This is my last post before leaving for Montana.  I will not be able to post from there as we will be very secluded on the reservation and there isn't cell signal from what I understand either.

Since last Saturday I have finished 2 crocheted coasters and these baby socks.

I am doing thread crochet currently as I have thread and want to keep up on my crochet muscles. I have started a curtain panel and will be taking it on the mission trip with me when I leave on Sunday.

I am also taking the yarn to make some Owlie socks, another pair of baby socks and the second test knit that I am doing for Annie Lupton.

The Owlie socks are going to be made from Hummingbird Moon's BFL sock base in the Toil and Trouble colorway.

I will be using one of these two beads for the eyes.

My test knit for Annie Lupton is a square shawl with lace work in it. The design calls for DK weight yarn. I am using lace weight yarn and a US size 1 needle. The yarn is from Knit Picks, their Shadow lace line in the Snorkel colorway. It was one of the first lace weights yarns I bought. I bought it to make an Estonian shawl. I bought 3 skeins because that's what the pattern I said I needed. I didn't bother to look at brand or yardage... When I received the yarn I learned it wasn't enough and I learned to look at yardage. That feels like it was so long ago... 

The other test knit that I am currently working on is a color work sweater by Jill Karina.  The yarn I am using for this sweater is from stash. It was given to me through a friend of a friend situation after someone died. It is 100% wool from the Brown Sheep Company. The Nature Spun line in their Grape Harvest and Mill Blue color ways. The color work on the yoke is suggested to be worked on a larger needle than the body of the sweater as it is easier to maintain gauge. I have to agree. My work is laying much nicer without blocking.

I won't quite have the yoke completed before I leave Sunday but it'll be close. So far this design has been great to work and the grading has been done very well.

I said that I would share Mom's sock trick this installment, so here it is.  She just stumbled upon it and it is so simple.  The problem is a small hole when working the gusset where the instep starts.  This is the area in a cuff down sock with a heel flap where you pick up the stitches in the sides of the heel flap to then start the gusset decreases.  I had a lesson with mom about picking up and that went well, the "seam" looked nicer but that hole was still there.  So finally I came to her when we both had more time, better light and could really focus.  She looked at my heel flap and asked "where did this stitch come from?"  "That is my first slip stitch on my first heel row."  "Oh, I don't do it that way."  "what do you do?"  "I knit that stitch.  Always have."  So the following is how I work my heel flaps and where I pick up my stitches, with a picture of the finished result.

Heel Flap

Row 1: K 2, (sl 1, K 1) across the number of desired stitches.

Row 2: Sl 1 pwyf, P across.

Row 3: (Sl 1 pwyb, K 1) across.

Row 4: Rep row 2.

Rep rows 3 and 4 until you have the desired number of rows worked.

Then pick up the stitches.

This picture shows how I pick up both legs of the slipped stitch and then knit into them.

Here you can see the stitches that I am going to pick up and knit into.

This is the last stitch I will be picking up and knitting into.  This is where Mom's trick comes into play.  Here I would usually pick up and knit an extra stitch, just to knit them together on the next round to close the hole.

Here you see the finished sock with no hole and no extra stitch to remember, just one little change to a stitch that you are already working.

I do want to say that I agree with the stand that Ravelry has taken.  I don't know what Trump has said or done or what group or pattern showed up on Ravelry that prompted all of this.  There needs to be room for everyone, except those who want to exclude others for something that is totally beyond their control.  I am a follow of Jesus and as such I do read the Bible, believe what it says and live by the words there.  I however will not exclude you if you don't live by those same standards.  What I ask is that you not judge me for not living the lifestyle you do.  This acceptance has to go both ways.

Until next time, which will be a while because I leave very early tomorrow morning...
Power to the wool!