A long one

Sorry about the shortness of that last post ... I was either on my way to bed, or on my way to work. (Funny how I could have confused those.) (You only need to watch the first minute or so, btw.)

Here is the sock that I have been working on (Note the googly eyes in the background! Yes!):

I worked the heel turn, but it was ghastly so I ripped it out and will start again eventually. That little white dangly bit is my lifeline, and I'm soo glad I put it in. The instructions for a short row heel in More Sensational Knitted socks appear to be exactly the same as they are in Sensational Knitted Socks, but they ended up being very different and very confusing. I was going back and forth between the two books trying to figure it out, and it didn't do me any good.

The Fourth of July was spent at a barbeque, drinking and knitting and getting parts of my body ready for the skin cancer I will surely get in 10 years. I had purchased a large quantity of burgandy KnitPicks Essentials sock yarn (ok, 4 skeins) (thanks to Amber for calling it to my attention!) and when I reached the heel turn of the first sock, it became apparent that I would not be using all 4 skeins on one pair of socks. So, I decided to make a little case for my new cell phone. Once, long ago, right after I moved to Fargo and before I got a job, I attempted to make a quilt, but then something happened to my sewing machine and I wasn't able to finish (Yes, it was entirely my fault. Let's be honest, I happened to my sewing machine.). I optimistically saved the fabric; as it turned out, one of the blocks has leaves that match the sock yarn perfectly, so that will be the lining. My hope is to make it reversible, but that might prove to be a little beyond me. (Don't worry, I'll try it and make sure to document the ensuing disaster.) I'm using two cable patterns from Vogue Stitchionary 2: No. 58, River Run for the main part of the case, and No.91, Garlic Braid for the sides and bottom. Here's (mostly) what I have so far, along with the lining:

I don't know if you can tell or not, but there is something very wrong with my cables and I'm not sure what. I started out using the "cabling without a cable needle" technique, but then I noticed that there was a strand of yarn in one particular row that stood out. I switched to using a regular cable needle, but it still happened. I'm reasonably certain that it happens when I do the "4-st RC," but I cannot figure out why or what I'm doing wrong. It's something to do with how I'm carrying over the yarn between pattern repeats. I think. At one point, I thought that it was just the River Run pattern, but it's happening again on the Garlic Braid, so I can only assume that it's Me. Maybe it will be taken care of when I block it? Does anybody know what I'm doing?!?!?

Anyway.

As promised, here is a picture of my lovely banana rum puffs:

They were very good, even though you couldn't taste the rum at all. I felt the banana bread was a little overwhelmed by the chocolate chips, so I made this recipe with the bananas that were left over. The next time you make banana bread, this is the recipe to try, trust me. I try to use whole wheat flour in my baking anyway, especially when I make the infamous Wookie Cookies, so it was neat to try a recipe that actually called for it. The honey also added an interesting flavor. Unfortunately, the bread was devoured before I could take a picture of it, but it was much prettier than my last attempt.