Wait, Was That September??

September is flying by like a 747 on its way to somewhere important.

Tomorrow is our 47th wedding anniversary.  It's hard to believe that we've been married that long, except when I think about our son just turning 46!  LOL!!

There are some days that remain crystal-clear in your mind, no matter how fuzzy the short term memory may be.  I remember getting dressed at home, sending my bridesmaids and my mom to get their hair done but doing my own at home.  I remember trying to shove 30 yards of satin peau into the car so my dad could drive me to church.  These days brides got smarter and dress at church, which would have saved some of the buttons on my train, which were torn off in the struggle!

This picture is hanging on the wall in the stairway to our second floor.  I look at it daily and probably don't even see it anymore.  (I'm no longer that thin, nor is DH although he is closer!)

I haven't had much time to sew this month.  I did cut up a couple of kits for myself when I have time to sit down again.  I finished and sent my Escher quilt off to the quilter, and cut a second one, to be done in black, white and red.  Someday.  Hopefully to be done by Christmas, at least PIECED by then, as a gift.  Fingers crossed.

Is this amazing or what?  The sewing is easy but the layout requires planning... if you want to make your own, go to quiltagious-dot-com and place an on line order, or stop in at the shop.  I usually work on Tuesdays and Fridays.  **Disclaimer:  I make no commission on any sales of anything you buy there.

Most of my sitting time has been spent knitting socks.  I blogged before about taking a four part sock toolbox class at my local yarn store, Cream City Yarn in Brookfield WI.  (*Disclaimer:  No, I don't work there.  I cannot afford to work there and be near that much yarn!  I get into enough trouble at the quilt shop!)

In no particular order, I'm knitting or have knitted pink socks, blue socks, navy and red socks and red and green socks.  

Navy on the left, blue on the right.  This was 

prior to doing the Kitchener stitch to close

the toe of each.

 I've been knitting top down one at a time on double pointed needles, which is how I've always knit socks.  I did try two at a time on the magic loop, but I get 'ladders' where the needles separate, so I gave up after one try.  It's not the method, it's the knitter.  I may try again since the info I got at the toolbox class has been so helpful.  Anyway, I think knitting a couple of different socks at a time is one antidote to my fear and loathing of boredom and the Second Sock Syndrome!

Maybe.

So far I've knitted TWO pink socks, two blue socks and one and 7/8  of the navy/red sock.

Pink sock #2 in progress...

See?  A pair!!

Kind of fuzzy... two blue socks using the 

free pattern Hermoine's Everyday Socks

from ravelry.com.

 I started the next pair, using a self striping red and green yarn in the very imaginative Color Number 12.

With any luck I might finish these up before Christmas too.

Yesterday I took time out from cleaning and fixing up in the rental portion of our townhouse to watch my middle granddaughter play in a volleyball league.  I know little or nothing about the game, although I did get some small amount of education from sitting next to her mom on the bleachers!  All I know is the ball goes back and forth over the net with some bouncing around in between, and her team won both games that I saw.

Miss K ready to punch the ball over the net!

The coach is the aforementioned birthday boy... his first crack at volleyball too. (Note to Paul Ryan, call if you need pointers!) Watching him during the two games was fun and I'm glad I had the chance to do it.  He was so patient and supportive of the girls even when they made mistakes, and they all seemed to be having fun.  Of course winning helped, and they are just the junior league but I had the same feelings as when I watched him play baseball in his adolescence.  Good job, girls AND coach!

Today I'm going to be packing up some non-essentials from my sewing studio, and putting together a big box (or boxes) of fabrics from my garment-sewing days to donate to the Martin Luther 'Rummage Sale' resale store.  They do a good job of supporting Christian education at Martin Luther High and two other parochial schools in our area, and I am glad to lessen the number of bins I will be paying someone to move when we sell this home and buy a condo.

You can read about the ML Rummage Sale new location here:  ML Rummage Moves

Somehow it hurts less to lose some pieces over others, but knowing it isn't going to a landfill and will support learning makes it OK.  Oh, and if I really, really want to keep something, I'm keeping it!  I can donate it later if I want to, right?

We haven't found a new place yet anyway, so there's no rush yet.

Better go start the laundry.  That's the thing about housework, it's always there!

Sew on...

Saturday and It's Raining, Again

Today being Saturday, I am normally at work at the quilt shop.  For the last two weeks I've been off, working alternate weekdays instead.  After DD's Friday wedding last week, I had a house full of company and that was fun.  The oldest of my brothers came from Minnesota with his wife, and we had a nice leisurely visit that lasted all day.

