Merry Sheepmas!

ALSO MAJOR after Christmas Yarn Sale ALERT!!!!

Knit Wit in Olathe, KS (no website to link) 1815 S Ridgeview Rd, Olathe KS 66062
Dec 26th 9am-4pm
I think it's 25% or 30% off yarn, there's a sale on knitting bags, needles, patterns all on sale & SUPER AMAZING $3 tubs of yarns. YARN, PEOPLE!! I will be there at 9am and may or may not knock over anyone standing between me and the mohair. Just a warning. I'll be polite and talk AFTER my hands are full of yarn. :) (those that don't know me think I'm kidding here, you have been warned.)

Yarn Barn in Lawrence, KS Yarn Barn Website
Dec. 26-29th Sale on yarns, mill end cones, selected looms & spinning wheels.

Merry Christmas Eve!

I've pretty much come to the realization that the Christmas Sweater will probably be a New Year's Sweater or a Valentine's Day Sweater...or next year's sweater.... no, I'll just knit on this thing straight and true, not deviating to that pretty sock yarn calling my name, nor the beautiful lace scarf waiting for my attention, or wrist warmers, or the 43,082 things I'd rather be knitting.... I WILL finish this thing, it just realistically can't be completed in the next 24 hours. Ah well. I'm good with it.

Proof that I embraced the sparkle in Vegas.....

My husband and I had such fun, I was so very, very proud of him at the awards dinner! As each bigwig stood up to speak, they each thanked their super salesmen and then the wives as we hold the family together, etc while the men are out selling their arses off. I think they told it more eloquently than that, but you get the picture. My husband was the first one to accept his super saleman award. In his little speech he said that those presidents and vp's were all right and he wanted to say how much his wife was a part of him getting such good sales. I got all teary, I couldn't believe it, it was soooo sweet.....then he said his wife was always telling him to hit the road selling if he was home more than 4 days in a row. Cripes. He's totally right. HA! He'd be driving me insane and I'd casually suggest that the big client out in McPherson would probably be expecting him soon....or how are those guys out in Garden City doing? You know, it's been a while since you visited your clients in Iowa....

Ah well, I was still proud of him, smartass and all. It was a GLORIOUS trip and I was very thankful that we wives got to go enjoy the vacation as well. I hardly left the spa, slept in each morning and ate and drank to my heart's content. (and that's saying something!)

Merry Merry Christmas to you all, happy sparkle too!

Hang in there Christmas Knitters!!!

I feel a time warp coming! Actually, there's a photo of me JUST AFTER dancing the TIME WARP from the Rocky Horror Picture Show in full gold sparkle dress at a piano bar in a casino.....but the photos are stuck on my husband's i-phone. I know. I have to say in all modesty that I ROCKED the gold sparkle dress. ROCKED it. AND there's photos of me rockin that same dress with ELVIS people! STUCK ON THE PHONE. Cripes.

In the meantime, all I have to share is this pitiful Christmas sweater in progress. It's actually a fine sweater out of cascade 220 wool for the husband. But it's for THIS Christmas. I know. Yes, it's the 22nd of December. I'm aware of that fact. Thank you for pointing it out. Please stop wasting my Christmas knitting time.

I was feeling quite smug on December 14th as I'd decided it was insane to knit 7 pair of wrist warmers for Christmas. I've done that. I barely survived. My family barely survived. I gave teachers felted flower lapel pins that I happen to still have a ton of. The teachers were happy, my wrists were fine and my soul wasn't shattered. It was going to be a nice, normal Christmas season.

But then I got the itch. It was the 15th of December. I had a sweater's worth of cascade 220 just sitting there looking at me. So I cast on. What the heck, right? I had 10 days. Well, after MUCH restarting and reknitting and taking off the needles on and trying on and reknitting and knitting and knitting it's now the 22nd of December and I have this. The problem is that since I had TEN WHOLE DAYS I figured I didn't have to knit all the time. I took a nap or two, I wrapped gifts, I even READ A BOOK WHILE TAKING A BATH. Looking back, I see I was just in total knitting denial, tempting the fates of time.

This doesn't look like a sweater ready for blocking and wrapping does it? At least the minor heart attack last night at knit night where I laid the sweater on the table and even held it up to me and thought it was STILL too small......but when I tried it on the rather grumpy I'm-tired-of-trying-this-stupid-thing-on-and-don't-think-I-want-a-sweater-anymore man of mine last night IT FITS. What do you MEAN you don't think you want a sweater anymore? Forget it, I don't have time for this...I've got to KNIT man!

