Updates..

It's been a few days of weirdness and loss, dealing with the death of a relative.   It's put everyone in a bit of a fog for a bit.  This will pass I'm sure.

In the meantime, I worked on the sock.  It was halfway done when I'd noticed it was awfully stretchy.  At the three quarters done mark, I thought that I might not have enough yarn and that the sock was looking awfully roomy.   When I was about one pattern repeat to the toe, I knew I wouldn't have enough yarn and I tried the darned sock on.   It would have fit an elephant!  I've no idea why I hadn't paid attention to this before.   So, doing the only thing I could, I totally frogged the orange sock.  I tried again, this time with smaller needles.   Nope, still too big.  I tried the size smaller with both sizes of needles, but still it wasn't right.  It was either to big or there wasn't enough stretch, depending on which needles I used.   Then of course, I finally checked the yardage and realized that I was using sock yarn with a Kroy base.  It's good durable sock yarn but slightly thicker, thus less yardage and great for simple socks, but not so much for those with lots of stitches or fancy patterns. 
  The orange sock yarn has been relegated to the sock yarn bin and I fished out this pretty yarn instead.   Slightly thinner with over 30 yards more length per 50 grams, it tested out fine.  While I can't get the suggested guage with this yarn, I can get close enough to make the small size fit nicely.   The sock has knit up quite quickly since I've memorized the pattern and no longer have to refer to the pattern page nor do I have to count and record my rows.   It's pretty much flown by in speed.   I'm ready to start the toe now. 

Speaking of flying.  It's been cold and snowy.   In this weather, birds use the feeder constantly.   This morning I found 6 Blue Jays, 2 Cardinals, 2 Downy woodpeckers and an assortment of Chickadee's, Sparrows, Finches and Juncos.   Sometimes we get Mourning Doves as well.  Last year during one cold spell, I was feeding 12 doves , with all of them either at the feeder or nearby at any one time.  This year I've only seen 4 of them.. phew... that's a lot of bird seed!

The log cabin tea towels are coming along.  It's a fairly methodical pattern and it's not very fast since you're switching shuttles all the time.   However I'm on the 3rd tea towel  now, and I've found that the methodical shuttle throwing, counting shuttle shots and a pattern that is easy to find and correct mistakes has been a great stress reliever these past couple of days.