A worm hole? The Littles? Who is responsible for the missing items in one's home???

THE socks!   *Before they became MISSING- of course.

Ever lose something and know 'exactly' where it was for 2-3 months, get ready to mail it/use it/gift it/etc. pick the item up, and it suddenly becomes missing?

I went to the Innsbruck Christmas Market in December... found these great 'boot' 100% alpaca wool socks for sale.  They were just like the ones that I had found in Germany.   They were actually from a German company.   When I first moved to Germany in 2008- I had found socks just like this and I had sent some to a friend to wear when he went 'hunting.'  I sent him an email and asked him if he wanted me to buy some for him.   He did.  He told me that he's still wearing the pair that I had sent him 5 years ago. I told him how much that they'd cost (way more than they used to be-- but, then again they were being sold at a Christmas Market and the people at the Christmas Market had to pay for their food/hotel/etc. for at least a month.  I'm sure that that adds to the price increase-- plus, many things have gone up in price in the past 5 years?     So, I bought them... told him how much they cost again and waited for him to send me the money.    Two and then three weeks went by 'no money in the mail'.  I emailed him a reminder letting him know that the 'socks' were getting spider webs and dust bunnies on them waiting for the money to arrive so that I could mail them.   Then, another 2 weeks go by... no money.  I sent another reminder.   He asked for my mailing address again- because the envelope that he'd sent me had been returned to his post-office box and he thought that he'd written something down wrong.   I emailed my address back to him again.   Same thing... more weeks go by... he got the envelope 'back in his post-office box' again...  THIS TIME, he knew that he had copied my mailing address EXACTLY as I had given it to him- so, the took the envelope to the post-office counter.  THEY TOLD HIM THAT THE MAILING ADDRESS (mine) WAS NOT A VALID MAILING ADDRESS.   Sigh...   He told them that it INDEED was a valid mailing address... (the APO AE part of my address threw them off).   He re-sent the letter to me again.   I got the letter late last week.   On Sunday night, I picked up the package of socks (2 per package) to find a box to put them in so that I could mail this package and 2 others at one time on Monday.   I also got out 3 'custom forms' so that everything could be filled out-- ready to go.  I wrapped/packed up the first 2 boxes then grabbed the 'box' to mail the socks and discovered that...  THE SOCKS ARE MISSING!  MISSING!   MISSING!!   How could this be?  I hadn't moved them in over 2 months-- I finally am ready to mail them... picked up the socks so that I could package them up and they are now missing.  I have looked EVERYWHERE and they are not to be found!  I have looked in all the usual places and the unexpected places.   NO SOCKS!  NONE.   I guess that they liked living in my house and were afraid of the long distance travel?   So, I will look for them in great detail this weekend.

Newsflash! I made a pair of real socks to fit a human...

It all started with this yarn:




I first made a pair of fuzzy feet... (pattern can be found on line) that I discussed in a previous post. Pre-felting..

Felted..


Then, I knitted some little sock ornaments. I have made more since this photo using a variety of little sock ornament patterns.


And.. eventually after knitting what seemed like forever.. I had a pair of socks. I was even able to knit the stripes/colors to match on both socks. On one side, near the ankle, there is a small smattering of red stitches.. and I was amazed that the yarn did the exact same thing in the exact same place on the other sock too.

Oh! 'FUZZY FEET' boy did you shrink...

Yes, I've been knitting for years and years... since the late 80's... and yet.. I have never, ever knit socks.

Well, the early years is quite understandable that I wouldn't know how to knit socks.. there was no sock yarn sold in my southern region of Oklahoma.. it took years to find someone to teach me how to knit. As a matter of fact, I used to buy Vogue knitting magazines (the only option at that time where I lived) and had already taught myself the knitting abbreviations/etc. I just didn't know how to knit. There was no such thing as the Internet or any books at that time (at least not where I lived) that taught you how to knit.

So, I'd ask everyone I met.. for years.. if anyone knew how to knit.. none did.. they all knew how to crochet. I was finally taught how to knit by someone from Australia who was living in my little southern Oklahoma town.. for a few months while her husband learned how to fly helicopters! What a small world. She was in line in front of me at the grocery store and when I heard her accent.. I knew that she was from: AUSTRALIA

And.. to my mind: Australia = sheep = knitting

So, I asked once more.. the question that I had asked time and again.. "Do you know how to knit?" She did and she taught me how to knit. I took to knitting immediately... I learned knit and purl on my little swatch.. then, I asked her to show me how to make cables.. she did and I was off in my own knitting world. After mastering my cable on this swatch, holding my beginning knit and purl stitches, I do remember that she suddenly grabbed my first knitting attempt.. 'my little swatch' out of my hands.. and proceeded to rip the stitches out so I could start over now that I had even tension. I was aghast- after all I was so proud of my first rows of knitting.

*As a result, I always let those that I teach how to knit to keep their first little swatch of knitting.. it is a big milestone after all.

My first project? A cotton summer sleeveless top out of the only cotton yarn available to me: Peaches and Cream


I went through my knitting magazines and I found stitch patterns that I liked and figured out how to knit these different stitch patterns in little squares of different stitches on my first garment. I added a crochet picot edge. I wore it all the time.. of course, at the time I wasn't aware of cotton's tendency to 'grow and stretch' out of shape. As a result.. it got wider and shorter over time.

About two weeks ago, I decided it was time to knit some socks. I selected the pattern: Fuzzy Feet (found on ravelry or from an Internet search) I used some felt-able wool from Wool of the Andes... and some fun fur that had been in my household goods storage shipment that came this summer to add a nice fun touch to the cuff of the soon to be felted 'slippers'... Even though the yarn looks 'pink' in the skein, I was delighted to find that it was really a purple-ish and white mixture of fun fur and it went perfectly with the purple yarn that I was knitting my 'fuzzy feet' out of..


I have had these giant socks finished for about 10 days and yesterday.. I finally decided to felt them. Remember, I am living in Germany.. which means: FRONT LOAD WASHING MACHINE.. which means:







YOU CAN NOT STOP THE WASH CYCLE

Oh no.. Oh no... Yes, you can see where this is going.. and you can also understand why I had not attempted to felt the giant socks for 10 days?

So, here were are... the finished and felted socks where are now 'slippers'.. I think that they turned out cute, though.. Just as I had imagined that they would look..
Right? I can see now that my color selections were perfect together.. the fun fur did add just that right 'fun' touch...



Except.. Of course.. they are never going to fit even my toes...


I have not given up the 'knitting socks' skill though. Fortunately, I did not felt the giant and now big enough to fit a 4 year old 'Fuzzy Feet' socks.. for 10 days.. otherwise, I might not have attempted to start a pair of 'real fit you when you finish' (at least you hope they do) socks with no felting involved.

I've been really busy lately.. but, I do knit at least a 1/2 inch on them every night .. see?

I'd also started knitting little sock ornaments. I knitted a sock from a variety of patterns that I found on line- to find one that made the best shaped socks... and of course a pattern that made sense..