A reminder...check your knitting in the DAYLIGHT once in a while...

Crap! Ah well, at least it's a quick fix, just drop down a TON of rows and fix the purl that's supposed to be a knit and the knit that's supposed to be a purl....except the stitch in the middle of the seed stitch will be a bit more of a pain in the arse, but still fixable.

I have come to terms with the fact that this may be a New Year's Sweater. I'm fine with that, but still can't seem to stop knitting. Just in case. There could be a time warp, right? It could happen. I just have to see how far I get before the big day. Just because.

ALSO----a very amazing person knit me a very amazing gift!!! It's ORANGE and it SPARKLES and it's just freaking awesome. I'll take photos and post after Sweaterpocalypse is over.

Did I mention they were ORANGE AND SPARKLY???? I *heart* them so very very much!

Another Christmas of wrist warmers

A few years back, I made about 18 pairs of wrist warmers for teacher gifts, mom's present, nurses gifts, etc. It about made me insane because OF COURSE I didn't start before December. Why would I? When have I EVER planned ahead?

This year I'm doing things a bit more sane. I actually knit this gray pair for ME and wanted mom to try them on to see if she'd like these a bit more than those shown below, the basic model of 3X1 ribbing with a thumb hole. Mom had pretty much worn her pair thin and needed a new pair. I've got a pair of the good old ribbed version ready in a pretty deep burgandy red (no photo yet) but she loved that gray pair so much that I had to send them with her.


I can't recommend this free pattern by Janelle Masters enough! Susie's Reading Mitts, a fabulous SUPER SPEEDY knit that was quite enjoyable also! I knit one mitt in one day and used one ball of Rowan RYC Cashsoft for each mitt with size 5 dpns. If you're looking for a quick knit for someone you forgot to add to your Chrismtas list, this could be just the pattern for you. I'll be knitting myself a pair but probably after Christmas...or I'll procrastinate the important knitting and make myself a pair NOW!

My crank-em-out ribbed version came from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts but I changed the ribbing to doing 8 rounds of 1X1 rib at top & bottom, then knitting 3x1 rib in the body. Stretchy, fun and easy peasy.




I'm also going to start a sweater for my husband sometime this week, worsted weight yarn (cascade 220), raglan style in the round, have to learn some kind of intarsia in the round as he wants a point coming down on the front and the sleeves in one color and the rest in another.... and I may or may not have it done for Christmas. I'm not going to stress about it, just if it happens to get done, awesome. Right? yeah, right. I'm going to knit my freaking fingers off and stress and all the rest. Ah well. I think I need to quit asking people's opinions about what they'd like me to knit for them and just knit what I WANT TO so I'd have a pattern to follow...BUT I'll be having a little more knitting time as I'm headed to VEGAS BABY!! Jeff won the President's Club Award for sales in his company, so we're headed to the land of glitter on the company dollar! YAY! I think I'll pack some glittery yarn to get in the spirit. :)

Good luck to all my holiday knitting friends. Remember that sleep is important. It's totally fine to wrap a skein of yarn and a note saying what that yarn will become if the item isn't done by C Day. I've done it before. Heck, the man that I love ended up getting ONE SOCK for our first Valentine's Day and he MARRIED ME! How bout that? That must be the antidote to the boyfriend-sweater-curse!

I've gone a bit batty

Thin Mints Fluffy Batt...Kansas Corriedale wool, Kansas hand dyed alpaca and a hint of sparkle


Firey Sparkle Red Fluffy Batt...hand dyed wool, silk and a hint of sparkle


Va Va VOOM Fluffy Batt...hand dyed superwash merino wool with yellow, orange and HOT PINK sparkle!

More Fluffy Batts at the shop...TreasureGoddess Etsy Shop

They're all SO FLUFFY!!! And SO SPARKLY!!! oooohhhh the sparkle....just wait till you see the dress I'll be wearing next week in Vegas!!! It's Vegalicious, the entire thing is gold sequined. I laugh to remember that unbelievably anal girl that picked out each and every piece of sparkle, every little strand that DARED to make its way into her fiber her first year at Yarn School.....


You've come a long way, baby.....EMBRACE the SPARKLE!!!!

Ulgy doesn't block out....

I think at some point I need to realize that I was NOT meant to have an orange sweater. The current pile above is a Snow White in progress. Pattern is beautiful, yarn is NOT the right thing for this pattern, I'm almost entirely sure. But not totally sure. The yarn is lovely, a slightly thick & thin & nappy Noro Cash Iroha, soft and luxurious. It just is....well....turning out to be more of a Cinderella's ugly stepsister sweater than the beautiful Snow White sweater it was supposed to resemble.

