New Fun or Already on the Needles Fun?

The work is keeping on.  This is the first thing i pick up each morning.  It is just so easy to do.  The pattern is interesting but simple in the nicest way.  I do a couple of rows, which is one pattern repeat and then take a break. I pick it up through out the day, and do a bit each time.

This intermittent approach to knitting big yarns seems to be working.  My hands are doing okay.  Yippeeeee.  You are all probably sick of reading about hands but it is one of those things that colours life.  And since it is going to keep colouring my life, I am trying to sort out how to deal with it long term.  The arthritis isn't going anywhere.

I did keep working on my Pesto Sun Dogs variation.  I love how it looks so much.

The front is finished!  The marker you see is the side seam under the second arm, so there is only a quarter of the bottom left to do.  It feels as if it is taking forever, though each row goes quickly, but there are so many stitches,  And yet, here I am.  Almost done the hem.

There is still lots to do though.  The sleeves need to be done but that is easy and is rather fun.  I am a bit concerned that I am going to run out of the Kelp colourway.  I really needed that second skein.  

As it is, this is what is left at the moment with a quarter of the hem and sleeve cuffs to go.  I want to finish the sleeves with this same finish as on the hem, but if I have to go with a really short bit of ribbing, well that is what I will do.  I only hope there is enough left to do that.  

And, as I said yesterday, socks.  Yes there are going to be two finished pairs of socks this year.  If I can keep this up, that is.

It is such a blessing to be able to knit a bit throughout the day again.  When everything else is done, I can do a few rows on a sock and it feels so right.  

I was watching Pre-Vlogmas videos this morning and Janna, from Finnish Knitting Stories talked about a striped Advent sock she is doing or has done.  I wondered if I should give that a shot, not from an advent calendar purchase, but rather from my big box of sock yarns.  I debated about doing it with things from my ends of previous socks, but I thought this might be more interesting.  Breaking into a bunch of brand new balls and winding off 20 grams or 10 grams and then tossing them into a bag to pick without looking and then to knit a bit everyday on an otherwise vanilla sock.  That sounds like a lot of fun. 

I am still not sure if this is something I really want to do.  There are so many WIPs already but every once in a while, it is fun to stop and just play.  The question is do I go for new fun or on the needles already fun?

Updated to add:

Mina Phillp of the Knitting Expat Vlog is also making her own advent calendar.  Maybe it's a sign.

Slogging On

I had trouble sleeping ast night.  I kept waking up and thinking  isnt night done yet and each time I woke it Felt like i was ready for the day to begin.  I got up at five.  A result of sleeping in yesterday perhaps?

I have been working on Cassie's blanket and am making decent progress on it.  

I wish it would go faster, because it is a really fin thing to work up, but I am keeping my hands in shape and am taking care of them.  Only so many hours are devoted to heavy yarn projects.

The plus side of forcing myself to stop working on this project is that sock knitting is happening as is sweater knitting.  Those projects are not at a point where they look any different than they did last time I showed you.  I am, in fact, a wee bit bored of them.  I know that it is just the point in each of those projects where it will feel like that so I am trying to keep myself entertained and stimulated by other things as I chore my way through the border on the Sun Dogs sweater and the plain part of the sock.

I am watching vlogs where people are discussing what sweaters they are planning to knit this fall. It is also a great way to find out about new sweater patterns that may or may not be hot right now.  Hot right now is not the only game in town.  

So I slog on.  It may not sound like I am having fun, but I absolutely am.   

Contemplating Coffee

It is 9:30 and I have yet to leave my bedroom to have coffee.  

When I was younger, when the boys were small, I treasured early morning.  Everyone else was sleeping and it was just my time.  I have always gotten up early ever since.  By early, I mean six, even on weekends.

But these days, since my little trouble last year, I can sleep like no ones business.  I make ten hours routinely.  The only trouble with this is that half the day is gone and I feel as if I am behind all day.  It will get better once I have coffee.  So I am going to go do that.

Memories and Wonders

My sister Kathy came to visit me on te weekend.  She was also visiting her daughter who is up here for the winter.  Her daughter, Micki knits so Micki and I are planning a knit day where she will come to visit me once she can drive again.  I tried sending yarn home with Micki but was unsuccessful but for the remaining balls of Velvet that I used for Carters blanket.

Kathy is not a knitter though.  Kathy paints.  Some of the things she has done are so beautiful that it almost hurts.  She made this for me from a picture she had taken at our old house.  The yellow of leaves on a damaged branch are so striking framed as they are in between my much loved birches.  I know this bent tree and know exactly where she stood.  

