warm feet for some little one

I've had a pretty stressful year all up. There was mum's leukemia diagnosis 13 months ago, moving out and all the nastiness and tensions associated with that, visits to the solicitor, long trips to work, a month off work with the flu and pneumonia and finally mum's stroke and shingles along with a sodium imbalance which was causing exhaustion. I thought she was gone a couple of days ago but she seems to have rallied. Her hair, face, pillow and sheets were all much the same colour. Early days yet though after a stroke and her sodium levels have suddenly and inexplicably plummeted again.



However, there have been many blessing along the way. I'm listing these, not to sound trite or proselytising, but as a reminder to myself. I have my faith which acts as a strong undergirding to my life. There is the support and loving concern of all my close family. I have a network of very good friends and some strong shoulders and listening ears.. Internet friends have been a very real support too. There is a roof over my head and food to eat and a job. Even a small cat who knows when she needs to climb on my lap and snuggle. I'm blessed.

There is always someone I can help. I've made quite a lot of knitted goods for charity purposes over the years. One of my goals for this year's Southern Summer of Socks was to try to match, pair for pair, all socks done by me here.

I've decided I want to have a sizable parcel for next year's collection for Winterwarm which is collecting warm clothing, knitted hats, socks, scarves etc for people in Afghanistan. I've done a couple of scarves, two shawls and a hat. Here's the first pair of socks. These were a very quick knit in 8 ply wool. Actually, it could be 12 ply. It was bought many years ago and there is no indication what it really was. 4 mm needles. I started these about 9:00 pm on Wednesday evening and finished them early on Friday morning. If I hadn't had to work, they would have been done sometime Thursday. What a pity!!

So where is the pair they match? Two socks in a pair, and I have two socks. Not the same I hear someone say? The footie was from last year's sea cell prize. The long sock happened because of a bad case of startitis. It's some of Katie's wool in Voodoo colour from Live 2Knit. Beautiful to knit and I'm pleased with them. Actually, I have about half the second footie already done. I'll finish that and then do the second of my design, Charlie's socks.

thank you so much

Here is my prize for the pre-Christmas sock competition. I'm a bit slow in showing the pictures as I had to wait till it was collected from my son's PO box in suburb where they used to live. However, they were over that way yesterday and brought this home.

This is what came from Helen at Knitting Inspirations. There is some absolutely gorgeous yarn and accessories over there, so take a look. Link is also in this blog's sidebar.

The yarn feels wonderful and I am going to save it till I find the very pattern to do justice to it. The colours are lovely as well, and can you see how the accessories all are colour coordinated with the yarn. It was difficult to get the colours right in the photo, so this is an approximation. The second picture is more accurate in colour. The top one is too mauve. These are soft, dusky pinks. My first thought was the pink of the Major Mitchell cockatoos which I have always loved. Then last night we had a superb sunset. There were quite a few clouds and they were all in these colours with a tinge of gold on the edges. So Australian and just beautiful.

There is a packet with some needle holders, a sweet little Lantern Moon keyring in similar colours to the yarn, little markers, also in pinks with tiny flowers and some 2.5 mm dpns in bamboo, again a favourite. I used to use longer dpns but since I started to use this length about a year ago, the longer ones feel like crowbars.

I'm thrilled with everything and Helen has printed off a copy of the group's logo to make a notelet.

Why so many socks? As many of us have said, knitting releases stress and tension and is meditative. The last few months of last year were particularly icky and unpleasant. So I knitted. Since moving here, knitting has slowed down. The whole atmosphere here is lovely and I feel the stress going slowly. Of course there have been some unpleasant bits, but generally it is a place for healing. Since Christmas, this has been reflected in my knitting. Two separate socks have been done and I'm part way through the second sock of one of those pairs. Quite a difference.

So thank you once again.