Today is the beginning of Labor Day weekend, and also of a local attraction, St. Martins Fair.  St. Martins is a road that runs through a small section of the community, and all summer there is a fair with lots of vendors, music, produce stands... you can buy almost anything from tee shirts to tomatoes to goats!  I thought I would get up early this morning and score some home grown tomatoes, but since it was raining, my head decided a nice sleep-in was in order.

Many areas are getting much more rain than we have, but still I'm feeling a little 'under the weather' as they say.  What is it about rain that makes us sluggish and slightly gloomy?  What does it mean to be under the weather?  Is it a good day to read a book instead?

Muskego, WI

Saturday 12:00 PM

Cloudy

7021

°F°F | °C°C

Precipitation: 100%

Humidity: 96%

Wind: 7 mph

For the next seven days, the only day with no rain in the forecast is Tuesday!  By Thursday we all may have webbed feet.  I shouldn't complain, at least there is no flooding in my immediate area, unlike several cities/towns in the surrounding counties.  

This picture has been all over the internet, flooding in the Madison area and people who drive through the puddles having NO IDEA that soon they will float away!  The newscasters keep repeating the mantra "turn around, don't drown", but it continues.  How did they even see where to go?

Some people do like rain though.   I love this little umbrella girl... do they make that in adult sizes?  LOL!

Random thoughts for the weekend:

• When you're retired and your first day to do anything is Tuesday, any weekend seems to be a long weekend.  And Labor Day?  HAHA!  Oh well, it does indicate the end of summer in Wisconsin.  
• It seems that the weather forecasters are using more technology lately, but are they any more accurate?  And do we mind less than we used to when they're not?
• Blogs with ads that block your view of content are annoying.  I've stopped reading a few of my old favorites because they're that full of advertising.
• Pepsi or Coke, does it really matter?
• Now that I'm cleaning my sewing room to prep for potential home buyers I'm itching to get started on a dozen new sewing projects!

Until next time!  Sew on... or not.  ;-)

Another Friday Post, Post-Wedding!

This week I've been in 'recovery mode' from last week's exciting doings.  DD was married last Friday evening, and they threw a very nice party!  I was up later than I've been in a long time at least while upright and conversational.  I had a house full of company for Saturday.  It was lovely to visit with everyone and except for the DJ/music being so loud and not at all what I enjoy it was lovely.

The hall was beautifully decorated, the food was delicious, the grounds were so pretty that even with the rain we were able to find nice places for the thousand or so photos taken by our lovely friend Tina the professional photographer.  DH was in a lot of them, and after a while he started to crab a little whenever he saw the camera, but she usually managed to jolly him out of it.

Subsequently I did not take a lot of pictures... I was busy chatting with friends and family.  I finally got to meet the lady who lives across the street, after 11 years!!  It's funny, while I worked full time I saw her to wave at, and I met her husband and brother who made fast friends with my husband, and once I think I saw her in a yarn shop, but we never officially met.  She is very sweet and promised to keep in touch, especially about the knitting!

Today a real estate broker is coming to discuss selling the townhouse and buying a condo.  I've been cleaning and organizing for a while.  I surely wish we had started this in spring, but it is what it is I guess.  I have always been pretty well organized but organization for moving is so much more involved... keep/donate/toss decisions being the most important.  I fill bags for donation often, but evidently not often enough!

In July I pared down the yarn stash a bit with a big box of colorful one-off and partial skeins that went to the preschool.  Not that it made a SERIOUS dent in the stash... and I have organized three big bags of things that belong to or are going to the church quilt guild, that can leave my house for now.  Again, impact negligible.

Four BIG bins are filled with the dregs of various projects, which I always thought might be useful for doll clothes.  Turns out I never made as many doll clothes as I thought I would, even though I have a tub full of finished items.  I am keeping one bin of fabric and tossing the other three.

So sorry for the lack of photos in this post, I'm going to try to make up for it later... we will see how today goes!

Under finished projects, I count one PAIR of socks knitted!  They are very imperceptibly different but close enough to call.  I started the second of the bright pink socks yesterday, and so far the second sock matches the first as far as I have knitted, so there is hope that I've managed my Second Sock Syndrome.

