WhimsyCraft

 Today, we have a sweater that I started for Evan in 2014. It was intended to be about a size 8, and didn't get finished at that time. I picked it up again, thinking to finish it, and discovered that it is in no way a child size 8. If I make it a few inches longer than the pattern calls for, it will certainly fit me. Problem is, I don't particularly want it. It would fit Evan even now, but he won't wear anything which isn't black. Oh well, finish it and then figure out who it belongs to, I suppose. Pattern is Lancelot , modified with a v-neck (apologies for the terrible photo.)

 This is a sampler that Miranda and I have both worked on, and it's been fun. Abandoned for several years, I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, and have done a full row, which gives me hope that it can be finished. It's this one , and Miranda picked the lavender background, so I altered some of the colors to make them go together. Still haven't done the holiday food update; it will happen, though quite belatedly. Mostly right now we're preparing for Miranda to go to college in two days (!!)

 I was all set to do a summary of holiday food, having baked the last of the pies yesterday (the one I usually make for New Year's Day, a few days late), but then today happened. Waking up in the morning to probable Democratic wins in both of the Georgia Senate runoffs, going down to the basement to exercise and coming up to hear about the mob invasion of the Senate building, and ending the day listening to Senators argue for and against throwing out the electoral votes from Arizona. Looks like Pennsylvania will be debated overnight, but I don't intend to be awake for that. I was looking out the window and finding it hard to believe that nothing looked different here while our government was under attack. It just seemed that while something so fundamentally shattering was going on, there should be some sign of it, which of course there wasn't.  However, writing about cookies and roasts and pies doesn't feel right at all, so another day.

 So, if you knit socks (which I do) and wear them for a long time (which I do) and patch them (which I do) and patch them again(which I do) you may eventually find yourself with a pair that looks something like this: This is beyond patching. So, I came up with a new plan. First, I did have to patch the big hole in the heel, in my usual way, which is to pick up stitches and knit over the hole, using a yarn needle to attach it to the piece at the end of each row. Then, David traced my foot onto a piece of cardboard, and I used that to cut two foot shapes out of wool felt, acquired at our wonderful local craft store.   Didn't matter that the heel of one came out a little narrow - I think the cardboard slipped and the scissors weren't very sharp. But, I sewed them on with a simple whipstitch, using black sock yarn (I think that sewing thread would have eventually cut through): and it worked beautifully! These should have a good second life as slippers. And I will remember that may...