Toe-Up Sock Pattern

I've shared my socks on Facebook for a while now, and everybody has been asking for the pattern.  So I finally got my act together and here it is:

                                             
                                          Toe-up Socks

Materials and tools:

1 set of double pointed needles, size 2 (US)

Fine sock yarn, about 400 yards.  This usually takes most of two 1.76 oz skeins for adult size

Yarn needle, tape measure, scissors, small crochet hook for picking up stitches

KFB=increase, knit stitch as usual but don’t slide off left needle, then insert needle into back of stitch and knit another, then slide original stitch off needle.

SSK=decrease, Slip two stitches as to knit, slip left needle in the front of both stitches, wrap yarn around right needle & pull through, slipping off onto right needle

Sized for infants-toddlers, older child and adult sizes in parentheses

Toe & Foot:

Cast on 8 (8, 12, 12) stitches. Knit one row straight across.

Pick up 8 (8, 12, 12) stitches on the other side.

Round 1:  Knit 1, KFB, knit 4 stitches, with another needle knit the next four stitches, KFB, K 1.  Go to last needle-K 1, KFB, knit to last 2 stitches, KFB, K1

Round 2:  Knit around.

Continue rows 1 and 2 until you have 28 (36, 48, 64) stitches on your needles total.

Knit in the round until the length of the foot is 2 inches shorter than the length of your foot. (For an infant about 1 ½”, for a toddler about 2 ½”, for an older child about 4”, an average woman, about 6 ½”, for a man 7” or 7 ½”)

Gusset Increases:

Round 1:

Needle 1: K1, KFB, knit to end.

            Needle 2: Knit to last 2 stitches, KFB, K!

            Needle 3: Knit across

Round 2:

            Knit around

Repeat Rounds 1 and 2 until there are a total of 40 (48, 64, 84) stitches on your needles.

Forming Heel:

Knit 7 (8, 12, 16) stitches from first needle.  These stitches will rest for a bit.

            SSK, Knit 10 (12, 12, 18) stitches. 

            Divide the rest of the stitches evenly on two needles, including the first 7 (8, 12, 16) you knitted.

            Row 1: Working back and forth: Row 1-P 2 together, purl across row, turn

            Row 2: SSK, knit across row.

            Repeat rows 1 & 2 until there are 6 (6, 8, 8) stitches left on needle, ending with the right side facing.

Heel Flap:

            Slip 1, knit across.  Pick up 6 (8, 9, 11) stitches from the increase edge you created when extending for the heel

Turn, slip 1, P across picked up stitches and the heel stitches. Pick up and purl 6 (8, 9, 11) stitches on the other edge you created with the heel formation.

Turn, you should have 18 (22, 26, 30) stitches on your heel needle.

Row 1:  (K 1, slip 1 as to purl), repeat between () to the last stitch.  Slip last stitch onto needle, slip one stitch from reserved stitches and knit both stitches together.

            Row 2:  Turn, slip 1 as to purl, purl across row to last stitch.  Slip stitch onto needle, slip one stitch from reserved stitches and purl both stitches together.

            Repeat rows 1 & 2 until you have a total of 28 (36, 48, 64) stitches on all your needles again, ending with a purl row.

Leg:

            Divide stitches back onto 3 needles again.  Work, knitting in rounds until leg is as long as you want.

Cuff:

            Work in K 2 P 2 ribbing until cuff is as long as you want.  Bind off.

Baby and toddler socks are the most fun!

Summer

We've been sailing through this summer, here it is August-don't know how it got here so soon! We thought we were going to have a very hot summer, but after the fourth of July it cooled down to balmy.

I'm still teaching a class on Wednesdays, it morphed from knitting to crocheting and from adults to kids. It's a good thing, there are plenty of latchkey kids out there, having something to do in the summer is a very good thing. Sydney has been staying with us. He's here all week and goes home on the weekends. His mom moved to Atlanta so we get to enjoy his company. He's been taking classes at the shop too, gets him out of the house and away from electronic screens.