Also this week I received a call from my former boss's assistant.  The woman who succeeded me was in a very bad car accident last weekend and is on short term disability with a bad back injury and an even worse concussion.  They want me to come back temporarily to run the Wastewater convention activities in October.  I'm trying to help them find some alternatives for that... they have many talented folks still working for them and I have no burning desire to go back even part time!  But I will help if I can, and of course prayers are being offered for Miss T's speedy recovery.

Until next time...

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Here comes the bride!

This morning I'm having a cup of tea and a muffin, in the calm before the flurry of activity that is a family wedding.  Yes, today is DD's second (and hopefully final) wedding day.

Last night at the rehearsal we were sitting around trying not to get too many mosquito bites in Future Son-In-Law's back yard and I was thinking about when she was a little girl.  My memory of when I was small was that we girlfriends would imagine what our weddings would be like, but in actuality we did a lot of what our families expected instead of what we really wanted.

FSIL's father is a minister, and he's performing the ceremony.  He said exactly the right thing, that the wedding is about the two of them, and the rest of us are just honored but invited guests.  She's getting just what she wanted, as is he.

DH is a bit annoyed that he's being asked to 'give her away'.  Again.  He made a joke about how she keeps coming back -- ha ha!  Not!  I hope they DO keep coming back, but together (or separately) just to visit...  ;-)

I will miss living so close to the grands.  Miss A was over five days a week.  Since I retired I made a lot of sandwiches and salads for her lunches, and did a fair amount of her laundry.  I brushed her hair and did braids and pony tails many times.

I guess I could get a couple of dolls and do their hair!

Things change all the time.  There is no past or future, there is just now.  The moment is gone as soon as you live it.  I'll try to remember that, and live them well.

Whatever the Lord has for me to do next will be wonderful, and I am open to it!




Meanwhile, it's Friday!  That's cause for celebration in any week.  In a few short hours out of town family will arrive.  The girls will be here for a light lunch after having their hair done.  Things will get rolling.

I asked that the photographer use her best lens to make me look thin.  Wish me luck with that!

The Actuality of Moving

Oh. My. Gosh.  When I started actually LOOKING at my house to see what a buyer would see, I see clutter.  Clutter.  More clutter.

It is good stuff, don't get me wrong, but there is a lot of it!  Stuff all over.  Organized to MY mind, but probably not to someone else's.  And would my rooms look bigger if there weren't such a pile of stuff in every corner, nook and cranny?

For example, what IS all that stuff on top of the fridge?  I am height-challenged, therefore I never see that, but if the real estate person takes a picture of it?  Bad news!

Not the top of MY fridge, but close!  Mine is not this neat.

Boxes.  I need boxes.  There are many things that can be packed and put in the garage, but I need boxes to do that.  We have been diligently cutting apart and recycling all the boxes we've gotten when we order by mail, and now I wish I had saved a few.

I wish we had had a bit more time to think about this before we decided to move.  Well, we didn't actually decide; our tenant decided to move and that made our decision for us.  Which is fine, but whoa!  The stuff. 

I have a lot of sewing and craft stuff in my basement.  I'm determined to cut kits and return the church group's fabric to them all ready to sew.  That will eliminate some of the stuff.  But not enough, and of course it all depends on what we find to move into! 

I have two or three large bins of fabric scraps suitable for making doll clothes.  My girls are beyond dolls now, and the craft fair business is no longer on my bucket list.  I loved making the clothes but you really need an outlet for that stuff.

I think I may pare down my stock of sewing machines too.  However, I'm not sure how I will go about that.  A rummage sale takes time, and there may not be that much time left.  My real estate guy thinks the house will sell in a weekend.  Well, he is young, optimistic and he hasn't actually been inside!

The rental unit needs to be cleaned and painted.  A few minor repairs are required, as in every house that actually gets lived in.  Some of that can be hired out once the tenants are out.  I guess it's not the end of the world, but we spent lots of happy times here, and it is sad to leave.  We love the neighborhood too, and have good neighbors on the block.  The next owners will be lucky.

All in all, I'd rather be sewing!

Move on...

Moving On, or Just Moving?

Today I am going to call a local real estate agent and list my house for sale.  we have been here for 11 years.  We've been happy here for the most part.  It's the only house Miss A has ever lived in, she was mere weeks old when we all moved in.  But it's time.

DD is getting married and moving them all in with her soon to be new husband.  He has a nice little house that will hold them all, and no desire to sell it and move into our rental unit.  An certainly no desire to buy OUR house and have us as tenants!  LOL!

