An illustrated tale of enduring love...

nce upon a time, there were two very happy pomatomi. They'd slip themselves on some feet and take long walks together, skate across the vinyl, stitch in stitch, and were living very full and happy lives together.

Until one sad day, when one of the pomatomus suddenly vanished! The remaining pomatomus didn't know why or how and was heart broken.

Search parties were sent out, tearing apart dresser drawers, cleaning desks, peering under beds, they even considered dragging the bathtub - but there wasn't any water in it. There was no sign of the mate to the remaining pomatomus, and this made it a very very sad sock...

Why would it's soft merino mate suddenly leave like this? Was it mad? Was there an accident? It had been missing for almost two months, and the nights were turning cold and the lonely pomatomus was very worried...

Finally a full and complete profile was made, and some new evidence turned up - where was this pomatomus seen last? What motive might it have had to disappear? What are the dangers of the environment?

It had last been seen in the hands of it's creator, acting as a model. Nothing had been seen or heard from it since!

Steps were carefully traced back, items were shuffled, moved and lifted, messes were cleaned and made every dark corner was carefully probed, when at last!! At last! - there was great celebration among the yarn... The pomatomus had been found! Though in a very sad and weak little heap, it was behind a bin of outdoor games on the screen porch. It had stayed there without nourishment for a good month at least with only a toy spoon, a magnifying glass, and an unused straw to keep it company.

The pomatomus had been shown off and then cast aside, left to his own devises, it's creator becoming distracted with other things. The pomatomus was left to find it's own way home, and it fell into trouble.

The Pomatomi have now been reunited, and they are once again very happy socks...

In "Socks That Rock" Fire On The Mountain

Yesterday I wore wool socks when it was 80F out. WHY did I wear wool socks when it was 80F out? Well I'll tell ya - it's because, I FINISHED MY POMATOMUS SOCKS!! *huge grin*

Really I finished them several days ago but it's been too warm to wear them (ok so some might like to point out that even 80 degrees is too warm to wear wool socks... but it was the best I could do), and I couldn't take not trying them out any longer - they are the first pair I've made for myself after all! Here are the socks kickin' back and relaxing after a hard days knitting. Just be careful where you set your foot with those things in a sock...

wot? wot? What's this my good man??? A blotch!! or whatever word you'd rather use for it - blob, pool, clump, glob, heap-of-pink-on-an-ankle. Meh. I kept saying as one more row of pink was slapped on top of an already growing pink-monster "It'll be ok... it'll suddenly brake next round like it did on my other sock..." well, it DID brake 2 rows before the heel flap! *glare*

But to every wrong there is a right... the other side is very pretty. I like how the purples and yellows mix together, and that's such a nice shade of green (imho anyway) that I don't mind a blob

After seeing this side of the sock I really realized why it was named 'fire on the mountain'. The greens, browns, purples, and blues of a mountain mingled with the yellows, reds, and orange/pinks of fire.
'Course I've seen a real fire on a mountain and it isn't this pretty... well, it has the POTENTIAL to be pretty... but not when it's a mile-and-a-half away from your house and only partially contained. This picture was taken from the end of our driveway during a rather smoky September a few years ago...

Ok, I can't make a pomatomus sock without talking about the lace pattern - this pattern is awesome. Need I say more? (ok maybe I don't need to but I will anyway) It's lace... but it's not... ok that doesn't make any sense. It's not frilly lace or 'pretty' lace, it's 'cool' lace! It's also incredibly fun to work - This and the other pair of pomatomus socks I made back in January are the ONLY complete pairs of full size socks I've ever made! I have a pair of double knit socks that are on their way to being done, but they were started in November of last year. And I have a couple other 'singles' lying around waiting for their mate. But I'm just never motivated to work on them. So what is it about this pattern??

Oh yeah, and it makes funny indentations on my foot than hand around for several minutes after removing the socks, so I have Pomatomus FEET.

And finally! The finished pomatomus socks!!! - TADA!

Thanks goes out to Cookie - The author of this pattern!

Once there was a confused little skein of socks that rock. He was Fire On The Mountain by Blue Moon Fiber Arts. A colorful personality and a bit of a soft touch. Early on he was influenced heavily by someone who helped to shape him from a mere skein, to a well rounded cake.

He continued on in his life thinking that he'd like to be something cabled and in the short row division. He worked hard, started small...

Eventually he had worked his way up and was nearly established as a pair of cabled socks with short row heels.

But he realized things just didn't fit. At that point He deteriorated into a sloppy, mushy lump. His life a tangles mess...

The same influential person came back and helped him to a fresh start, tried to get him interested in some new things, maybe something entrelac and toe-up this time:

Again, it just didn't work out. But because he didn't get very far, he could still pull himself back together. Though his past life, his brush with cables and all, had left him broken - he knew he had a purpose, when one day, with a little prompting, he found that purpose...

He found his purpose in striving to be a pair of Pomatomus Socks. He's very happy in his knew role, and reviewing his past life is surprised to see how different he's become...

Same number of stitches around, only changing up one needle size (from US size 1 to a US size 2) and the colors all display completely different...

That is the continuing story of a skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks That Rock in Fire On The Mountain, that has had a long journey to finding his place in the world...