On Tuesdays through the summer the Bozeman city band plays at Bogert Park in conjunction with the Tuesday farmer's market. So far Stan and I haven't missed any.

A lovely way to spend a summer evening, listening to a variety of music, watching the kids play, inhaling the scent from the barbecue vendors, and munching on freshly picked Montana Flathead cherries.

I get a little knitting done while I listen, unless it's too cold, it is Montana after all!

I haven't done much sewing, a few wedding gifts, but I really have the itch to make some new clothes for myself. The Manhattan Potato Festival is next week so first I want to be sure I have a good stock of items for the shop, she should have lots of traffic that day. Then some new tops for fall.

I've knitted something special but I can't reveal it until after Saturday. It's a very special gift, I can't wait for the recipient to see it-she might cry and I might too!

Fun Stuff

We've had a really warm spring so far, actually our winter was pretty mild, a huge contrast to the eastern part of the United States. I've been selling a few things at the shop, but so far I'm just paying my rent. I've been working on some spring things, Deb said they're short on tiny girl's stuff.

So I'm making some sun hats:

I started this shawl a couple of years ago, it was intended for working on while sipping my coffee on my Mexican balcony. But it got too big to take so I worked on it sporadically at home. It's a little long, but I wanted to finish the color sequence. It's mine, I think, lol!

This was also a take-along pattern. I got impatient so I finished it. It's a Drops pattern, the patterns are translated from Norwegian and many things are lost in translation. I persisted and figured it out. It's for my gift stash, I couldn't get enough for it to sell in the shop. My niece is pregnant, maybe she'll get it if she has a boy.

Today is a big day, I'm going to start teaching knitting! My first class is toe-up socks. I rewrote a pattern and added child and toddler's sizes, got the pattern copied and I'm ready to go. I hope I can instill a love of knitting in others, it's been something I've loved to do ever since I swiped my mom's books and yarn and taught myself at age 11.

Busy January

I had decided my jobs for the new year were to first get some things ready to take to to the gift shop, then knuckle down and really clean my sewing room. Got the stuff to the shop and now I'm working on that room. I decided if I didn't have storage for something it was going out, so I ruthlessly sorted my fabric.

I ended up with seven, yes seven bags of fabric to give away! It is a mix of scraps and full pieces. I had a huge bag of fleece scraps, our adopted granddaughter took it to the retirement home where she works and they're going to piece lap robes, a cool idea. I advertised in some of the local classified pages on Facebook and it's gradually going away. I'm down to three bags. A big bag of scraps went to the local 4H group for sewing practice. I thought about giving it all to Goodwill, but I knew if I advertised it the fabric would go to people who appreciated it. Someone is coming in the morning to look at the rest, hopefully she'll take it all.

Here's a disgusting before picture. It had been a really long time since I'd done anything.

Here's the same bookcase after sorting. This is my quilt fabric. I also have places for purse fabrics, apparel fabric, knits, fleece and flannel. Rolling it really helps to keep it neater.

This was in Stan's mom's stash. Made in France-I need to make something special out of it. The bad thing about being a sewer is that when people find out you sew, they give you all kinds of fabric and notions. So far I've been too nice to say no, you never know what treasures there might be, but I'm practicing my "no!" as we speak.

Twirly scarves for the gift shop.

Potato baker bags. These are so cool-you wash your potato, wrap it in a paper towel and microwave it in the bag. They turn out delicious! I also brought in a pile of other things, including bowl cozies.

I'm going to shy away from fabric stores for a while, I still have enough down there to keep me busy until I die!

I'm Alive!

My friends were probably wondering what happened to me. Well, I got sick, really sick. Just before we left for Mazatlan I got what I thought were back spasms. Then I developed a cough and it hurt my back to breathe. I went for acupuncture twice and my acupuncturist was concerned when the pain didn't go away, he felt there was something wrong with my heart and lungs. He advised me to go to a Western doctor if I wasn't better after my trip.

