WhimsyCraft

 As predicted, these went very quickly once the gussets were done, and are now finished. Here's a photo of the pair, to prove that I really did finish them and so that you can see the fancy patterned foot tops, and one of the wrapped stitch detail along the side. The pattern is Lord, What Fools , and the yarn is Bearfoot (Ravelry links, both of them) that I've probably had for 20 years. Some of this stash is very well-aged at this point.

 Same sock, repair completed, heel and gusset finished, and starting to work down the foot towards the toe. This part goes quickly, so it won't be long now until I have a new pair of socks.

 I don't think you've seen these socks before. The first one was finished, and the second one almost down to the heel, before I looked at them together like this: You may notice the problem here: the sock in progress has ribbing all the way around, and the completed sock has, as the pattern directs, a six stitch stockinette column on each side. Well, time to grab a crochet hook and get to work! There are four columns that need help. For each of them, I dropped the stitch off the needle, and all the way down to where the stockinette column should begin, at the end of the cuff ribbing. Then, the crochet hook will easily pull each thread bar through and make the desired knit column. If I had wanted a purl column, I would have done the same thing, but from the inside. Now it is all fixed, and ready to continue!  Socks are Lord, what fools and the yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot (which I've had for probably decades). You'll get a better photo when they're done.

 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...

 Those socks that were almost finished didn't take long to wrap up, and here they are. My friend was very very happy with them, and I got the kind of reaction every knitter hopes for. Also, one of the things I've learned to do in the last few months is bagels, because our local bagel place closed a while back, and when we were going through the 50 pound bag of flour from when flour was briefly hard to find, the bagel phase came after the sourdough phase. As a native New Yorker, I'm pretty picky about bagels, and these aren't as good as the best, but they're not bad. This is the recipe I started with: https://www.sophisticatedgourmet.com/2009/10/new-york-style-bagel-recipe but modified to use mostly whole wheat flour, and make 12. If anyone ever actually reads this and wants the changes, just let me know.  They look like this when they're boiling:  And like this when they come out of the oven: Turns out, Trader Joe's Everything Bagel spice mix is pretty good ...

 Hi! Getting a head start on a New Year's resolution here, to write down some things, so that I don't keep looking back and realize that I have no idea what happened to the last several months. It's really easy to do right now. Here are some almost finished socks for a friend. The yarn is discontinued Felici Sport, which is wonderful, and I have about four pairs' worth stashed away. The pattern is my own basic one, which may get written up someday. The recipient's feet are about one size bigger than my own, so they are measured to be a half inch or so too big for me.