Phinally Phinished Phelted Clogs (and other stuff)

Yea! They're finished! I got George's Phelted Clogs felted and they did beautifully. That's entirely by the Grace of God because I put them in the washing machine and forgot about them while I got interested in scrapbooking.  Yikes! I'm amazed they didn't turn out small enough for our youngest grandchild. But when I finally yanked them out of the washing machine, I shaped them just a bit and put them on George's feet. He's a brave man and wore them wet for almost eight hours. Although he had prune feet by the end, the clogs formed to fit his feet perfectly, and he's very happy with them. So am I!

The Once and Future Socks
I got another pair of socks finished. These poor things have been in progress for years - probably since 2006 or so. They're in Mountain Colors' Yellowstone colorway, which I adore. I started making them in the Diana's Trail Sock pattern, also by Mountain Colors. I've made lots of pairs of these socks, some for me, some for George and some for friends. They fit me fairly well, but always seeem a bit too big. I made one pair on 2.25mm needles instead of 3.0, which seemed to fix quite a few problems. However, the heel seemed too big or something, but I figured I'd just have to live with the heel. I started these one sock at a time on five double-pointed needles. Somewhere along the way, I learned to knit on two circular needles instead of the double-points. Then I discovered the joys of knitting both socks at the same time so that when I finish, I'm done. THEN I discovered Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters book and made a pair from the first pattern. Hmm.... Then I got to thinking what would happen if I did the cuff from the Diana pattern, the arch expansion and heel from the New Pathways book, ribbed the instep as I learned from somewhere, but I can't even remember where now, and finally, did both socks at the same time!  So I ripped the heel back on the one sock, then set it aside while I knitted the second sock up to the end of the cuff, did the arch expansion and heel in both socks according to the New Pathways pattern and started down the foot. Somewhere about halfway down the foot I learned to knit socks by the Magic Loop method, so I put the socks on a longer 2.25 needle and finally, finally finished them this past weekend! They fit like a dream and the combined pattern is a winner. I just might have to do another pair the same way!

Celtic Braid Socks
I settled on the Riverbed Sockitecture from the New Pathways book for the arch expansion of the upside down (toe-up) Celtic Braid socks. I started the expansion today and we'll see how it goes. At the moment, they are one boring pair of socks, but if I can only get the foot and heel done, they'll get exciting soon enough.

Gale-Force Winds
We survived the huge storm last week. We were without power for several hours, but nothing like many people in town who had no power for almost 24 hours. There are leaves and small tree-bits down all over the yard, but I don't think we suffered much damage. At least I didn't think so. We've had the most interesting thing happen since. We've had an invasion of flies in the house. I've never seen such a thing. They arrived after the storm and we've spent quite a bit of energy removing them without using nasty chemicals. I think we may finally have the upper hand, but how strange!