I am in love with this just the way that I love my painting from my then ten year old sister, Glenda.  Just like that one, I have it where I can look at it and dive into the depths of it. I don't think I will ever tire of looking at it.  

She also brought me something that stunned me.

They are two of my dads hankies.  Such a small thing. So ordinary.  So simple. I sat there after she left to go home and touching them felt like hugging dad.  He always had a hanky at hand and though his everyday ones were usually blue or red with white polka dots, these were his Sunday best.  I sat there thinking of him and found tears falling though all my thoughts were happy, gentle, loving  ones.  I miss him so much and talk to him a lot inside my head.  I miss the answers and the warmth of his smile.

Even though I had company, there was time to slip in a few rows on Jane's blanket, enough rows that it is done.  I have about a quarter row of the ends to weave in along the sides and am chiding myself for not weaving in as I went.  

Cassie and Marcus popped by with their dad to do some chores and to pick up Marcus' blanket.  He loves it and wrapped himself in his cats the whole time he was here.  It was a good time for Cassie to see the colours for her blanket too and she is really happy with her choices.  So am I.  I will start her blanket today.

Other than that, I am looking forward to an ordinary day full of little mundane things like looking at the early morning frost on the roof of the community center barn over in the ball park and watching all the people walk. They are not mundane or even remotely ordinary.  They are wonders in and of themselves. I love this community and I love my life.  Sure there are things and people I will forever miss about what was, but I hold them in my heart.  It is enough and isn't that a wonderful thing?

 

Not a Knitting Day

While pondering repairing things yesterday, I came across my wheat bag and my bean bag.  

The bean bag is in the yellow floral fabric and looks in decent shape.  The wheat bag?  Not so much.  

Until this morning, I thought it was looking gruesome but was in otherwise good shape. However as I was taking photos, I realized this.

There are several tiny holes muslin and that means its life is over.

I have had this bag for at least 15 years, possibly twenty and have used it regularly.  Tucked under my blankets before I go to bed, it makes up a cozy warm spot for my feet.  If my feet are warm, I fall asleep faster and sleep more deeply. That the bag is actually wearing out should not be a surprise.  The bean bag is no more than a year newer than the wheat bag so they have both been around a very long time.

I much prefer the wheat bag.  It holds heat longer and the shape of it is much nicer for the way I like to use it. Its wider shape means a wider area is warmed and that is really lovely.    

However, until this morning, none of that is what I was thinking about.  What I was thinking about was knitting or sewing new pretty covers for both.  I have been watching the Finish Knitting stories Vlog for a while now and last week, Jana was making some really beautiful hot water bottle covers.  I have a couple hot water bottles here somewhere and thought about making covers for them, but I really don't like hot water bottles.  They are not as easy to use as the wheat and bean bag and don't hold the heat nearly as long.  

My thoughts were about what sort of pattern would I knit and was wool the best cozy cover  or was cotton best? How does wool microwave over time?  Cotton is fine but was a knitted cover sensible?  Is a cotton fabric cover the better option?

And now I am needing an entirely new wheat bag.  Reusing the existing wheat may be an option but I doubt it.  After this long, I am better off to start brand new.  Oh well.  That is the way the cookie crumbles.  In my area, wheat is easy to source particularly at this time of year.  Part of the days work will be to source it and I am also going to have to dig out all the cottons to see what sort of bag to make.  Maybe a quilted scrap fabric cotton bag?  Or a plain muslin?

And then somewhere down the road to make a cozy heat holding removable cover to fancy it up a bit.  

You Never Know

It is Wednesday.  I had to double check that on the calendar three times before I believed it.  It feels like Thursday and that would not be good.  I have company coming on Friday evening and that means I have to tidy and I wasn't really feeling like tidying today.  But Wednesday?  I have been gifted a day and I am going to rejoice in it.

What I am not going to do is work on big yarn blankets.  I did a bit much on it yesterday and my hands need a break.  The happy side of that is I only have four pattern repeats to go which means eight rows.  

So I will probably be doing some sock knitting today and working on the sweet green Pesto trim on my Sun Dog ish sweater. 

I am also going to do a bit of a yarn dive in my stash.  Amy gave me an interesting problem.  

There is a hole in this lovely cardigan and I am pretty sure that I have some yarn that matches it.  The thing is, did I sell it or give it away or is it still deep in the stash?  Can I use the yarn that is there and reknit it?   If not will she accept a floral embroidered patch?   Step one is to see what is in the stash.  And you never know.  I might have just the right thing.

