Life Goes On

Lent
I successfully challenged myself to a meatless Lent, excluding Sundays (40 days of Lent do not count Sundays). I found a lot of interesting recipes using beans, quinoa, eggs, and cheese. I still have a lot of freezer meals containing meat, made before Lent. I'm eating less meat than I did, and it's getting to be salad season.

Knitting
I found this yarn at Tuesday Morning and immediately turned it into a sweater. It was knit top down, because I didn't know how far the yarn would go. It's all used up now!

The stocking is another in a series that I knit last year. The customer didn't want this one until after Christmas. The child was born in September.

I've been knitting mittens for a guild Christmas tree. The tree will be decorated with hats and mittens, and will be on display in downtown Cleveland this December. I started with 33 yds. of the funky yarn. This is the second pair of mittens, and I still have yarn left.

I've been knitting socks, but cant show them right now.

Solitude with dog

I knit this stocking ages ago for a customer. She sent two stockings back for name changes. This requires surgery.

First, chart out new name
Second, separate name from bottom of stocking. Of course these were top down.
Third, unravel old name
Fourth reknit with new name
Graft stocking back together again.

 

It snowed today! Dog walk time this evening was beautiful, with 25F temps and about 1" of snow. This photo was taken a little later.

Stockings and stuff

The stockings are finished for this year. The customer ordered another "Santa in Chimney" stocking to be knit after Christmas. A baby boy joined the family since the first batch were ordered. He'll be 2 months old at Christmas, and grandma doesn't want the stocking for this year. Perhaps it doesn't fit her budget.

Every year or so I get to do Christmas stockings on commission. I've knit three or four of the "Santa in Chimney" and "Santa with Tree" ones. They originally were Bernat kits. I have done a couple of other patterns too. Last year I had to do five of the the same stocking. It happens to be one of my least favorite patterns. I don't like the Santa on this one, although I've done at least three versions of the pattern.

I also did a family stocking this year. These are an ongoing series, using the same basic pattern, but no two alike.

 There has been Christmas knitting too, but I can't show that.

One of today's tasks is to write up a sweater pattern that has been waiting far too long. I finished the sweater last summer. Then the hard drive crasheon my desktop. The data was saved and reinstalled on the new drive, but I didn't find the folder with the pattern until yesterday. I had almost finished writing the sweater pattern in one size. When It went missing, I thought I'd have to rewite it, and that never got done. It didn't help that my laptop from work died and needed to be replaced. Again, I had the data backed up, but these things still take time and brainpower. I actually haven't written a pattern for about a year. I designed a couple of things, like my sock yarn sweater, but they weren't the sort of thing that I could work into a pattern.

I'm designing a hat as a gift and will write up the pattern, but don't know it I will knit another version before releasing it. Before I settle in to the computer, I have to go renew my car license plate (if the bureau is open on Saturday) and start the turkey stock from the feast. I usually get leftovers from my daughter, but this year I asked for the bones. I don't know how much meat is still on them, but I also cooked 1/2 of a breast to make sure I had enough turkey this year. I make a lot of soups in the winter, so a few quarts of turkey stock will be handy.

This week I have made a chicken chili which was to be served over rice or couscous. I used up my couscous and mixed it into the chili. The leftovers have joined all the other meals in the freezer. I like to cook up a batch of something on my day off from work and then just heat it up on work days. I had a lot of creamy soup stored up, but was looking for something chunky. The chili has only about 3 cups of liquid in the whole pot.

Thursday, while the cranberry bread, turkey and squash were in the oven, I made a cheesy broccoli soup.Based on evaporated milk, it has carrots and cheddar cheese as well as the broccoli. Yum! The squash was roasted for later use as long as the oven was on. I have a recipe for pumpkin and acorn squash soup to be cooked soon. The butternut squash doesn't have a specific recipe waiting for it, but I have a number of options.

What can I say?

I've been busy.
I've knit a few Christmas stockings.

 

And finished a sweater from sock yarn leftovers.

I spent a few weeks getting ready for and holding a large yard sale. I'm trying to get rid of stuff so that I can move to a smaller house.

At work, my most interesting project is a clown costume. The customer is a professional clown, so willing to spend money to get what she wants. I have phone pics of that, but don't trust that they'll transfer to the blog without going upside down.

I'll try to post more often. I do well for a while and then life gets inthe way.