I pulled this mess out of a bag at the back of the yarn stash and figured it was the perfect time to work on this. Actually it's NOT even remotely NEAR the right time, but that's what my fingers decided to knit. Not the pairs of wrist warmers for Christmas presents, not the sweater for my husband (not even cast on yet), not finishing a pair of socks for me, nope. I HAD to knit this ugly, funky, ORANGE, bumpy sweater. Now. I realize a sane knitter would maybe try it on, look in a mirror and face the reality of the ugly, but I just can't do it. It's like a sick obsession. Even though I have a PRETTY BIG FEELING that this thing will be unwearable in public, I have GOT to finish it.

I have a history of the ugly orange sweater quest.....Anyone remember these?

The Toilet Seat Cover Sweater



The Leaky B00B Sweater


Now I have to admit a few sweaters have made it through, this is what gives me that insane hope that even though the pile of orange is looking horrid, it could possibly turn into a vision of loveliness.....


I have at least learned one thing on this insane orange sweater quest. I will NOT weave in all the ends and then try it on and then frog it. Just joined the sleeves to the body and am working up towards the cast off. It shouldn't be long until the Snow White is unvelied in all its hideousness glory. Cross your fingers for me.

Yarny Dream

WARNING----DO NOT fall asleep while knitting AND watching UFC! (Ultimate Fighting Championship) also called MMA (mixed martial arts). In a nutshell, two guys kickbox, judo, karate, and beat the holy hell out of each other. It's awesome. It just doesn't make for sweet dreams when you fall asleep while knitting.

I woke up Sunday morning with a dpn (double pointed needle) poking me in the ribcage and yarn all over my face. The dream had flashes of vividness to me so I quickly wrote down a few notes. The parts I remember was that I was in a small country school and fighting a major battle....with felted and knitted items. Basically, everything felted was coming to life as GIANT RATS. Not just regular giant rats (bigger than my new puppy by the way), but alien powered super rats that could zap things into dust with beams from their sharp ratty teeth. Yup.

SO, there I was, with all these knitters and crocheters and felters at a nice little fiber retreat (something like Yarn School at Harveyville). People kept on knitting while these alien rat things were bursting out of everywhere. Then ZAP POW they'd be zapped into dust. I figured out you had to STOMP the yarny creations to stop the transformation. I yelled at the other knitters to STOMP THE YARN! STOMP THE FELTED BITS! STOMP THOSE FLOWERS! Some figured it out and were fighting the battle with me, others just kept on knitting without noticing the havoc.

The worst offender was this big sweater that had stripes of felted bands that had been picked up and knit with FUN FUR EYELASH ACRYLIC yarn. It was the mother ship. The felted stripes were black (like the mutant alien rats) and the fun fur was neither fun nor fur and in horrid stripes of cotton candy pinks, baby boy blues and a sickly purple/grey. There were felted flowers flying through the air as each explosion helped more morph into rats. I was finally getting through the knitters and crafters and we were waging a major war, stomping and stomping on all the felted wool bits....then I woke up.

I'm thinking I'll take a break from the whole crocheted felted flowers thing for a while. :) I crocheted a BIG box from Little Knits (amazing sales on yarns) full of noro yarn into a crap ton of flowers and felted my heart out. I sold a lot at the Creative Hand show and have more ready for a few more craft shows coming up.

I'll also apologize in advance in case you walk up to me and happen to be wearing a sweater with felted bands and fun fur yarn. I will stomp you. repeatedly. and not just to keep the alien rats from morphing either. How does my brain come up with such horrid images??? Oh the fun fur.....the horror....


Frank the new puppy. NOT stompable. Australian Shepherd, 10 wks old, adorable. (way better than a photo of alien rats, right?)

Winner! Winner! Turkey Dinner! TWO cowls given away!

I ended up having my son pull TWO names out of the hat and we have TWO winners! YAY! Two super cowls will be on their way to Lynn & Cheryl. I've emailed you both this morning to get your mailing addresses. If you've not heard from me, please send me an email to Christine(DOT)Long(DOT)tg(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

YAY for warmth and funkiness all in one! Thanks all for checking in and leaving nice comments here & at facebook too! I'll be listing more super cowls on my etsy shop: TreasureGoddess Etsy Shop

Super Cowl!!! GIVEAWAY!!