The idea of living somewhere else is fun, exciting even.  I relish the idea of living in a condo or a house on a smaller lot.  I know DH would appreciate not having so much grass to cut, or so much driveway (two, actually) to shovel.

But moving?  UGH big time!  Have you seen my Resource Room lately??  Or for that matter, the garage/shed/basement/spare room??

Dear oh dear oh dear, how did so much STUFF get into my spaces?

The jobs we need to do to get this house ready for an open house boggle the mind.  The big stuff, like installing new patio doors and painting, can probably be hired out.  But things must be sorted.  Things.  Too many things!  All important at some time or other, or they would not be here.  Or so I'm telling myself.

And having a rummage sale?  Oh no.  There just seems like too much work to that.  How big a deduction can I get for donating to Goodwill instead?  I almost wish I could hire those 'got junk' people you see on TV and ask them to make it all disappear with a wink and a point.

But what if it was something I needed?  I guess I could become a hoarder very easily.

Maybe it's good to move every 11 years...

I hope the real estate market holds out at a boom for just a little bit longer.

Moving on...

August Doings

The month of August is going to be fraught with excitement at our house!  Lots of little things happening like DH's birthday coming up and lots of cleaning up along with a few much needed home repairs, but the big deal is going to be a family wedding.

DD has been divorced for about a year, and of course they were split up for quite a while before that actually happened.  Meanwhile she met someone new and now there is to be a wedding!  For a second wedding for both, they're going to a lot of trouble to make it a big occasion, but that is just my humble opinion; which when combined with a dollar may get you a Coke at McDonald's, but not much more.

This week I'm doing dress alterations for the bride and bridesmaids.  The bridal gown is a shade of pink that is called blush, and of course I don't have any thread that color!  White will do for the interior seams but it's got a lace train that will definitely need to match.  I don't recall seeing this color at the quilt shop, so off I go to Joann's...

Blush pink, apparently all the rage!

The two bridesmaids, Miss E and Miss A, have blue dresses.  They're identical in size, but one girl is a teen and the other is a tweenie, so the challenge is to adjust the tweenie dress to a tweenie shape.  The teen fit her dress almost perfectly.  I have to ask though, why do bridal shops think those dresses need so much padding in the front??  I could remove it from all three dresses!

Bridesmaids' dresses are blue.

I finished up my four part Sock Toolbox class last week.  That was so much fun, no stress about getting things done in a certain amount of time, just learning various ways to do each of the parts of sock anatomy and finding the one(s) you prefer.  If you want to know about socks, the place to go is Cream City Yarn in Brookfield, WI (no, I don't work there and no one paid me to say that!).  The class was taught by Lindsay, and she knows whereof she speaks!

 My first sock was Hermoine's Everyday Socks (a free pattern on Ravelry) knit with Twisted Owl fiber and I think the colorway was something about water, but the label is misplaced.  I finished the first one, successfully performed the Kitchener Stitch on the toe graft, thanks to YouTube, and cast on sock number two.

Sock two was pink bamboo and cotton.  I started it on the same sized needles as the first pair but the sock was about an inch wider!  They could have been giant socks!  So I frogged the ribbing and sized down with fewer stitches.  I actually tried twisted rib on them, and it looks nice.  It's kind of fussy to knit since you have to remember to knit in the back loop and purl normally, but I did learn something.  That sock is at the heel turn at present.

 Do you like my yarn holder?  I found this small blue ceramic ice cream cone at the Goodwill for 99 cents.  I was thinking pencil holder, but it turned out to be just the right size for a small cake of this wool sock yarn, with the small ball of alternate color for the heel sitting in the bottom.

 This yarn, having no nylon in its contents, needed a contrast heel to stand up to wearing.  The wool is nice to wear, very soft, but won't stand up to the tugging and rubbing of actual walking, so contrast yarn fixes things right up.  I thought the sock yarn was black and white, but in daylight it looks more like navy, so red was the perfect choice.

This sock is now finished, although here you're seeing it before the toe graft.  This one was also successfully Kitchener'd.  The second sock has been cast on.

Did you know that in WWI there were jillions of women knitting socks for the troops overseas?  Here is what I found on the blog "loveknitting.com"

Not only did knitted socks play a role in World War I, but conversely, World War I has had a lasting impact on the knitted sock. Until World War I socks typically had seamed toes, and these seams caused great discomfort for soldiers on forced marches and in the wet and muddy trenches, where those seams rubbed the men’s toes raw, which in turn could result in dangerous infections. The British Secretary of State for War, Horatio Herbert Kitchener, associated himself with the Red Cross drive to urge women to knit “comforts” or items for the men in the military, particularly mittens, socks and scarves. He was concerned about the foot problems the sock seams caused and personally contributed a pattern for socks which included a seamless grafting technique that would come to be known as the “Kitchener stitch”.