Did I Fall Off the End of the Earth?

I had a beautiful post written and just needed a photo of my sweater.That was back in June!

Knitting
I did finally finish the black sweater. I still need to write the pattern. Better do that soon! Oasis Yarns Aussi Wool Worsted. Cuffs, front bands and collar are reversible cables. Hook and eye closure. Right now my computer is not talking to my printer. One of the kids will look into why, and figure out what needs to be done to fix it.


Medical Update
Hearing aids work well. Cataract Surgery was a breeze. I was worried about seeing to sew before everything was finished and healed. Not a problem. I need reading glasses, but have a source where they cost $.88 a pair. I can have glasses to match my outfits, as many pairs as it takes. The store is out of my strength tight now, but I already bought 5 pairs before my second eye was done. All other maintenance on my body is done for a while!

House
Painting the outside starts tomorrow. The dog will be going to the kennel for the duration.

My kids have convinced me that I need a smaller house. Domestic Archeology has commenced. It's surprising how much "stuff" a family can accumulate in 40+ years of living in the same place. I find that most of it has no sentimental value, making it easy to dispose of. This is a two year plan.Right now I'm trying to get rid of at least an extra garbage bag each week.There will be donations, house sale, what ever it takes.

I just finished knitting a Christmas stocking, one of five I need to do this year. Four are for a customer, and one is family.Max is the new stocking. It seems that every year, I get to knit stockings to add to what grandma knit. This is an old Bernat pattern that I've knit twice before.

Miscellaneous
I grew up when life was simpler. When things broke, you got them repaired. They were made to last forever and could be repaired. I really like televisions, computers and smart phones. as well as microwaves and refrigerators with ice in the door. I forget that I didn't grow up with any of these things. We listened to the radio, made ice in trays, and didn't make many long distance calls because they were expensive. We walked to the store, although my mother knew how to drive, we only had one car. When she wanted to go grocery shopping, she had to drive my father to work and pick him up again. Stores were closed evenings and Sundays.

That may explain why I get so frustrated when things break, or just don't work. Right now, my laptop is misbehaving, my DVD player died, my printer may need replacing, and the album my son loaded on my computer won't play on my phone. They all will get resolved, but make me grumble.

On the plus side for modern conveniences, I talk to my oldest daughter who lives in Florida every morning, using my cell phone and blue tooth earpiece. Computers and everything they do is wonderful. I plan to play my yoga DVDs on my iPad. The laptop and printer will eventually be replaced, I hope not this month.

Seasonal thoughts

Is this an air guitar, or a ghost one? Seen in the window of a local guitar shop, while walking the dog.

Actually, it's plastic. I really like the photo.

It's winter here in NE Ohio. I had dinner with my son on Christmas Eve and the went to Midnight Mass. Cold, but no snow, except a little left over, mostly on the grass.

Christmas morning was quiet. The family planned to get together Wednesday evening. Santa snuck in while I was out and filled my stocking. It seems my daughters think I should have something to open Christmas morning. I got candy. cookie mix and other little things. My dog got a huge rawhide bone that she hasn't started chewing yet.

A blizzard was predicted, resulting in a parking ban where my son lives. He was the host for the family Christmas. WEe held it Friday night. I made quilts from fleece and flannel that were a big hit. The smaller boy has dinosaurs on his quilt (a big interest).
I got more food stuff, flavored coffee, box mixes for baking, more candy, and the loan of an iPad. I want to buy one, but DD wants to make sure I'll use it before spending the money. She has one that she's not using much at the moment, since her phone does a lot of what she wants. I was looking for a bigger screen that a phone has. I expect to download things for use, but not store them on the iPad

Knitting has happened. I tore out my sweater. It was too small. I've started again, but concentrated on finishing a pair of socks needed by year end for a Ravelry group. The pattern is written, but I need better light for a good photo. What I'm using is acceptable, but I want a better photo as part of the pattern.

I also can show the mystery sock now that all the clues are out. I called it Winter Berries. I was thinking of mistletoe, but there were too many projects with that name. Right now, it's a free pattern, but eventually I'll reformat it and sell it.