Well, I was sick the whole two weeks, finally the Tuesday before we left for home I called a doctor. I figured it was pneumonia and he treated me for that. But I didn't get better, I started getting worse. We had a long flight home that Friday with three layovers, we left at 6:00 A.M. and got home at midnight. I couldn't walk through the airports so I requested wheelchairs.

The next morning, after sleeping sitting up on the couch I got dressed and had Stan drive me to Urgent Care. They flipped out! They took a chest x-ray and started a breathing treatment. When the x-ray was developed the physician's assistant sent me to the hospital, she said my heart was enlarged. She wanted to call an ambulance but I thought it was silly, given that Stan was in the waiting room and I'd survived 18 hours of flying the day before.

After several hours in the ER I was diagnosed with viral pericarditis. The pericardium is a sac around your heart and mine was full of fluid,  my heart was enlarged and my inflammation markers were off the chart. Plus the albuterol from the breathing treatment put me in a fib. I was admitted and spent two hellish days battling with the staff-they didn't care that I was either allergic or sensitive to ask the drugs they gave me. I was sicker when I left the hospital than when I was admitted.

After being discharged I spent the next few weeks sleeping sitting up on the couch. It became obvious that if I didn't want to be sick anymore I'd have to take matters in my own hands, so I started taking colloidal silver. They had told me that the virus in my heart could be any kind-cold, flu, stomach bug-it was in my body and chose to hit my heart. Colloidal silver is a fantastic antiviral and it worked.

I was really sick a total of about 2 1/2 months. Just before my birthday I went for acupuncture and he told me I had really scared him. He did a moxa or mugwort treatment and by Sunday I was almost completely well! Thanksgiving was tough but our great kids came over and did all the cooking and cleanup. By Christmas I was able to do pretty much everything

I still have to be careful, no jogging yet or heavy lifting but I feel so thankful to have survived. I told Stan the best Christmas gift I got was that I got to live. He was pretty happy about that, too! I actually have been knitting and started sewing again just after Christmas.

It's been so cold I made the dogs some sweaters. Chloe loves hers but Merlin hated his and rolled around on the floor until it came off. Silly boy, wait until he gets a haircut, he'll like it then!

These are bowl cozies. You place your bowl of soup or whatever in it and put it in the microwave and it keeps you from burning your fingers when you take it out. I made 24 and gave them as Christmas gifts. 

The grandkids didn't get homemade pajamas this year, I wasn't up to that until too late too get them done.

I quit my job just before we left for Mexico. I do miss it, but there was a situation I couldn't tolerate. I am enjoying my free time very much and I have a burning desire to do tons of sewing and knitting. And I've been asked to give knitting classes at a new craft/gift shop here in town-that should be a real hoot!

Serenity

The dogs and I are sitting on the porch, knitting and enjoying this lovely spring day.

I suspect the dogs are more interested in scouting out something to bark at. Well I just heard thunder, the storm they promised is moving in. Time to go put supper on the table.

Hats, Hats, Hats!

So far, I have all the Yoda ears stiffened and drying and I just cast on for the last hat. I have the hats for the boys' siblings done as well. I can't wait until she gets all the hats! She thinks she's paying for them, but they're going to be a family gift.

Her oldest is twelve so I figured he wouldn't be too keen on Yoda so I made a basic hat in his school colors.

The only girl is 8 I believe, so she gets lavender.

Now I must apply myself so I can mail them this week yet. She wants them for Easter so that would be enough time. Oh, I did send the first one off to get an idea of size, and they loved it! And it looks soooo cute on the baby. I'll see if she minds my sharing pictures.

Yoda

My adopted daughter-in-law sent me a picture of the cutest Yoda hat and wondered if I could make three for her youngest boys by Easter. I found the pattern on Ravelry and set to work. The pattern was written by a gal in New Zealand and she used a DK weight yarn. Not finding what I wanted I went with worsted and made some pattern adjustments. One is finished and I'll mail it today. I made the newborn size for her six month old and if it fits him I'll know where to go. If it fits the two year old I'll reduce the stitch count even more. Then from there I can figure out what the six year old needs. Sure glad I have time!