A few days ago happened to be a day for surprises...
First off I was notified that this had had been recieved by well, the recipient... It happens to be the pomatomus socks that I painstakingly slaved over for hours and hours in time to be completed right before a coming birthday just to sit for two weeks waiting to go to the post office... How do you like the bounty paper towel wrapping trimmed with the giant scrap-yarn pom-pom? Yeah I thought so too. OK so maybe recieving a birthday present isn't much of a surprise... but I'm sure she was a surprised that it show up in the mail almost 3 weeks late! (Well, no she probably wasn't suprised about that either... she knows me too well.) The pomatomus socks seem to have been appreciated though =D and I quote from an e-mail "Those socks are absolutely amazing. they came yesterday. Mom and I just sort of stood there and looked at them and tried to figure it out." I think that was figuring it out in a good way . Pretty sure it wasn't like "Dude... um... socks... for my birthday... uh... thanks..." sort of figuring it out... ;-)

The card that went along with it had this on the front.
I thought it suited her. I wish I'd taken a picture of the whole finished card... ah well, the rest of it was ok but didn't really turn out that fabulous.

Oh yeah, for the record, no, the birthday girl does NOT dress like that, OR have hair that even remotely resembles this image... It's was a joke.

The other surprise was finding this:
I was digging blindly in my knitting bag for my measuring tape, and I came up with this little teeny police helicopter. Apprently all crew survived, I didn't find any teeny bodies or dismembered... members...? to speak of. Presumably the crash was caused my the loss of a propeller, a necessary component for a helicopter, or atleast, one that plans on flying anywhere. I guess if I were flying along minding my own business when my propeller fell off I would like to be over a knitting bag. Permiting I didn't impale my chopper or myself on one of those knitting needles in the process.

At some point after the crash the helicopter sunk down to the depths of my knitting bag among a tangled mass of yarn. The specific date of the crash has not yet, or may ever be, determined. Names of the pilots and crew aboard at the time of the crash have not been released.

I give you...

...*drum roll*...

...THE POMATOMUS(ES)!!!

and a close up of the spiffy scallop pattern:

I think I should have had harsher lighting at a side angle to get a better picture of the pattern, but alas, I did not.

I was happily knitting along, and decided that this yarn, though it's varigated, didn't seem to hold to a pattern, so for the next sock I decided to not worry about it and just start wherever... either I was wrong... or the yarn changed (I like to blame the yarn, cause I'm never wrong, and if I were here, it would brake my spotless record)

Notice that zig that's zagging over there on the left sock?? *glare*

and it gets worse...

I know I've seen that Z somewhere... in a logo or something, but I can't place where...

Anybody else recognize this Z?! There's some sort of subliminal message going on there... *suspicious*

Mere coincidence you say? I think not!!

I went to post pomatomus pics, and as I was about one paragraph from finishing the post... my browser crashed...

*dark glare*

it's done!!!!!!

yup yup, I finished my pomatomus socks, hopefully I can get picks tomorrow. I'm working on cabled tipless gloves now for meeee out of some gloriously soft merino/baby alpace yarn. mmmmmmm. *cloud9*

They've got a briaded cable up the back of the hand, and thefingers, including the thumb are, well... tipless, it's pretty much fingerless gloves, but that term is used for so many different styles, and the pattern is called tipless, that 'tipless' is really more fitting me these.

Pictures of the pomatomuses (pomatomeese? pomatomice?), and my newest project are coming soon!

My second sock is so close to being done I can almost taste it!

...except I won't, because then I'd get wool fuzz in my mouth, and that would be gross...

...but I'm going to bed early. That's right - no posts today.

Oh! I did finish the heel and I've gotten halfway through the gusset on my second pomatomus sock!

But besides that.. nothing new to report... sorry.

I have just now - as in 30 seconds ago - finished the second cuff for my pomatomus socks!

on to the heel!!

no not my socks, or my life, my rootbeer 'circus stick' is literally a sticky mess! Stop taking things so metephorically! man, some people...

In other news...
I got pics of the first of my pomatomus(that's so much fun to type... pomatomus, pomatomus, pomatomus...) socks:

see?!

a single pomatomus...pomatomu?...pomatomi?...whatever...

Wellll... the first of the pomatomus socks are done! I guess I ought to post a picture huh? That'll need to come tomorrow though.

Something really weird happened, when I did the grafting on the toe, it came out with the purl stitch up, then I picked up dad's double knit sock, and grafted that toe, and it come with the knit stitch... what in the world happened on the first toe?! wwweiiiird...

That I haven't posted a picture of my pomatomus sock progress in like TWO WHOLE DAYS *gasp*

The first try on of the sock!! :

Yes my second toe really is longer than my 'big' toe, that's not some weird optical illision, it's actually just a weird foot.

I've finished the heel and the gusset. Now I need to do the rest of the foot and the toe. *excited*

I've just completed the 75th and last row of the first cuff for my pomatomus socks! So far the lace pattern looks FINE despite the lefthanded knitting. Let's see how the next part goes where just the top of the sock is knitted off the chart and the rest is in the pattern... *crossing my fingers*

yay! For the moment atleast, it appears that my sock is going well! I can see the pattern taking shape, and it's going faster than expected

*excited*

and then I ripped it out and started it again...

I realized when I started using the chart, that since I'm knitting it left handed, and the chart would need to be read backwards that means that my ribbing needed to start backwards too to get it to line up ok...

It's the Pomatomus sock pattern from knitty.com
I hope the whole stinkin' pattern works out ok left handed... we'll see. If it doesn't I'll know not to try more lacework till I figure it out, and for a sock this cool? I would be willing to try it on a chance anyway.

All the while my cardigan looks on...

It sits where I (literally) threw it aside in anger. It's been told to sit in that corner and not come out till it'll be nice. The sleeves will NOT set in, seems they're too small. The knitting books, that tried so very hard to help, are now guarding the offending cardigan from my wrath, begging me not to take a shiny little pair of snippy scissors to it.

I may need to take another knitters advice, frog the tops of the sleeves, and re-knit them to make them fit. *sigh*