I taught two beginning sock knitting classes this fall.  I’m not sure what I was thinking when I agreed to that because I’ve been crazy busy with work and projects at home.  But, agree I did.  So, when it came time to pick out some yarn for the sock I was going to work on, I decided on a nice sport weight because the knitting would go faster for me as I tried to keep up or stay ahead of the class.  My original thought was to see if TA wanted the socks, but after finishing the first one it became clear that they just didn’t float his boat.  Now what?

I still had one more series of classes to teach and one more sock that needed to be knit.  It seemed wasteful to start another pair of socks when I had one perfectly good sock finished, so I sat down and tried to figure out what to do with what I had.  It turns out that my dad has the same size feet as my hubby - roughly, and he mentioned once or twice last year that he’d like a pair of hand knit socks.  Bingo.  Dad could get the Manly Socks for Christmas and I’d kill two birds with one stone.  I’d have a sock to knit for my class and a finished Christmas present when I was done.  Don’t you like how I planned that?  Yeah, I sure was thinking…

These socks are from a pattern I made up for my class.  It’s quite a bit like the Yarn Harlot’s basic sock pattern except on these particular socks I used fewer stitches, larger needles, and added a cable between the long ribbing and the stockinette stitch.  Yep, just like her pattern.

The yarn is Sundara Yarn Sport Merino in “Manly” that Sundara dyed for me eons ago.  I used about 1 1/2 skeins and have enough left to do something with - I just have to figure out what that something might be.  These socks are knit on US #3 dpns with 56 stitches.  I decided on a hiking sock-esque amount of ribbing in the hopes it would provide a bit more “grip” on the legs, but didn’t want to do an entirely ribbed sock.  The cables are your basic 4 stitch cable and twist to the left on one sock and the right on the other.  Why not, right?

Anyway, I have one Christmas present knitted.  Now to wrap them and stop thinking about them.  I have some slippers to knit for my grandmother this weekend and then my handmade gifts are done.  Before the last minute - can you believe it?

If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, have a wonderful day, and don’t forget to save room for dessert (it’s all about the dessert for me!).

Carole came up with the great idea of Thankful Thursdays in November.  Even I can come up with three things (and it gives me a reason to blog another day this week).  I’ve meant to post one of these for the last 2 Thursdays, but as usual, time got away from me.  However, today is a new day and it’s never too late to be thankful.  I’m thankful for:

1. My health. So many of my friends and acquaintances have had major health issues lately that I’m really thankful that my issues have been relatively minor.  In the grand scheme of things, kidney stones aren’t that big of a deal and I’m fully recovered (or so I choose to believe).
2. Happiness. Happiness is such a relative thing.  It’s so easy to get mired down in the daily stresses and think about all the things you wish were different in your life.  It’s so much harder to look at the glass as half full, but it really is so much better for you.  I’ve recently been making a real effort to look at all of the things in my life that really are so wonderful and be grateful for those things.  Happiness truly is what we make of it, and I choose to be happy.
3. My husband. I am blessed to have a wonderful, talented, and sexy husband.  He loves me despite my craziness (and I love him despite his - or maybe it’s because of) his craziness.  He is always (usually?) willing to jump in with both feet and tackle whatever crazy project I come up with.  Recently it has been the new craft room in the basement.  If I can just get it painted, I can move all of my stuff down there and we’ll have show and tell.

Happy Thursday.  What are you thankful for?

It has rapidly become crunch time on the Christmas tree skirt project.  In September it seemed like I had all the time in the world to finish the pieces for the November 20th assembly class.  Famous last words.  Some time late last week it occurred to me that there wasn’t a lot of time left and I needed to get off my lazy behind and get busy on those millions of tiny pieces.  Sewing all day Saturday was my goal, and since it turned out to be a rather snowy and freaking cold day, my timing was perfect.  I had about half of the spikes done, but nothing else.

