One year later...

my life has gotten even whackier since I last posted in October '09. I can't believe it's been that long, yet the time seems to've flown by. We 3 girls were so busy, last year and this, taking Mom from one Dr. appt. to another, sometimes 5 times a week. There was so little time for any of us to get much done. Knitting and spinning took a serious backseat to everything else - and is still there, sadly.

We were so busy, it even put our schooling behind a full month this year, so we had a greatly shortened Summer break, much to the kids' (and my) disgust. Not to mention it was a very hot, nasty Summer - ugh!

Well, things got vastly worse for Mom when she fell Aug. 1st and ended up with a very severe concussion, a broken upper arm, sprained wrist and ankle, and bruises from head to toe, literally :-(. She's still in rehab and not making much progress. She's so frustrated, and so are we, not being able to make things better. Taking life one day at a time is not the easiest thing to do for us - we "do" rather than talk about stuff. Well, most of the time. Getting older, I've discovered I "do" a lot less than I used to! But poor Mom can hardly do anything for herself at all, which is so disheartening for her. Our hearts break for her, for she is such a proud and independent woman. Now, she must depend on others for absolutely everything. Truly, being old and infirm is a great suffering; like no other, really.

I tried hard to spin a good quantity of my fibers, really pouring it on during the 2010 Ravelympics. I managed to get a lot done,...

but precious little serious knitting has happened at all this year. I managed to produce a few shaped hip wraps/neck "throws", plus a few hemp hand towels and wash cloths. (I designed something I named 'The Slink', but Shelly, Twist yarn shop owner, had to put it into a pattern form that people could actually understand...). I think she's got the pattern for sale on Ravelry, but I haven't gone to look yet. Maybe I should do that. One of these days...

I *did* manage to finish two pair of socks that had been on the needles for over a year, each. All they needed was binding off...good grief. No, no pics (yet) of the socks or The Slink and its variants. Maybe I can talk dd into taking some for me.

. The first sock is of Noro Kureyon sock yarn, S182. I started it sometime in '09, using the Crosshatch Lace from Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks book. Doubled the yarn for the Kitchener (sewn) bind-off, as the yarn seems SO fragile and inadequate for all that pulling through innumerable, tiny stitches.

The second pair is of Austermann Step (I think) yarn, and my dd calls them my Breakfast Socks - LOL. Well, I guess the colors DO look a lot like breakfast food: eggs, bacon, toast and coffee - LOL. The design is partly my own, but I used Cat Bordhi's top-of-the-foot increase found in "New Pathways For Socks" for the gusset (a 'V' with point closest to the toes). I 'closed' the gusset, after the heel flap, in another 'V' pointing upwards to the back of my knee. I really will try to get photos of that. This sock, as ugly as it is (I've never made such ugly socks in my life!) fits FABulously. They are, feet down, the best-fitting socks I've EVER made.