Yarn Is Weird

Yarn is weird.  It doesn't matter what kind of yarn it is, wool, acrylic, alpaca, silk.  It is all weird. 

But if you are reading this, you already know that.

When I started working up this blanket for Jane, I was very worried that I was going to be short of yarn and short of colours. I was feeling pretty good about the decreasing number of giant bags of yarn around my house though.  With Marcus' blanket complete and Jane's using up what I thought would be most of the remaining yarn, I was feeling confident that these large bags would be gone very soon. 

And then to find that Jane's blanket wasn't consuming enough yarn? Sigh. What a dunce I am.  There is going to be lots left. Half of Jane's blanket is done but there is still a ton of yarn to go.  

To make matters worse, just after lunch, this arrived.  

Suddenly, there was yarn falling out of the giant bags again, littering the living room.  Six balls, two of each of three colours of Blanket.  These are Cassie's choices for her blanket. The navy is not in the teal multi colour but it looks great with both multi  and the lighter solid teal. Colour can be challenging when you buy online but this combination really works. I will start her blanket as soon as I get Jane's completed.  

By the end of next week, I hope the big yarn blanket saga is done.  The Sock Monkey Cabin Blanket will still need work, but that is smaller yarn and smaller needles and is much easier on my hands.

I am looking forward to that.  Maybe come deep winter, I will be working with lace weight.  

Leftovers and WIPs

In the continuing saga of blankets,  these are the two bags containing the last of the Sock Monkey Cabin Bankets.   I am including the link here because if you haven't made one yet, and you are interested, don't say I didn't warn you, but they are addictive.  It's hard to stop.

I knit a few rows on this on Friday.  It didn't feel quite right.  

This is the bag of leftovers from all the bright Blanket Brights for all five of Scott and Amy's boys. There is also a full ball of School Bus Yellow, a full ball of Race Car Red and a full ball of white that are not shown here.

This is the bag of leftovers from Marcus' blanket.

I have tons of yarn left to make sweet Jane a blanket too.  Jane is Amy's sister's daughter and she shares my birthday, which we think is pretty cool.  The Sock Monkey Cabin that is on the needles is for her mom and dad, so it is only right to make a blanket for her too.

I decided to go with the Larksfoot blanket .  All these various ends will work together well using a pattern that is all about merging and blending rows.  Plus it is a fun crochet pattern to work.

Picking the colours as I go is such a fun way to work.  Its like making a monster sock (scrap yarn socks) only with chunkier yarn.  I love these bright colours and am really going to miss them when they are gone.  Sort of but not really?  I feel very ambivalent about it.  I love the colour and the way the fiber feels but I am not going to miss the weight of the yarn.  It was hard to put down and I ended up doing much more than I had thought I would.  Saturday and Sunday I had to give my hands a bit of a break.  

I worked on a sock WIP Friday evening.  My hands were tired but I just needed to knit.  I finished sock one Saturday afternoon and I am really pleased with it.  

During the racing I did pick up and put down the sock off and on and made a fair bit of progress.

Is it possible that I will get two pairs done this year?

And then I knit on my lovely lovely version of Laura Aylor's Sun Dogs in the Comfort Sport in the Pesto and Kelp colourways from Midknit Cravings.

I tried to show you this garment hanging so you could see just how stunning it is going to be but I just couldn't  do it.  This is best photo but it doesn't do it justice.  Though I did the top of the sweater quite differently from the pattern, the entire inspiration is Sun Dogs.  And that gorgeous Kelp colourway trim along the edge?  I would love to do a whole sweater in the greens.  It is so rich looking.  I am going to love this sweater.  

I am going to push on the blankets, though and save the sweater and socks for evening knitting.  I just would love to get all the blankets done.  They have been fun, but I have so many more things I want to do.  The ideas are piling up in my head and the seams are bursting.  I can't wait to pop the ideas and the projects and the beautiful yarns in my stash out into the world.

Mochi and Casper are Done!

Marcus' blanket for Mochi and Casper is done.  The soft brown grey and cream is exactly what Mochi looks like from nose to toes and the ripe wheat yellow and caramel are the colours of much loved Casper's fur. The green is Casper's eyes and

the tiny spot of blue are tiny Mochi's eyes.  

