least 1 shotgun shell while reloading under pressure. It was all birdshot on this match. The first stage was the only stage that had all 3 guns in play. The second stage was carbine only. The third stage was shotgun only. The fourth stage was pistol and shotgun and the final stage was long distance carbine.

That was a lot of shotgunin'. Minimum shotgun rounds for the match was only 44. But Mr WK shot 77 rounds and that's probably about average. I'm going to be trying a lot of different gauges and shotguns in the coming months to see if this is something I want to do. We will get into reloading shotgun ammo simply to cut down on the recoil.

blogging to a quiet house

reading: A Final Judgement by Michael A Black (a Ron Shade mystery)
and
How to Talk Like a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter ~ audio book read by Elizabeth White with the 1st chapter read by Ann Coulter.

Parting Shot:

No Longer Melted

The first sock Joseph's Coat Sock is finished. I did a round toe instead of grafting the toe closed. That means that instead of decreasing down to 12 stitches on two needles I'll decrease right down to a total of four to six stitches, string the bitter end of the yarn through them twice and pull it all up tight. And I even wove in all the ends.

Somehow things seem more relaxed with these cotton socks. Could be because the yarn has no body. Still not loving the pattern the colors have taken but I decided way back before I stared the heel that I didn't feel like froggin' back to the cuff. This yarn sat in my stash for 5+ years for a reason, people. And truly I have no idea why I ever bought it. I never have liked the colors. Go figure. But as I said it'll be a good fall, winter cotton sock.

I've cast on for the second one and the cuff is half finished with twenty rounds done.

Next weekend SIL & BIL are coming in for SIL's birthday. She'll try on her Poem's Socks and I hope to have the toes finished by the end of the month when we meet up again for BIL's birthday.


The heat wave has broken. We've had cooler weather and rain off and on for several days now. It's been wonderful! One morning it was so cool — in the high 60's — we had the air conditioner off and all the windows open for several hours. I've even mowed the lawn.

Even with the almost constant watering, all the trees and bushes were heat stressed — particularly our River Birch clump in the backyard. It's lost a lot of leaves but is still hanging on.The huge multiple elm tree in the backyard to the south of us has died; most likely from the same bug that killed ours several years ago. I'm just surprised it took so long. There is one elm over there left and I wonder how long before it dies. The folks next door are the kind that don't do anything outside so I figure they'll just let the tree fall. I don't think it'll hit our house if it goes down in a winter or more likely a spring storm next spring but it could. If they haven't done anything by the end of the year, I'll brace 'em on when I see them out with their dogs.

The folks in the rental house to the north didn't do anything when their elm died a few years ago. Luckily it was in the back corner of the yarn and only took out part of the neighbors wood fence. It laid in the backyard for several days before some one came and cut it up. They left the three-foot high stump. The renters wanted to keep the wood and burn it in the fireplace but when they moved out it was still up along the fence line. The logs have been there ever since and now they're covered with weeds and brush.We're probably the only ones that know they're there.


I shot an IDPA match a week or so ago. It was just as the heat wave was breaking and we were starting to get some rain occasionally. It was still hot (in the low 90's) and humid but not quite as bad. It was fun. We had six stages and only seven shooters. We have two more of these Thursday night matches left before it moves to one Sunday morning a month in October. Come mid-spring I hope we can either move the matches back to Thursday nights or add these weekday nights to the schedule.

We also spent last Saturday at the outdoor range in Topeka with fans! I intended to get some pistol practice in but spent quite a bit of time with my .308 shooting at the 100, 200 and 300 yard ranges.

Mr WK is going to shoot a 3-gun in the near future and he was working the red-dot on his carbine at the 200 yard range. We figure he'll shoot this one and he'll see if he likes it enough to get an inexpensive rifle scope for his carbine. The other issue is the shotgun. We have a semi-auto Beretta and found out that it may be able to shoot 7/8 oz loads. One of our gunnie buds has a similar model and loads his own. We aren't going to be able to meet up before the 3-gun and try out his gun and loads so we'll punt for this match. But we may get into shot-shell reloading. From some other friends that reload for shotguns, we found that it probably won't save us much as component prices, especially the lead shot are high right now but we're more interested in a lower recoil load. We may be able to get the recoil down low enough that *I* might consider 3-gun.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: The Romantics by Peter Brandvold (a western)
and
How to Talk Like a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter ~ audio book read by Elizabeth White with the 1st chapter read by Ann Coulter

Parting Shot: "We have to trust the free-market system. This isn't Little League where everyone gets a trophy, [but] if we do not start trusting our entrepreneurial spirit, we will find ourselves a diminished nation." ~ Congressman Allen West

Quote Source

Blurry or Just Melted

I figured the stockinette leg on the Joseph's Coat Sock would really drag because:

• It's cotton
• It's hot
• I'm not that in love with the colors now that I see 'em knit but they're ok
  
• 2mm bamboo dpns
• lately not that much time to knit
• It's hot
  

But, apparently not. The leg is done. Of course, it helps that the leg is only 51 rounds. Coupled with the 40 round cuff I have 91 rounds on the before-the-heel section of the sock. Why 51 rounds? I intended to start the heel flap on round 51 but forgot to slip the first stitch so instead of tinking back 35 stitches (where I wondered and then checked) I just knit all the way around and started the heel flap on round 52.

The heel flap is also done as is the heel turn. I've even picked up the gusset stitches which is not shown in this photo which was fairly easy with this yarn.

I'm not disliking how the colors on the leg ended up but I don't love it either. It looks blurry with how the colors merge into each other. Since it's so hot I guess you could say they melted ... like crayons. It is a nice soft cotton sock and it'll be great for summer or winter wear. I am kinda glad since it's been so hot (heat indices near or over 100) for almost a month now that it's not wool.


Speaking of the weather, for a while yesterday we had wind chill. Note the right now temp and the feels like temp. And no, we didn't get ANY of that forecast rain. Not a single micro drop.

blogging to: a cool and quiet house

reading: The Devil Riding by Valerie Wilson Wesley (a Tamara Hayle mystery)
and
How to Talk Like a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter ~ audio book read by Elizabeth White with the 1st chapter read by Ann Coulter

Parting Shot:

H/T