What's that? It's an infinity scarf.....it's a hood....it's a cowl.....NO, It's SUPER COWL!!! lah lah lah LLLLLAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

These are some fun and funky super cowls I created recently for the Creative Hand Show last weekend. Fabulous show!! You've GOT to put it on your calendar next year!! It's always the weekend before Thanksgiving and next year will be at the same location, the Old Shawnee Town Hall in Shawnee, KS (suburb of KC).

Here's a few color shots.... pay attention to the burgandy/red/brick one. It's the one that's going to be a GIVEAWAY! YAY!





I sold two amazingly BIG cowls, not infinity long loops, but super tall super thick super funky thick & thin bumpy cowls and didn't even take a photo!!!! (I KNOW, can you believe it???) I'm going to have to make more of those. I also sold all the blue ones except one which I'm keeping for myself. I happen to have an extra of the burgandy/brick red cowl, which I'd like to share with someone out there in blogland!!! Leave a comment here on this post or make a comment on the TreasureGoddess facebook page and I'll add you to the drawing. I'll draw on Sunday night, 11/27 at 10pm central time.

If you're the winner, feel free to keep it as a present to yourself or send it to someone and cross one thing off your holiday knitting list. I'll have my kiddo do the drawing, he LOVES knitters! Also, my son is feeling GREAT!!! He has had a weekend of almost NO stomach pain. YAY! Thanks to all for the nice emails & rav msgs. I truly appreciate the good thoughts. It's nice to not worry about health for a while and just enjoy the changing leaves, cooler weather and KNITTING!!



Your giveaway SUPER COWL is made of 100% wool, overdyed by moi and knitted with 2 strands of worsted weight together in a seed stitch pattern with a funky twist in the middle for superior twisting & draping. It's not a true mobius, but a "join, making sure there IS a twist in the stitches" type of thing. It's fun and truly funky and warm as can be!

I'll post the particulars in a free pattern/recipe soon. Thanks and happy knitting all!!

*****Make sure to leave your email addy or some way to contact you, but leave it in that format that spambots can't grab, like mine....ChristineDOTlongDOTtgATgmailDOTcom or something like that. :)

Knitters Rock and a pirate sheep

I forgot to say that after I'd had that little Incident at the Quick Trip, I went on to the CVS pharmacy. I was waiting on my son's medicine to be prepared so I wandered through the store for a while. As all knitters probably do, I ended up in front of the magazine stand, where there were a few knitting magazines. Not having a lot of energy and being emotionally drained, I sat my butt right on the carpet and began flipping through Vogue Knitting.

A lady walked up behind me in the skinny aisle. I didn't even look up from my magazine, just said "Please let me know if I'm in your way and I'll move my butt off the floor." I heard, "Is that Christine?" I looked up and it was one of our guild members. She gave me a hug, said, "I'm praying for your son and hope he feels better and that you do too." Then she walked away after I tried to say thanks through my tears.

A day that was all kinds of crazy stressful, or as my daughter would say "a hot mess of ugly", suddenly turned into a calm afternoon and I felt loved and hugged. ALL BECAUSE OF A KNITTER. Knitters rock. We do. We find people that are cold and knit things to make them warm. We hug. I love that about us.

I think my new sign I should wear should just say "knitter" and that would explain it all. It means I'm quite crazy and probably have a house full of wool but I'd do just about anything for a friend or for someone in need. I rock. We all need those signs!!

OH and let me know what you think of the pic below as a logo? I'm trying out the pirate sheep idea with the whole TreasureGoddess name.

When you hear TreasureGoddess you think calm, rational yarn loving woman, right?

It's story time again. It's been a while, right? Well, as they say, Crazy always Outs. Ok, it may be the Voices that say that, I'm pretty sure I've heard it said on the Outside of my head too.

Let me preface this story with a link. Brave Girls Club, Signs Story Go on, click and read. It's a lovely story. I had this story in my mind at the time of The Diet Coke Incident. In summary, it's the idea that everyone's got something going on that they're dealing with. If we wore signs around our necks maybe everyone would be more kind to each other. My sign would say "my little boy is sick and the doctors can't seem to make him better." I would smile as others saw my sign and gave me smiles of encouragement and I walk calmly through this life. Ok, that's absolutely imaginary as I don't think I've ever walked calmly through life and if I did it would probably alter the general consciousness and I'd cause a black hole to suck us right on out to where ever you get sucked to when you enter a black hole...

OK back to the story. We're all happy feely now, right? Wearing our signs? Being patient with one another? Good.