I'm enjoying my time off from work, catching up on household things and cooking a little. I have a tendency to cook instead of clean, but I'm fighting it. There's only one of me and I can fill the freezer faster than I can empty it. I have a rule that I can't cook  a main dish if I don't have enough plastic boxes to pack up the left overs. I could buy more boxes, but have decided not to. These work well for taking lunch to work. I often full them with salad. They hold about 3 cups.

Today I made Oxtail Stew in my Crock Pot. It cooked all day until the meat fell off the bones. I used a recipe from Joy of Cooking and it is supposed to be served over noodles. Tonight I microwaved a couple of small potatoes and put stew over them.The white in the photo is reflection from the overhead lights

Time to let the dog out one last time, pack up the stew, and head to bed.

The Learning Curve

I'm still learning what the iPhone app can do for this blog. It's great that it is with me at almost all times, so when I think of something, I can just write a paragraph. I can take phone pictures and insert them. They come out bigger than what I was using and I cannot resize them, not so good. I cannot add links from the phone, but if I work on the PC, I can add the links later. I did that with the Tomato Tart yesterday.

Last night, I finished the last of this year's Christmas stockings. I knit a total of 7, 5 for a customer, and 2 for the family. These 2 are #29 and #30 in the series. It doesn't seem like the family is that large, but we never see everyone at once. Ryan is my granddaughter's husband, First you have 2 kids together, then you get married. I should have done this one last year. Cyrus is my newest great grandson.

Thinking about creativity, I'm sitting here wearing clothes that I made: a wool lined skirt, a blouse and a lace shawl. Waiting in the kitchen for consumption later today is a pumpkin scone, a tomato tart, Asiago cheese bread, pumpkin cookies, and baked oatmeal. The scone is for breakfast with eggs. The tart, bread and cookies are for lunch at work, and the oatmeal is for a late after noon snack. The breads and oatmeal came from the freezer and were made within the last month. The freezer is my friend now that I live alone. I'm thinking of making split pea soup this weekend.

So Many Blog Posts....

....have been written in my head. so few (none) have made it into the computer.

What have I knit since i last posted? A pair of socks for my Granddaughter Luci. I bought the red yarn at my knitting guild swap sale. It is Schaeffer Anna, which I had never tried before. It is not my favorite yarn. The patter was another mystery sock, being released in four parts, a week apart. It was the September mystery, and Luci's birthday is October 30, so I had plenty of time.

 My guild is hosting A knitter's Fantasy next April, and chose Wingspan as a guild project. Mine is knit from Crystal Palace Mini Mochi that  I originally bought for socks. I don't like knitting this at a small gauge, so it became a scarf.

Another guild project is children's scarves and other warm things for charity. I have knit 2 scarves so far. One I may have shown, using squares of garter stitch. This started with bulky yarn and continued with 2 strands of worsted or what ever, using small odd balls of yarn. Black was used consistently throughout.

The second scarf was made of long strips of ribbing, sewn together with bobbles. The pattern is in Pam Allen's  Scarf Style book. Again, I used small odd balls of yarn. I haven't made much of a dent yet, but I'm trying.

 The scarf I'm knitting now uses tapestry yarn. Lots of 1 yard pieces spit spliced together. Most of this is left over from embroidery projects I have done. a little of it was inherited from my mother. It's time it was used up or thrown out, or some of each.

Once upon a time, as recently as last year, I had a vest  from Sally Melville's Purl Book. As I lost weight, the vest became too large. I loved the yarn, but the yarn/pattern combination was not a good enough mix to be worth repeating in a smaller size. One Sunday I went to church and saw a cute sweater that I thought would work. It was the February Lady Sweater. I have finished the body and started the sleeves. They will end somewhere around my elbow. I'm not sure exactly where.

I started the sleeves by measuring the two pieces of knitting remaining from the vest. They are about the same in square inches. I'm using the smaller one first. and think that I can knit 9" of sleeve before the garter stitch band at the end. The buttons are crocheted and were used on the vest. The yarn is Berocco Cotton Twist., bought specifically for the vest.

I knit some face cloths for daughter Jen's birthday at her request. I have a few more that I would like to knit for gifts for more people.

Much of my time has been used designing a mystery sock for the Solid socks group on Ravelry. Part I goes live on December 1st. I am working on the second sock, test knitting/tweaking the pattern as I go. The yarn on this project is Cascade Heritage Sock Yarn.

