new year

Dear reader, when I finished what would be my last entry for 2016 so many things were happening. I was frustrated with my knitting, and feelign stuck in my life. Then two things happened that have kept me from updates until now. First I got sick. Really sick. Basically a cold or maybe a flu. And seriously, I was sick for 4 weeks. I spent a whole week not working, which for me is amazing. I went to urgent care right before Christmas, because after I finally went back to work, I suddenly went right back downhill. So cold, that turned into sinus infection. While the antibiotics worked, they did not actually clear up the congestion and so another two weeks of sneezing and blowing and hacking.

And also dear reader, I figured out the heel to this sock:

Sock has a heel

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Dec 22, 2016 at 11:19am PST

I ended up using a heel pattern that looks like the picture that came with the pattern. And it does look like the picture. My problem is that it isn't a very high instep and so it feels tight across there. And even though I don't have a finished picture--I did finish the sock. I THOUGHT I put it on instagram, but alas, I did not. I did actually take a picture though. It's on my phone somewhere.

I developed a terrible case of second sock syndrome. I ripped out my baseball sock that was too small--the whole thing. With the intention Christmas night to start a new sock and take it traveling with us. However, my mother in law got me yarn and a pattern (that it sort of goes with--the store she bought it at put them together for her) and well I was hooked.

New year, new lace. Always hard to see what it will really look like while it's on the needles.

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Jan 2, 2017 at 8:50am PST

Honestly, lace was probably not the best project to travel with. But really most of the mistakes I've made have been since school started back up again and we're back to being exhausted. SInce I took this picture, I've knit more and wished that I'd had a lifeline because there is an error, which I can see if I look. I'm leaving it though (Maybe to prove to myself that to err is human).

And then, as if I wasn't distracted enough.
One of my daughters has been chilling out in the evenings by braiding embroidery floss into bracelets. So for Christmas we got her a friendship bracelet kit--more for the instructions on making different patterns. She had mastered a basic knotted bracelet and wanted to try chevron. So, we tried with her instructions. Sigh (they're probably translated into English using google translate). However, a you tube tutorial filled in the missing pieces and I decided to play with sock yarn, while she does her embroidery floss. I didn't really like the color combo on this, but she did!

Attempting to learn a new part of an old skill. Did everyone make these in jr. high or high school? I never mastered the chevron back then. #nowihavetheinternet

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Jan 8, 2017 at 5:12pm PST

So that dear reader is what I've been doing this last month. I now have 2 single socks that don't match, a half completed lace thing that I don't know how I'll wear and a sock yarn friendship bracelet.