So thank you, Lord Kitchener, for being so concerned about your troops that you invented the seamless toe graft!

The Princesses are out of bed, so it's time now to move on to project number two for the day, breakfast!

Knit on..

Where Does The Time Go?

A few of my friends said that when I retired I would run out of things to keep me occupied.

Not so much...

It's Friday again, and I don't know where the week went.  Well, I do, and it wasn't necessarily spent on the things I had planned last week!  Again...

Working two four-hour shifts at the quilt shop took some of the time.  I finished up the last of my four knitting classes, and between those times I worked on my knitting class homework.

I now have two socks done to the point of doing the Kitchener finish on the toes.  I'll have to rewatch the YouTube video to do them.  Not that those two socks match each other!  So no, I don't have a pair of socks yet.

One sock, ready for Kitchener!

Upcoming quilt guild meetings require some prep time, and I have cut exactly ONE kit for the church group's use.  I have to get on the job here, people!

The wedding of the century is in three short weeks.  I have dresses to alter for the bride and her attendants.  They keep promising to bring them over but so far I have seen nothing.  I did hand stamp all of DD's thank you notes using my vast collection of Stampin' Up stamps and ink pads.  They want a small fortune for cards at Hallmark or wherever they sell those things, and the bridal section -- well, just forget about it!  I already spent the $$$ to buy stamps and ink, so for under $5 a pack for 25 blank notes, we did custom cards and had a fun afternoon doing it.

The completed note cards...

What happens if you don't wait long enough...

Last Sunday and Monday (for After Weekend Worship) our church guild had a little informal 'quilt show'.  We make and donate dozens of quilts throughout the year, and once a year we usurp the choir seats to display what we have in house at the time.  This year we had about three dozen to show.  We make a brief announcement of what we do and why we do it, and then ask the congregation to pray for those who will receive the quilts.  Most of them are experiencing some sort of trauma or loss, so they need prayers, along with the quilts.

The ladies who do the sewing and quilting do a tremendous job, and what we do with the scraps turns out so beautifully, I'm both proud and humbled to be part of the group.

Another week nearly gone... but a new one is coming on quickly!  Enjoy it...

Happy Friday, Again! Birds and Socks

Since retirement, I've learned to really appreciate Fridays.  No longer the day when I have to sit on a two hour conference call, listening to the pluses and minuses of life in the engineering business, it is now the restful, slow starting last day of the work week for everyone else.

It's also going to the dump day for my hubby and his buds.  So sometimes I get a nice quiet hour where nothing's moving (the eleven year old has turned into a late sleeper) and I can sit on the patio with my tea and a book.  Or I can just listen to the birds calling and watch them at the feeders.

Blue Jays are loud and very scrappy; also
they love peanuts in the shell* and are fun
to watch.  (*No salt please!)

Cardinals make a nice sound.  We
have a couple of pairs who come
to our feeders.

 

Finch feeders are also fun to watch.  Finches
invented the term 'flitting'.

Of course, we have a ton of our State bird, the
Robin...

OK, so much for ornithology (thank you, Jeopardy!)...

Today I spent the morning reading a book I checked out of the local library on Wednesday, a new J.A. Jance Joanna Brady 'novel of suspense', at least according to the book jacket.  The heroine is I guess a thirty-something County Sheriff in Arizona; I'm assuming her age as it's not given in the book.  In earlier novels her back story says she was married young and had a baby right away, then was widowed and elected to her then-husband's job, which is how she became a sheriff.  In this book she's send her oldest daughter to college, has a five year old son with her second husband, and author, and is pregnant again with a second daughter.

Sometimes imagining the life that would be is exhausting!  But the books are fun reads, and they go fast.  I also picked up another of Jance's novels in CD form so I can listen while I sew.  Multitasking!

Tomorrow I want to go to the farmers' market before I go to the quilt shop.  I've been longing for a tomato that was just picked today, rather than the ones picked a week ago and shipped in from wherever they come from these days.  I want tomatoes on toast with butter and melted mozzarella cheese!  And fresh asparagus, I mean really fresh, just picked. 