I also have been knitting family Christmas Stockings. The first one is finished. This is #29 in the line of family stockings. Two recipients are no longer with the family and I may reuse their designs at some point. I have a basic Christmas Stocking pattern and each stocking is different. I have a number of them shown on the Ravelry pattern page. Like members of the family each one is different, but bears a family resemblance.

I've been quite busy at work, which is good. I need customers in order to stay in business.

Frustration

Last night was knitting night at the Bottle House. About 20 knitters showed up. I was working on my last Christmas stocking for my customer. The first problem was that I started knitting the foot with green yarn instead of red. Okay retreat and try again. They I noticed that I had embroidered the date upside down.  What should have been '89 was 68,. It took a long time to undo the embroidery and restitch. I almost got it correct., but tonight I noticed that not only was the 9 too narrow, my friend noticed that it was not placed correctly. Try again! I did finally finish the stocking and used the new pompom makers I picked up earlier in the day. They are Clover brand and I think I like them, I still need a photo of all the stockings, but will do it in daylight.

My local library yielded  a disc of Paul Hindmith Kammermusick, I heard No. 1(for small orchestra) Saturday night and loved it., so I put in a reserve for the disc. I put the whole 2 discs on my iPhone. I own Berlioz Symphonie Fatastique and will put that on the phone also.


I spent a couple of hours at work today (on my day off), doing things like gluing the hem on a pair of leather pants. I had to buy more glue, which is why I also bought the pompom makers. It's been a long time since I had so much work at once. I guess the famine is over.

This and that

Monday
Stocking #4 is finished. Only one more to go. Sometimes even one hour a day is a slog. When I get to the family stockings, it will  go better, since I'll design those. Right now I don't even know what the base color will be for each stocking. I know where to look it up. Both family stockings are for guys, so they'll be striped. I'm thinking peerie patterns.

The cooler weather is better if the house can be heated. Scott the furnace guy cam early this morning and diagnosed my problem as  a hidden switch that needed to be reset. The wind caused a back draft down my chimney. At least it didn't cost any money, since he was just here on Thursday fixing things. Bronte the dog was sure he had come just to pet her. She can act fiercely protective, but she's a different dog if you are in her circle of friends

I had a mystery soup  for dinner today. It was something unlabeled from the freezer. Now I wish i knew what the recipe was. It was a lentil soup and looked like it had spinach in it. Next thing out of the freezer will be turkey carcasses. It's time to make more broth. I'm not sure, but I think that what I froze is from turkey breasts, not enough to make broth from just one of them.

Tuesday
Good thing Scott showed me where that switch is. I had to reset the boiler again today.

Bronte the dog got to go to the vet for a check-up. It always seems to cost more money than I expect. At  least it's only once a year.

I made a white beans & shrimp recipe in the Crock pot. It was very good, but my sister is coming to Cleveland Thursday and I don't think I will serve it for lunch. It looks bland. There are many dishes that taste really good, but you shouldn't serve to company, because they don't look very good. In this case, a little color would have helped. All is not lost, I'll just eat it myself.

Knitting at the library tonight. Worked on my latest pair of socks. I resisted the free yarn give-away. I have lots of factory yarn that is to think to be hand knit as is. Resistance was easy.

Wednesdaty
Reset the boiler again. It's getting warmer, but still raining. Where was all this rain over the summer? The tomato avalanche has slowed down. there are still plenty of green tomatoes, but they're not ripening as fast.

I've decided that Thursday lunch will be Pumpkin & black bean soup. Dear sis will just be here for a few hours. She's bringing some hostas thinned from her yard. I need more plants in my yard. Many of the things I have bought over the years have died or been eaten by the rabbit.

I finished the name on the last customer stocking.

Ugh!

This has been a weekend of things breaking at my house.

Friday I was in a cooking mood after work. I had planned on a dinner of fish in foil, a recipe from a knitting friend. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Take apiece of foil and put your fish on it, cover the fish with pesto, tomatoes (or mushrooms), yes i used tomatoes from my garden, spinach leaves and Parmesan cheese. Bake about 15 minutes. While that was cooking I cooked up another piece of chicken breast to use in salads and sandwiches for lunch. I had a taste for baked beans. Put some pinto beans in the crockpot on low overnight. I didn't have any white beans in the house. I'll have to get some. So far, so good.