It's a fun pattern to do and sewing on the ears was a lot easier than I expected. They are stiffened so they stand out a bit.

While I'm waiting I'd better finish some WIPs that are nudging me. Have a stole almost finished and I'm experimenting with a sweater for me. If you're interested in the pattern just go to Ravelry and do a search. I love Ravelry! Oh, and while I'm sharing the love, I have to thank The Yarn Box for putting up a link to my crochet Swiffer cover. That was so nice!

Will I Get It Done?

One of my favorite barristas is having a baby in a few weeks. My friend Sherry and I are invited to her shower, which is Friday. I threw yarn and needles into my suitcase and started a sweater while we were in Mazatlan.

What better place for knitting and morning coffee?

Panting a little, but getting there. I'm doing the sleeves together, my second skein of yarn seemed to have a subtle difference in color, so I thought if wouldn't be as noticeable. So far I can't see a difference, I think it was how it was wound. The yarn is so old the labels are gone. I bet it's over 20 years old.

The yarn is a pompadour, usually I don't mind working with it, but this one likes to twist, the air is dry and the yarn sticks to my dry fingers. I'll be glad to be finished.

I'm giving her one of my hankie bonnets and some booties from my stash, too. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures when the little girl is born.

Merry Christmas to All!

Here is a small sample of why I haven't been posting lately. That and I've just been slacking.

These are pillow beds, kind of a long quadruple pillowcase, just right for sleepovers or movie watching. The three youngest grands are getting these.

PJs for the older grands and the adults.

Made a bunch of these and filled them with tiny candy canes and kisses to give to friends.

Made a few of these, some are a gift for my new friend Sherry.

My health is great, trying to stay warm. It's not as bad as it was a couple of weeks ago. On my birthday it was colder in Montana than it was at the South Pole!  But Montanans are tough, we still went out to dinner and to a local production of "White Christmas."

I'll post more pics after gift opening. Gracie and I made something special for her mom-actually I made it, she got distracted by all the fabric in my sewing room so pretty soon it turned into a sewing lesson for three kids. I ended up teaching them how to sew on fleece and they made little scarves for their stuffed animals. Grace even put "To Rosetta from Mom" on the gift tag. Too precious!

Delivered!

The couple that I made the blanket for were in Helena last weekend for a pow wow, so Stan and I made a little road trip to bring them the gift.  We had a blast at the pow wow and were so honored to sit with the dancers. Kris' drum group was the host drum so they played for almost every dance.  Made for a late night, Helena is about an hour and a half from here, but well worth it.

Amanda was due on October 8 but the drive back to Poplar (about eight hours) must have started things, she had the baby last night! Mahto Witko "Crazy Bear" weighed in at six pounds thirteen ounces and is beautiful!

I ran out of the multi colored yarn and it's been discontinued, so I edged it with the teal. I like it and so did they.

I'm on my Kindle and my other photos of the pow wow are on my laptop, so hopefully I'll share them later.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Lots of stuff going on, not sure why it's so busy but here we are at the end of summer.  How did that happen?

I took Sam to Starbucks for his birthday coffee.  He's playing a game on my Kindle.

Started a pair of socks to keep in the car.  It's been just too hot to knit something big, even though I should be. 

I love the colorway in this yarn.  I love this yarn, it's 50% Merino wool, 25% nylon and 25% bamboo.  Soft as a baby's bottom!

The blanket is growing.  I decided to make it for a friend who is due to have a baby next month.  Except she told me that she's been having contractions all day.  I might have to burn some midnight oil!

It's so cool how you just pick up the stitches instead of sewing the squares together.  I think I'd like to make one in two colors and do an even pattern instead of the random I'm doing here.  Gotta get this one done, first!