The Diet Coke Incident...
My kiddo has CF (cystic fibrosis), which is a lung & digestive disease. He's almost 12 yrs old and has been pretty healthy for the last couple of years. Joe's digestive tract just decided to stop working about 2 months ago. We'd been in and out of Children's Mercy clinics, Emergency Room, even admitted for a weekend and then sent home, each time the telling us he's just fine and then the damn thing would start over. In a nutshell, he's been in pain and barfing for 2 months. He was pretty small to begin with but he'd reached a critical level. I'd not slept the night through for almost 2 months, he'd be up dry heaving or barfing from 2-4:30am every stinking night. The poor kid.

This put me in full zombie mode. The GI team FINALLY figured out what was causing this (but not how to fix it) and we were just waiting for a room to open up at Children's Mercy hospital. It was a Wednesday around 11am. I was on my way to the CVS pharmacy to pick up yet more meds and pulled into the Quick Trip in my neighborhood for a diet coke. I was thinking about the story of what my sign would say and how I should really try to go out of my way to be kind to others as no one really knows what's going on with another person's life.

I was pouring myself a diet coke in the Quick Trip and somehow the 32 oz cup just slipped out of my hand and dropped to the ground causing a HUGE splash of diet coke everywhere. I stood there just watching it for a moment until it registered in my mind. I think I actually said "wow." (It was a really big splash) I hear laughter and a snarky voice saying "This must be one of those Johnson County alcoholic moms we're always hearing about." I turned around, saw these two cutsie 20-yr olds laughing away snarkily. I Snapped, with a capital S. I turned and got RIGHT-IN-HER-FACE with my finger poking RIGHT at the tip of her nose and yelled "HEY! YEAH, I DROPPED THE FUXXING CUP OF FUXXING DIET COKE. YOU KNOW WHY? MY LITTLE KID IF FUXXING SICK AND THE FUXXING DOCTORS CAN'T MAKE HIM FUXXING BETTER! WHAT'S SO FUXXING FUNNY ABOUT THAT?" There was a lot more, but it's honestly a blur of f-bombs yelled at the top of my lungs (and I'm really REALLY loud when I mean to be) and severe finger poking. I'm pretty sure she about burst into tears and I do remember feeling really good about that. Then I calmly walked over, pulled another 32 oz styrofoam cup off the wall and filled myself another diet coke. There was COMPLETE SILENCE in that shop. There were a TON of people, which all quietly moved away, much like the Biblical parting of the seas, when I walked to the counter to pay.

I walked calmly to my car and looked at myself in the mirror. I have to admit, if I'd not known my own story I may have thought I was an alcoholic gutter dweller. The bags under my eyes, crazy freaked out hair, mascara that had run down into the cracks and crags of my face did not present a normal Johnson County mother-type figure. I also realized that the standard "come back soon" wasn't spoken to me when I left the shop either. ha! I also realized I'd not thought about her sign, that she might've been having a hard time in life, but also decided I really didn't give a flying fuxx. Ah well. I'm not exceedingly patient on little sleep and excessive stress.

Joe's been in the hospital almost 2 weeks now. They seem to have got his system working again, but it's very slow. He's been on a feeding tube (which sucks) but it's built his strength and weight back up to levels before this stuff started. My son's feeling better and has started a new business while stuck in his bed. He's beginning "Joe Co." (his name is Joe) and is creating really cute animal magnets and pins. My dear knitting friends WHO ROCK decided his little business venture needed investors and started him off with a significant gift card to Michael's craft shop for supplies. I'll be sharing photos of his critters soon. They're pretty darn adorable. Sheep, octopi (? octopusses) ladybugs, pandas, frogs and dogs. YAY! SHEEP! YAY! OCTOPI!

I've been knitting my arse off and am getting ready for the Creative Hand Show in a couple of weeks. I'm also crocheting away on tons and tons of little flowers to felt up and attach to barrettes and pinbacks. crafty crafty and I've not poked anyone for at least a week. :) YAY ME!

Sock ER -- Woven Darn

Are you guys tired of these sock tutorials yet? Do you already know all this and can't believe someone is taking the time to photograph herself stitching up holes in socks? I hope not. I've still got a couple tutorials to complete, a duplicate stitch version where you can't even tell any hole or weak spot was ever there, and I'm going to try needle felting a hole. I've heard about it but never thought to try. We'll see what happens and then I promise no more sock darning photos for a while!