Sock progress is being made... slowly but surely.  (I signed up for a class -- Sock Tool Box, Cream City Yarn Shop, Brookfield WI).  From Session 1: Cast on and ribbing, my homework was to try different types of casts on, and different rib patterns.  I have enough needles, so why not make multiple socks, right?  I cast on three socks, and did various ribbings, two by two, one by one, and even tried twisted rib, which is putzy but looks nice.

Session 2: Legs, Legs, Legs! homework was to continue the sock in pattern to the point of the heel, which I did on two of the three socks, thanks to recorded Midsomer Murders and Masterpiece Mysteries. 

This sock has two by two rib and an easy
pattern.  It's called Hermoine's Every Day
socks, the pattern is free on Ravelry.com.

This sock is also two by two rib, and the pattern
is knit three, purl one.  This yarn isn't sock yarn,
no nylon content, so the heels and toes will
be a contrast color using sock yarn, I chose red.

The third sock is out of a bamboo/cotton yarn mix, and it knit up so big that the cuff was almost an inch larger than the other two, so that one got torn down and restarted using fewer stitches and a smaller needle size.  It's crazy because the other two were on 2.5 mm needles and that is very much smaller than I'm used to, so going down to 2.25 mm seems like knitting on toothpicks, especially since I love wood needles!  

Session 3 was on heels.  I had three different heel versions in my patterns, and Lindsay taught us how to do each one in a big overview.  I was the only one in class who had the "Fish Lips Kiss" heel pattern (cost is $1 on ravelry.com, it's really more of a sock 'recipe' than a pattern, and the designer didn't write up how to do the special stitch, although there is a YouTube video) so I stayed a few minutes after class ended to get some tips on that one.

By the time I got home I had forgotten what Lindsay told me.  I knit on anyway... and the heel looked OK, but after watching the video I realized I'd done it wrong, I added an extra step that wasn't needed.  It looks fine so I'm calling it good and leaving it in...

The side you're seeing is the good side, the other side is pulled a little and looks a bit like a gather.  But there is some give, so I'm hoping once I get it on my foot it won't show.

The last session is on toes, and finishing, probably to include blocking.  I hope I get at least one sock to that point, so I can learn the Kitchener stitch once and for all!

Knit on...

Socks

I love being barefoot in the summer, but since this summer is so hot, and the air conditioner seems to be running all the time, my feet get cold so I wear socks in the house.  I have slippers but they get too warm sometimes.

Miss A wears socks inside her tennies and during the school year she would often come over without socks, or with one sock.  We wear the same size shoes so she's prone to borrow both my socks and my shoes (if she can get away with that!)

I have noticed that when she wears my socks, I often never see them again!  Since we get her morning laundry which is mainly pajamas, and her evening laundry gets washed at home, I have no clue where the socks go unless she happens to bring them over.

We discussed that the other day with her mom.  It would appear from that conversation that the socks have gone into the black hole of kid laundry, where sometimes they come back and sometimes they don't!  But if it's any comfort, her mother's socks have joined mine in that mystery place...

I particularly love hand knitted socks.  I have successfully (more or less) knit three pairs of socks and quite a number of single socks that never became pairs.  I guess I have Second Sock Syndrome, that is, I can knit one but I have trouble finishing the second one, or getting it to match the first one so that they can legitimately be called a pair.

Hand knitted socks, NOT knit by me.

Self Striping yarn is fun.

I own a lot of sock yarn... which has the potential to be socks if I just get my act together.  I admire people like Stephanie McPhee, aka Yarn Harlot, who can knit socks while she rides a bike or climbs Mount Fuji.

I struggle.

I have knit a couple of pairs of yoga socks... which leave off the hard parts like heels and toes!

Yoga socks, also not knit by me...

I signed up for a four part Sock Toolbox class at my local yarn shop, Cream City Yarn in Brookfield.  Hopefully by the time the class is over I'll have gotten over Second Sock Syndrome, at least partially.  I'm sure if I don't it won't be for lack of trying on their part!

I can't decide between two yarns.  I love the blue one in the center but it's really skinny yarn and would take longer to knit, but the black & white is already wound into a cake.  I'm leaning in that direction, although the blue would make beautiful socks!

I just found out I am supposed to be knitting a test swatch of the yarn I pick, then wash and dry it before class!  If Miss E gets up and decides we need to go shopping that will cut in on the swatching time and narrow the choice to the one swatch I can actually finish.

Boy this knitting stuff could be stressful!

Swatch on...