It isn't a lot of blue but Mochi's blue eyes will change colour as he ages and grows.  They were most gloriously blue though.  He is such a pretty kitten and though Casper will never be forgotten by Marcus, he is a pretty good buddy. This is a blanket with colours chosen by Marcus so he could be wrapped in the heart of his much loved pets.  For him it is a blanket of heart and memories and love.  

This is why I love all my kids.  They each have such a special place in my heart.  They question, they ponder about the world and their place in in and are happy to talk about books and things they love and they fill me with love.  I am one lucky grandma. 

I am also a knitter who just finished a big project and doesn't quite know what to pick up now.  I have tons of WIPs so there is lots to choose from but I am not sure I am feeling them.  Maybe socks?  

The biggest problem is that since late June, I have had bag of Bernat blanket all over the place.  At one point there were three of the giant Walmart/Ikea shopping bags filled with them standing in the living room and my room. I have knit seven blankets since June, Six of them with Blanket and one with Bernat Velvet. I have enjoyed it, and am really looking forward to doing Cassie's with yarn chosen by her, in her own inimitable style.

However, I still have a bag of the stuff.  A big bag.  With a lot of yarn.  AND to top it off I have one last Sock Monkey Cabin Blanket on the go sitting by the sofa and I would love to get that done too.  

The Sock Monkey Cabin blanket is using the last parts of what was leftover from knitting that same blanket  six times a few years ago.  I was going to give this one to Amy's sister, if I ever get it done. Part of me wants to take all the leftover Blanket yarn and make a blanket for that same sister's little girl who is is very close to Amy and who just happens to share my birthday.  It would be nice to get it all done and move whatever ends remain off to someone else who can use the yarn.  

And then there is a blanket awaiting me from some blue yarn that Marcus shopped for and that Cassie and he thought would be the best Christmas present for Grandma.  I started and frogged a blanket from it already.  I have a plan for it though and I am really looking forward to it.   That might be my New Year's cast on for 2024.  

So even though I feel like I have finished blankets, there is Cassie's to do as soon as the yarn arrives and The Sock Monkey Cabin Blanket and something using all the Blanket Brights for Jane as well as my own.

I used to think of myself as a sweater knitter.  Maybe I am a blanket knitter in disguise.   

Blankets = Fun

I was absorbed by blanket making yesterday.  Completely absorbed.  I did not do any of my household chores and am going to have to pay for it today because if I don't, I will run out of dishes to eat from and clothes to wear.  The only solution is going to be pajamas all day and takeout for dinner tonight because blanket making is just so much fun.  And I am not even kidding. 

The first thing I did before starting the sewing process was to play around a bit with the squares.  There is only a limited amount of play because of the four very large squares.  Had I been able to do five, there may have been a few more options and still have some balance. This is also one of the differences between people like me and true artists.  They would have seen dozens of layouts and found balance even with four.  I only see these.

This was my first layout.  I liked it but I felt the dark brown was too concentrated at the center.  I played around and came up with this. 

I liked the way the Casper squares looked here better.  They felt like they fit rather than being appendages on a wing.  That's what I went with.

The sewing began and rather than being tedious, it was just joy.  Pure play.  

One of the nicest thing about this yarn is how the ends are able to hide in among all the rest.  It is just this big puffy cushy pile of fun.

It took all day, but the whole blanket is sewn together.  About half the ends are woven in too.  

The next trick is going to be the border and I am really looking forward to it.  Then there is the sweet finishing of putting the blue eyes in the center of the dusky chocolate squares. They might not be flashy, but per request by the owner, there has to be some blue for Mochi's kitten eyes.

After that Cassie's blanket and then no more blankets.  Maybe.  Because blankets are really fun.

Blanket, Unassembled.

This is what most of a blanket looks like before it is assembled.  

I still have a few green squares to make

and then it will be time to decide if I make even smaller squares or do I  stay with this same size square. 

I have all sorts of yarn remaining, so I can do either, but I really want to add a bit more of the yellow and caramel.  That tiny bit in the bag is all that remains so if I want to use those colours, it has to be small squares. 

The advantage of even smaller squares is that tiny squares of the caramel and the yellow will help spread around the Casper colours.  It will make the Casper squares look less like outliers and the whole blanket more cohesive.  Plus the small squares are wonderfully fast to make.  The disadvantage is the sewing.  Smaller squares means much, much more sewing.  Its a toss up but I have a feeling that I am going to end up going with smaller squares, just to help get those last bits of yellow and caramel into the blanket. 

