Hello,
I hope everyone is doing well today. I think I have made it through birthday madness. September is crazy for me and my family and friends. There are two or three birthdays everyweek this month. I love it, but it makes me very busy.
When I got home from my birthday party on Saturday there was a package on our doorstep. Will said 'Oh, you got something in the mail from overseas'. I had no idea who it could be from. We had been in the car for over two hours coming back from the in-laws and I was tired. The package perked me right up. I opened it to find a box filled with yarn, shortbread and a little toy bear for Autumn. My wonderful friend, Tracy, from Somerset had sent me a box of goodies as a house warming present. It such a nice surprise. Here is what she sent.
I love the bag and have been carrying it all week. The red yarn is hand dyed and I have an idea for it already. The big skeins are dk wt. yarn from different companies and I love the colors. At the bottom are four balls of Mohair. I am going to have fun coming up with something to do with it. It is fun. There is a little teddy bear key chain with a Union Jack tee shirt on, for Autumn. There was also a pack of shortbread. We ate that before I could take the photo. Shortbread is one of my all time favorite treats. When I lived in England I ate quite a lot of it. Tracy remembered that I liked it and sent some. How kind was it to send me this surprise package? Postage is really expensive overseas and it probably cost almost as much to send it as the contents of the box cost. I became friends with Tracy through a swap on Ravelry. The swap was loads of fun, but the best thing about it was being paired with Tracy. Thank you Tracy, you are fabulous.
In another group that I belong to on Ravelry, we have been making a pair of socks. I finally finished mine. One of the other ladies said the heel was hard to figure out from the pattern and she used an after thought heel. I have never made crochet socks before and when I got to the heel I decided I would try an after thought heel also. The pattern was
Paton's Women's Twisting Lace Socks. The heel I came up with on my own. Here are the socks.
The heel was pretty simple to figure out. When you get to the heel part of the pattern you stop and fasten off the yarn. Then you find the sides and attach yarn and ch the number of stitches you need to equal the stitch count for the pattern. You then attach the ch to the middle of the other side and continue on with the pattern of the sock. After finishing the socks you go back and with the right side facing you, you attach the yarn and single crochet around. At the corners of each side you do one decrease (or sctogether). I did these in the round and ended up making 14 rows, with two decreases on each row. I think they turned out really well. I tried taking photos as I went, but they didn't come out very well. I am going to make another pair and use a different camera to better detail of what I am doing. I will write a tutorial for that when I am working on the next pair. The after thought heel is really easy and you can also use it to replace heels that have worn out from use. I love these socks, I gave them away though. My friend Ashleigh will probably wear them tomorrow. Lol. I have to make dinner now and then Autumn and I are going to watch the Solon High School Homecoming Parade. Talk to everyone soon. :)