The next morning, I put more ingredients in the crockpot and turned it up to high. I went to work thinking about lovely beans for dinner, made with my own tomato sauce. I came home to a cold pot and uncooked beans. The poor thing had died. It was old, with a cracked lid. Does the fact that the outside was orange give you a clue as to how old the poor slow cooker was? A couple of years ago I was able to pick up a new pot on sale with discounts. I planned to put it  into use when the lid cracked on the old one. The lid is still holding together. Both pots are the same brand and the ceramic insert from the old pot fits the new one. Last night, I transferred the beans to the new base and cooked them some more, turning it off at bedtime, thinking they were finished. This morning, I decided more cooking was needed. I ate beans for lunch after church and a trip to the gym. I now have little packages of baked beans in my freezer.

After lunch, I came upstairs to watch the football game while working on the computer. That television won't turn on. This is not a real tragedy, as I have two more working HD tvs. My husband was a real tv watcher as his health failed. He didn't have energy for much else. I will have to get the thing out on the curb, and it will take 2 men to move it. I'm not decided on whether I'll move the tv from the kitchen, or just leave it there.

As the day went on I felt chilly. I finally checked the thermostat, and it said the house was 5 degrees colder than the set temperature.I just had the furnace man here on Thursday, fixing radiators and servicing the boiler. The boiler isn't working! We think the pilot light went out. He'll be here bright and early in the morning. In the meantime, I'll wear more clothes. At least I have a heated mattress pad on my bed. It was still in the closet this morning. I don't think any of these problems will cost me money, but still it's frustrating.

Sewing - I finished a dress for myself. I found the fabric, pattern, and cut out skirt on a shelf at work. (I own the shop) I must have bought the fabric 20+ years ago. It's a rayon crepe with a print of different buttons all over it. I bought contrast fabric for the collar, which was enough for the bodice facing and the inside of the sleeve cuffs. The dress is a long sleeve shirtwaist dress with full skirt and buttons all down the front. I had picked 12 buttons, in 6 colors, each of them different. The store sold buttons loose, in the quantity you needed. I haven't decided if I really like the dress, but it was fun to make.

Knitting -  I'm at the toe4 of stocking #4. I should finish tomorrow. I'm still putting in at least an hour each day on the project. I have a pair of red birthday socks knit to the middle of the foot. They are a mystery pattern and I wasn't sure if I would run out of knitting before the last clue came out Saturday morning. I was prepared to start the second sock, even  though I have only one ball of yarn and I don't like working from both ends at once. As it happens I don't have to do that. I may be able to start the other sock tomorrow. I'll try to get pictures of the dress. The beginning of the sock looks like this:

I've been going to knit night at the local brewery. There's a nice group of new-to-me knitters, including a local designer, named Hunter Hammersen. Not knowing what the conditions would be, I started a simple project, a scarf called Wingspan. The first night I didn't have any mindless project and the stockings were not in a good place to take. The second night I took a stocking and worked on the heel. White yarn is prefect for semi-low light conditions. Actually the lighting is not bad. One of the knitters is very close to an owner, and makes sure we can see. This project sits in my purse until I need concentrated mindless knitting. The yarn is Crystal Palace Mini Mochi.

Time to crawl into my nice warm bed.

The Tomatoes are Ripe

Tomatoes
They have been ripe for a month. I have bags of frozen tomatoes. I've eaten salads and wrap sandwiches. I made tomato soup. I've roasted tomatoes. The variety is endless. I have lots of new recipes that I like. One of my favorites is chicken tomato pizza. I use preformed pizza dough, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, cooked chicken (a staple in my house), basil, mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Stick in the oven until brown.

So far, all the extra tomatoes have gone in the freezer. I still might can some, but right now, I can't put my hands on my jar lifter. I really need it if I'm going to get jars our of boiling water. I can buy a new one for not much money, but I still have one more place to look. Also, if I don't actually get to canning, I won't need it.

Overnight oatmeal
A new discovery that one of my daughters found. It's made in a jar and eaten cold. So far I have tried blueberry, peach and apple. I may have tried more flavors, but they're not at the top of my mind. One daughter thinks the chocolate ones might make a good snack. Another daughter has made up large batches of pumpkin flavored jars. In looking for the link, I found a number of other recipes on Google. The one I've used combines the oats with yogurt, some of the others just use milk.