Still going back and forth to the doctor, but I think I'm on my way to recovery.  By replenishing my potassium I've pretty much stopped the afib and SVT.  But I was having a hard time finding a blood pressure drug that didn't have terrible side effects.  Gotta love allergies!  Anyway, I decided to completely wean myself off all blood pressure meds and control it with diet and exercise, with the blessing of my doctor.  It seems to be going well, it's only been a couple of days but I'm okay.  The doctor prescribed a pill that is half the dose of my current one, so when I started cutting it would be easier.  They are triangular shaped and halving them is fine, but quartering them makes crumbs.  The half dose will cut just fine and will be the equivalent of a quarter of the larger pill.  My acupuncturist is working to help the transition too, and has ordered some Chinese herbs to go along with his work.

I am starting to feel great, so grateful for that!

Those Plans...

Remember yesterday when I said I was going to visit Sherry if God didn't have something else planned?  Well He did.  About 7:30 this morning my heart went into supraventricular tachycardia.  Goody, now I have two kinds of heart malfunctions!  Actually had both for many many years but now I have names and a cause.  I called the cardiologist and at 9:45 when they hadn't called back I called them and told them I was going to the emergency room.  "Well, you can have a 1:00 appointment if you like."  Grrrrr-"No, I think this requires more than an appointment." 

Once again I could avoid triage just by saying "heart arrhythmia or chest pains."  Into the wheelchair and off to a trauma room.  Today didn't take as long, all the tests were run last Tuesday.  The ER doctor came in and injected a drug in my IV that would (hopefully) immediately pull me out of tachycardia.  It did, not necessarily a pleasant experience, but it worked.  They watched me for a couple hours and sent me home.  I blame my more recent troubles on the beta blocker the cardiologist gave me, so I'm skipping it tonight and taking my old beta blocker.  The I'll call them tomorrow.  I am just ready for normal!

The blanket is progressing, I'm getting into the next repeat of colors.  It's sitting out on the deck right now, finally got cool enough without rain so I can work outside.  Maybe tomorrow I'll feel well enough to go see Sherry.  Must call her!

Crazy, Crazy!

The saying, "People plan, God laughs" really held true for me this week.  First I agreed to have coffee with my new friend Sherry and a young lady we both know on Monday afternoon.  The young lady grew up with my son and it was great to see her again.  We were having a grand time when Sherry got up to go to the ladies' room.  A little background-the coffee shop tore up their floors and are in the process of varnishing and buffing the concrete that was underneath.  They never thought, however, that it would leave a 3/4" difference between the shop floor and the hallway floor, and the restrooms were down the hallway.  Sherry tripped over the ledge into the hallway onto the slate floor, shattering her kneecap.  Thankfully, the urgent care was right next door so I brought my car as close as I could, loaded her up and drove around to let her off at the entrance to urgent care.  I stayed with her until her husband showed up.  She had surgery the next day to have the very messed up kneecap reassembled.  Poor girl, but she's doing alright, I talked to her Friday and she is even cooking for herself.  I hope to go to her place for coffee and a visit tomorrow unless God has other plans!

Early Tuesday morning, like 3:00, I was woken up suddenly with chest pains.  I rode it out as long as I could and Stan took me to the same urgent care at 8:00.  As we walked in I turned to him and said, "Watch me be pushed to the front of the line."  "No way," he said, "There are others waiting."  I walked up to the desk and said, "I'm having chest pains."  The rest was a blur of wheelchairs, gurneys, EKGs, and nervous nurses who were trying to put in an IV.  The ambulance showed up in seconds, literally.  It's a small town and the EMTs are housed in the fire hall, about 5 blocks from urgent care.

So off I go, a little embarrassed, in the ambulance to the hospital which is 10 miles away.  The EMT told me I probably wasn't having a heart attack-we chatted the whole way in and my pain was mostly gone at that point.  I had a strong feeling it was an esophageal spasm brought on by my lovely acid reflux.  At the hospital they joked I got the VIP room-the trauma room reserved for heart attacks and auto accident victims.