I ought to be able to finish the rest of the squares today and then it is going to be a few days of intense sewing.  I may get a bit of a break after that till I do Cassie's blanket.  Cassie and I ordered it straight from the Yarnspirations website just last week.  She had a very particular colour selection in mind after seeing the yarn in stores on her shopping expeditions with Mom and Babusya.  Sometimes it is fast shipping and sometimes, it isn't.  Time will tell but I really hope that it comes quickly. Cassie and I also picked out the pattern for her blanket, and I am really looking forward to getting it going. I have loved making these blankets for all my kiddo's but it will be nice to be done.

Socks!

I picked up a sock this weekend.  It gave a break to my hands, and to my brain.

I didn't really have much of a plan for this other than a plain sock.  The last few days, I have been knitting on it after working on the granny squares for the current blanket.  Row by row, a bit each day and here we are, almost magically.

As I neared the point of the heel, I debated what I was going to do.  I have been a bit unhappy with sock in general lately.  I wear socks out right before the heel section on the bottom of my feet, where I usually double the strands of yarn.  This has helped but the worst of the wear is 5 to 10 rows before the heel begins.  Besides this trouble, my feet size has changed.  After my medical issues were resolved and my edema issues sorted themselves out, I no longer have kanckles, I have honest to goodness ankles.  I am now knitting a 64 stitch sock, whereas before, I was usually knitting 68 or even 72.  And my feet are about a half inch shorter.  It is like discovering a whole new set of feet so far as knitting socks are concerned.     

The best way to knit a longer double stranded section is to do a heel flap heel.  Because I knit toe up socks, I use the instructions following the toe up gusseted heel tutorial from the Maia Spins blog.  This is a long quiet blog, but her post from 16 years ago is still the best toe up gusseted heel or heel flap heel on the internet.  It teaches you how to figure out what you need for your own feet.  It puts you in the drivers seat and teaches you to understand how to think about a heel and I like that.

 I am going to knit longer socks this time too.  I have gone with a maximum 4 inch cuff for a very long time, but I seem to be wearing all my longer pairs more than the shorties.  I have lots of yarn on this generous ball of Opal so long cuffs it is.

I haven't done a heel flap in ages, so it was kind of fun. And more fun is on the horizon.  Sock two awaits.

Of Cats and All That

It's been a busy sort of week here with grandkids and more grandkids on the weekend.  But I love, love love having them here.  Nothing keeps me feeling young like talking to my grandkids.  I am so, so lucky to be able to have them visit this much.  Cassie and I had this amazing talk  about books last night. She asked if I had read all the books in my library, so then we talked different books and about this book series she has read and that I have read the first one of. It was just one of those very special moments.

Now, where was I?  Oh yes.  I remember now. 

The four large squares are complete.  I was hoping for five but I just don't think the cream will last.  The grey is pretty iffy too.  

I am thinking about making a square that is similar in colour but not in size.  I might be able to get a square half the size of these, using the same colour layout.

If I was making this for myself, I would use up every bit of and the truly beautiful multi colours to fill in the rest of the blanket, but this is not my blanket.  The owner had specific reasons for his colour choices, the love of his cats, so cats we are going for.  At the moment I am working on squares with the Casper colours.  They are the soft ripe wheat yellow and the caramel with the green to match his eyes.  

I have been avoiding the blue for this blanket but I was told that I need blue because Mochi's eyes are the brilliant clear Ragdoll blue.  I have a feeling they will change though, as Ragdoll eyes are prone to do, but time will tell.   The blue velvet is going to step in, held double, to stand for Mochi's eyes and only a very little bit will be used.

I did one of the Casper colour squares last evening, but I had to pull it back this morning.  I only have a 100 m ball of each of the caramel and the yellow, and I need at least four squares to carry the colours and Casper through the blanket.  I need to be a bit careful with how much I use for each individual square.  

My that looks frighteningly orange, but I promise, it isn't.   

I haven't quite determined the layout yet.  This may be foolish.  Okay it is a foolish way to make a blanket but I have to work with what I have so I am just going to do as many squares as I can in each range and then lay out all the squares to see what I can create.  The marvelous multi will fill in and so will the green and the brown.   

This might be living dangerously, but it sure is fun. 

Any One Colour

I have only one ball of each of these three colours.  They grey is being consumed at an alarming pace.

I did three rounds of crochet in it and though I will have enough for 4 squares, I may not have enough for the five I was hoping for.  It is what it is and I have two skeins of the multi colour and I have not used any of the green yet nor have I used any of the gold or caramel.  I have lots of yarn.  