Sock Knitting

These were a birthday gift for oldest daughter. I thought of them as butterflies, but she's a quilter and saw them as bow ties. The technique is Mosaic, using only one color per row, and slipping the other color.


Daughter number three has a birthday the day after her sister. She got these socks. The dishcloth shows the stitch pattern.

Patterns for both pairs are available on Ravelry and Patternfish

We also have a granddaughter with a September birthday.. She was in town last weekend to celebrate and show off her son, who is 4 months old. She got the last pair of socks. I followed a Ravelry mystery pattern for these.

I also am knitting Christmas stockings. I have 5 identical stockings, except for name, to do for a commission job. Three are finished and I'm working on #4. As it's getting colder, I set myself the task of knitting on them at least one hour a day. I also have two family stockings to do, one for the new great grandson and one for a granddaughter's husband. Should have done that one last year. Every year or so, I knit stockings for other people. It's the same story. Grandma knit stockings until she couldn't any more and the family kept growing. I've knit a version of this pattern before. Most of what I've knit are old Bernat patterns. A few I've had to design myself. The family patterns are all original. I'll talk more about them when I get to that point.

Sunshine sweater
 This sweater looks almost like I wanted it to, but it doesn't work! There is no stability in the neckline, and it slid down as I wore it. Luckily it was just a dog walk of about 20 minutes. I'm now on try #3 of the neckline. I've kept the v-neck, but gone with a more conventional look. I'll wear it for a while before I call it done. I may have to crochet around the neck edge to keep it from stretching. I still love the yarn and stitch pattern, but I sure am ready for this to be really finished.

I finally figured out the time delay on my camera. It's a good thing that I'm not using up film on pictures the crop off part of my body.

The dog survived

June's end was quite stressful for my poor dog. Tuesday, the 26th, I did not get a new roof, but my neighbors had three trees removed.

Wednesday, the roof guys came. I had to work, so took the dog with me. That was not a successful as I had hoped. All the customers got barked at. She also barked every time I went to the Ladies room. My shop is in office space, so this was not a good thing! She survived.

I took the finished picture a few days later.

The refrigerator got fixed on Thursday. The fix-it man had a new computer board, but had a few problems leftover form the Sears repair team a couple of years ago. Sears did not fix the problem because they said that we needed to have a grounded outlet. We had an electrician rewire two floors of the house and the basement last summer. I decided that it was time to get the ice maker fixed before the July 4th party with the family. Mission accomplished!

Now that the house is put together again, I can have family gatherings. We found all the pieces to put the tarp up for shade. The tarp and poles were in the garage. The ropes and stakes were in the shed. DH didn't know what had happened to hem, so we didn't use the tarp for a few years. The food was in the garage. As usual, everyone brought a little something extra. Dear son cooked the burgers. The group at the table is working on the ice cream. The grand kids are now old enough to help crank.

When the ice cream was finished, the paddle was put on the table. I missed getting  the picture of the dog, cleaning up the ground with ice cream dripping through the cracks of the picnic table onto her head. Clean-up is an important job, and she loves it. When the party was over, I hosed down the table.

This was the first family gathering at my house in a long time, and with a little help, it all went well. Thursday was a rest day. I got a lot of knitting done on the Christmas stocking project. The first stocking of five is finished except for pompoms. I need to find something the right size to wrap the yarn around that will match the size of the stocking I'm copying. I have made this pattern before. It's an old Bernat pattern, modified. by the customer's mother.

Progress??

Everything has been moved off the first floor. After over 2 years, I have my living room and dining room back. DD even cleaned them for me. Strange things happen when I am at work. This pile is what's left to organize/put away/throw out. I'll tackle the Christmas storage when the season comes.

I have too much yarn. When it's all in one room, it is a little overwhelming. I also have fabric storage in that room. I'll be purging that slowly.

I have been using some of it. These mitts are a birthday gift. I have the pattern written, It is available on Ravelry and Patternfish. The yarn is Regia 6-ply sock yarn, so they're machine washable. I also have knit another family Christmas stocking, It's #28 in the ongoing series.

Right now, I'm working on some fair isle socks for DH. They're toe up and when I was half way through the heel I tried them on him. They were too tight and too short. We are now past that point and the fit is good. Combining fair isle and large feet does not make for fast sock knitting.

There is also a mystery sock on the needles. Clue #1 is finished for the first sock. Clue #2 comes out tomorrow.