I sewed for 14 1/2 hours with only minor breaks (I know!  It’s ridiculous) and managed to finish all of the spikes and all of the flying geese

I was optimistic (crazy?) and thought I could get all of the pieces done in one full day, but it didn’t happen.  Those damned geese have 30 pieces in each segment and there were 7 segments (8 total, but I had one done).  I was blurry eyed and exhausted by the time I got them done at 11:30 on Saturday night.  And the really good news was that I still had 2 segments of 7 each to finish - the 2 center parts.

Yesterday wasn’t all sewing, all the time.  I had to teach the final class in my beginning sock knitting series and had to do those survival things like grocery shop, laundry, cook dinner … those kinds of things, but I did manage to fit some sewing in too.  I got one group of the center design done - the one with the large red diamond.  Now I just have to do the second part of that center group and I’ll be done.  I hope I can find some time after work this week to get some sewing done because I’d hate to be so close to finishing before the class and not actually get it done.

Needless to say, I didn’t get the felted ballet flats finished, although they are felted and dry, but I need to sew the straps on and find buttons that work.  I also didn’t get the new craft room painted.  We got it primed Friday night, but didn’t get any color on the walls.  I wonder when I’ll find the time to get that done.

How was your weekend?  Oh and just so you all feel better about your home town - it got down to -6 degrees last night and was only 2 degrees this morning on my way in to work.  It’s November!  That’s entirely too cold for this early in the winter season.

I was cruising Ravelry the other day looking for a slipper pattern to make for my grandmother for Christmas.  I made her a pair of Fiber Trends felted clogs for Christmas last year, but her arthritis is so bad that she can’t get her feet into the clogs.  She loved that I had made her slippers and was disappointed that she couldn’t get them on so I decided to try to find a different pattern for her.  She is in a wheelchair most of the time these days, and her feet hurt her a lot.  She has a functional, but not very pretty, pair of slippers that she wears most of the time, but I thought she needed a fashionable and comfortable pair!  Enter the French Press Felted Slippers.  They’re fashionable and feminine and you could put some really cute girly buttons on them!  Grandma Toots will love them (I hope!).  I didn’t look any further and bought the pattern - I love that about Ravelry.

For her, I’m thinking a cream tweed.  Originally I thought pink because she loves pink, but cream will go with more things, and the tweed keeps them from looking filthy the first moment you actually put them on your feet (the ones I made her last year were cream at her request).  This is what I decided on…

Just the other day I bought myself some yarn to make a new pair of felted clogs because mine have seen better days.  I suppose getting 2 years out of a pair of slippers when you wear them every single day (even in the summer) isn’t too bad!

Now that I’ve seen the French Press pattern, I can’t decide if I want to make myself another pair of clogs or a pair of the ballet flats.  I suppose I could make both, but my time is pretty limited this month so I’d rather choose one now and then knit the other pair later (after Christmas gifts and quilting are finished).  I bought this yarn - brown heather and teal for the clogs,

but I’m thinking red for the ballet flats.

Which do you think I should make first?

I taught a hat class a few weeks ago on jogless stripes.  I used Brooklyn Tweed’s wonderful Turn A Square pattern that is available free on Ravelry.  Thanks Jared!  I loved the class sample so much that I had to make one for myself.  Jared’s patterns are always extremely detailed and error free, and he just comes up with the best designs!  This hat is great because it’s a quick knit, but fits really well and is universally appealing.

I used two very soft yarns - Cascade Cash Vero DK and Crystal Palace Mochi Plus (details on Ravelry).  This hat is destined to be a Christmas gift - I’m thinking for my brother (who is really hard to buy for).  Any time I can use a class or a quick project for a gift down the road, I’m a happy camper.

(Although I don’t look at all happy in this picture - let’s blame the snow…)

Next up, a vest for Vestvember, new slippers for me, and a couple more Christmas gifts.  Oh, and let’s not forget the push to get the tree skirt finished in time for Christmas.  Stay tuned.