I may have to change the layout from what is in my head to something a bit different if I run out of any one colour of yarn.  None of that will matter until I have to put it all together and put on the border.  The project is moving along.

I had a chance to do a wee bit of knitting on the Linger cardigan too. Oh. My. Gosh.  I am going to love this sweater.

Of Casper and Mochi

This is Casper.  

He was Marcus' most beloved friend and their household's oldest cat.  When Casper died earlier this year, Marcus was bereft.  He still loves his Casper.

This is Mochi. 

Mochi is the new kitten in their house.  Mochi came in September, right about the time I was getting ready to make the last few blankets.

It allowed me to buy blanket yarn that would be the colours of Marcus' two beloved cats.  

I just love the way it is working out.  Very very Mochi.  The plan is to make five large squares and fill in all the spaces with various solid squares on these colours as well as one with a variegated yarn in these colours.  Among those solid colour squares will be a few smaller squares that will remind Marcus of Casper, in his tabby orange and gold.  The orange and gold might not be quite perfectly matchy matchy but this is a blanket of the heart, not a blanket for decor.  Heart blankets trump all others.

All of these blankets have been heart blankets.  I love all my little boys and my dearest granddaughter.  They are my heart.  

In spain2

Maybe

By Saturday afternoon,  I had this much left from the second ball of grey yarn and I was ready to cast off.

I knew I would have to work around the blanket to secure all the yarn carries and there wasn't enough of the grey left or at least I didn't thin so.  I did have a massive amount of the blue so blue it would be.

I had left the yarn carries loose as I worked up the blanket.  With this ultra slippery yarn, I had trouble weaving it in.  I can't explain what was happening, but every time I looked, after doing what I usually do to catch it as I go up, the darn stuff was not caught.  

In the end, I just left it and decided to work an edge.  I tried a single crochet edge with one strand of yarn, it just didn't look right. I had an extra skein of blue so I knew that no matter what, I would have loads of yarn.  So doubled it was.

That worked out really nicely, giving the blanket a frame it didn't have before. I am really pleased with it and it feel gorgeous.

The blanket is 45 inches by 50 ish inches.  Its perfect really for a snuggle under while watching movies sort of blanket for a 9 year old boy.

And this is all that was left from two balls of the grey and one of the blue.

I have enough left over for another entire blanket.

But I am not going to make one.  Nope.  This is going in the donate pile.  It is lovely to have it running through your hands, but after Cassie and Marcus' blankets, I am pretty much done with blankets.

Forever.  

Maybe. 

Pondering Socks. Again.

The thing about finishing a pair of socks and looking for any other socks to work on is that it creates a problem.

For the very first time in my life I am pondering ripping back a sock completely because I  am not happy with how I am making it.  

My go to response to anyone who actually does this routinely and hates doing it but feels bad if they don't do it is  "It's a sock".  No one will ever notice what you feel is a problem when it is on your feet."  And it is true.  No knitter ever has been stopped, as they are walking down the street wearing their socks,  by some random person saying "your heel graft isn't stockinette all the way", or "your toes are a different stitch count" ( 12 vs 13)." or "even your lace stitch is one yarn over out" (till you fix it to keep the pattern or course).    If your sock is technically right and fits reasonably, no one will ever notice it unless you point it out.

No one will know, unless it bugs you.  It has never ever bugged me before.  

However on this sock with its pretty lace pattern, it bugs me.  When the pattern is knit to the book, the lace design is as it is at the top of the sock.  When it is knit with my errors happening, it looks like near the toe.    

Neither will affect the wear of the sock.  The thing is that I will probably look at them each time I wear them and think, "yeah I should have done this like..."  just the same way that I sigh and say "I really love handknit socks" when I slip on a really great pair.  The question on this pair of socks is will the former outweigh the latter question or will the latter outweigh the former?  Sigh.

This is why I write this blog.  To work out these great questions about really little things in my mind.  As I sit here writing, I realize just how much of a luxury this is.  I realize just how privileged I am to be able to spend a hint of energy and time caring what a small column of stitches look like on this sock.    

I think I will keep them as is.  They will be a reminder to add to those other questions I say to myself when I put them on, "I am an incredibly lucky a person to have enough time, enough warmth, enough safety to care."         

Fortunes of Cookies

We had Chinese food from the local diner last night. It was delicious as usual and as always, we finished off with fortune cookies.  This was my fortune.    

So that is what I am going to do today.