Long story short, I was run through the testing-more (many more) EKGs, CT scans, blood tests, you name it.  At the end of the long day-5:00-it was decided I didn't have a heart attack and they could release me but the ER doctor, a woman, requested that I go to the cardiologist on Friday to have a stress echo test.  She said women present with different heart attack symptoms so she wanted to be super sure.  I had to see my own doctor on Friday, too.  I spent those days doctoring my reflux, which improved every day.  Now, for years, like over 30, I have had heart flutters.  I have had all kinds of tests, but have never been able to capture it on an EKG.  Friday morning I woke up in A fib and stayed that way.  When I walked into the cardio lab, I told them it was their lucky day!  We got a beautiful take and ultrasound of my heart flutters.  Turns out my heart is strong and there is no coronary artery disease (yay!) BUT I have A fib, caused by a leaky valve.  Had it all my life!  Crazy!

Anyway, all we have to do, since the leak is miniscule, is up my beta blockers and take a baby aspirin.  Oh yeah, and run their treadmill again every year.  Stan does his in January, my treadmill will be in July-we are heart patients together!  I feel lots better, and today the esophagus is almost completely better-took a long, long time.  I am have a little trouble adjusting to the beta blocker, been sleeping a lot, but I'll get there and if this one doesn't work there are others. 

Riding in an ambulance was never on my bucket list, but I guess I can scratch it off!

Have been knitting-I started this blanket the other day.  Had to do a little tweaking and ripping to get the hang of the pattern, but I think I've got the hang of it.

You pick up the new color stitches as you go, then you don't have to sew any blocks together, just hide the threads.  It's supposed to be a pattern for leftover sock yarn, I found the pattern on Ravelry, but I decided to use up some worsted.  I think it will work.  It's small right now while it's hot and by the time it grows the weather will be cooler.

Booties!

I love to knit, and I do big projects, but once in a while I like instant gratification.  So I dug through my stash, including all the bits of Mom's yarn that I had put away after she died.  I found a pattern I had used before that goes quickly and went to town.

Fun and portable.  Now the only project I have going is a shawl I started in Mazatlan.  I suppose I should finish that, but I like to have a small project going that I can stick in my purse, like socks.  Better go start digging!  (I bought some more storage for my yarn, and when I started sorting-well let's just say I'd better not buy any for a while!)

Sweaters and Sweet Hot Jelly

Finished a couple of sweaters.  Well, to be correct the one sweater was finished about a year ago, but the instructions called for ties at the neck instead of buttons and buttonholes and I didn't like the idea so it sat in my "finished box" until I figured out what to do.

First the baby sweater-it turned out just great!  I do need to give the hem a little more attention, it's still rolling.

The buttons are older than the yarn.  I got them at K Mart probably in the 70s, before bar codes.  They cost 42 cents according to the pink K Mart price tag.  Oops, really telling my age!

This sweater is about a 3-4 years size.  I started it when I had my knee surgery and worked on it in fits and starts. 

What I finally did was crochet little chain button loops.  I think the owls add a really cute touch, don't you?

 And the jelly-Stan and I became hooked on a pepper jelly that Costco sold.  We ran out last week and when I went to find more I was informed that they no longer carried it.  Horrors!  So we did what any enterprising do-it-yourselfer would, we made our own.  Well, Stan did, I left the house until the pepper fumes dissipated.  Not allergic to peppers but the airborne fumes can choke up my asthma.

And here you have it-isn't it pretty?  And the beauty part is we can control the ingredients, down to using the bag of discounted "slightly old" bell peppers from the store.  And the hot peppers are from our garden.

The best way to serve it.  Put a smear of cream cheese on a cracker and top with a small spoonful of the jelly.  Or a large spoonful if you like.  I ate 8 of these before the jelly was cold!

We just love to do things for ourselves, the crackers are even homemade safe-for-me!