Thursday, October 08, 2009

Wally Wart

Wally Wart came into my life a few years ago when I was on a mindless swing through K-Mart of all places. The city where I live in all of their infinite wisdom, plowed up a perfectly lovely farmer's field to build a huge Super K-Mart. Since going to Walmart (total lack of self control on my part) was costing me a fortune I caved and started shopping at K-Mart. I didn't go in there very often but once-in-awhile I would go and wander around and actually find something that I just had to have. This is when Wally Wart came into my life.

He was sitting there will all his little friends when I walked by. They were so quiet I almost missed them. Something caught my eye and there he was with his big green eyes and bumpy skin. I wasn't afraid of him but thought he was a bit ugly. When I got past the bumps and how big he was, he is sort of cute. So I took him home to live in a safe and interesting place..

Wally lives under the lovely ferns in my backyard looking at the back door. He watches for me to come out and visit him. The dogs visit with Wally too. My only regret about bringing Wally home is that I didn't bring some of his friends with me so he would have someone keep him company. So I decided in his honor I would dedicate my newly finished Tadpoles to him.

So here is Wally and his new friend. I sure hope that Wally is happy with his new friend.
is that a smile I see on his face?


In my last post I talked about socks that pool and here is an example. If you look closely you can see the green climbing diagonally up the leg of the sock. Since it's on the back I really don't care. If you check out the heel because it's a more textured pattern, the pooling doesn't make any difference.

Here is a side view of the Tadpoles. The pooling continues up the sides and in the front but it's not so bad there. I like the concept of the socks. The pattern appears on the front. It saves a bunch of yarn and truly isn't the front the only place we really look?

4 comments:

Susan Luni said...

I agree, Wally is smiling. I think he likes your socks. I bought the book, Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn, to try to help me handle yarns that pool. I've read it, and tried to use the suggestions to select a pattern for my latest pair of socks. However, I usually find so many other problems with matching yarn to pattern (gauge, tightness, fit, etc.), that I can't follow the recommendations. There's a section in the new book, The Joy of Sox, about pooling that explains pooling and how to manage it. You might want to look at it if you get a chance to look through that book.

Sharon said...

That's a great sock design, and while I agree with about color pooling, I don't think it's a factor in these - nice job!

vlb5757 said...

Luni-thanks for the name of the book. I have a medium (size 8)foot and it's usually easy for me to fit most sock patterns without having to do a lot of adjusting. I messed with the Jaywalkers and messed them up but good but did learn things from that experience. I can't have too many sock books so that I get better and better. I want to be able to knit socks for myself and friends who don't knit. Practice makes perfect and a WHOLE bunch of socks!

Sharon-thankfully the pooling wasn't too awful with these socks. I did some Christmas socks for my MIL last year that I looked at four different patterns to keep it from pooling. It was tough. This current pair I have on the needles is a soild color. The next pair will be a self striping, I think...

Anonymous said...

I quite like how your socks came out! Pooling can be such a drag (when you don't want it), however it really looks good on your sock!
Wally is adorable! I can see why you had to take him home.