OK, introducing my very favoritest darning method ever, the WOVEN DARN! YAY! I use this baby all the time for patching up holes on the bottom of my socks. It works on holes and weak spots both. When done in the same sockyarn, it blends right in.


I'll use different yarn so my stitches stand out (and because I can't find any more of the original yarn and I don't really care that the bottom of my feet have different colored patches).

Gather your supplies...sock with a hole, sockyarn scraps of same yarn or similar colors out of same fiber content, darning needle, scissors, and darning egg or bouncy ball. Some people say to use a light bulb, but even typing that gave me chills. ICK it sounds like fingernails on the chalkboard!!


Leaving a 3-4" tail, begin a few rows below and work into a few rows past the hole.


Stitch strands up and down to use as a weaving base. I'm sure there's a name for that...warp? weave? It starts with a "W" but I just do this by the seat of my pants.


Now also working a few stitches into the good sock past the hole, weave your needle side to side going over and under the yarn strands and any existing stitches.


I should warn any official weavers to turn away now or the imprecise photos to follow may make your eyes bleed. Just. Look. Away. This is crappy weaving, but it's fast, it's effective and I love it!

Keep working back and forth until you fill up the stitches well, then rotate the sock and weave up and down filling in more strands and strength, virtually weaving a patch right over the hole. You need to make sure to always go 3 to 4 stitches into the good stitches at the sides of the holes to anchor the patch and not cause larger holes in the future.


Here's the inside view. Weave in your ends on the inside across and through the patch diagonally, up and down or whatever crazy way you like. It just adds to the strength and texture of the patch!


Even though I've used conrasting yarn, you can't tell to look at my foot from the side or back. Only visible if I turn my foot upside down!


YAY ME! After about 15 minutes of work, I've saved this fabulous pair of socks from the trash bin!

Sock ER -- Triage

This SHOULD have been my first tutorial and my first step, but I didn't realize how important this step was until just the other day! Take the time to sort through your whole stash of handknit socks. Look at each one, pulling out which need work and which can be put into the drawer for wearing.


This is my big pile of darning. I think I made it through last winter on only FOUR pair of wool socks, avoiding this mess. Ridiculous! Now I'm going to have a WHOLE drawer of warm woolie socks to choose from each day!

Sort the socks into pairs, then pull out all your sockyarn scraps. Find either the original yarn or something of similar color and same fiber.


Bag each pair of socks with its darning yarn into separate baggies. Put them in a basket or shelf with a little bag including a pair of scissors, darning needles and your darning egg (or bouncy ball if you don't have a darning egg).


It seems silly, but spending 15-30 minutes ONCE instead of doing this EACH time you decide to darn a sock makes it so much easier! With everything sorted out, I sat myself down in a comfy chair with good light, grabbed the basket of sorted bags and darned 3 pair in almost no time at all! I'll follow up tomorrow with my favorite darning method, the Woven Darn. :)

Sock ER -- Oops Dropped Stitches Tutorial

This tutorial can help with any form of dropped stitches, but it's part of my "Sock ER" fix-it series. If any stitches drop on you while knitting yourself new toes, now you'll be able to ROCK it, not stress about it and just pick them up easy peasy!

First, a photo of my completed new toes on a lovely 3X1 ribbed very old, very comfy pair of socks. The left sock has new toes from the same yarn in a different colorway and the right sock has different yarn, but same fiber (100% wool) and approximately the same gauge.




Let's say after you separate the bad toe from the rest of the sock, you have a stitch that's dropped down a few rounds. Don't freak out, it's very easy and empowering to learn to fix your own mistakes.

As I was slipping my knitting needles into stitches around the sock, I came to the point where a stitch had gone down a few rows.



The first thing I need to do is to NOT FREAK OUT. Then I put my knitting needle through the ACTIVE stitch, even if it's rows below the rest of them. Continue slipping the rest of the stitches around the sock onto the knitting needles.




After you've got all the stitches on the needles, begin the new yarn (of the same or different yarn to knit yourself a new toe on the sock). I just leave the yarn tails hanging loose until the end and then weave in the ends. Knit until you come to a dropped stitch. ***TIP: Start the new yarn at the side of a sock, not on the top or bottom of the foot. It'll look nicer and you won't have the bump where you wove in ends in an uncomfortable spot.***



Next, DROP the stitch (or push it off the end of your needle). Don't freak out, it's not going to run down to the end of the sock. I promise!


Insert a crochet hook into the ACTIVE dropped stitch. Then put that crochet hook through the lowest of the yarn ladders behind the stitch.


Pull the active stitch through the ladder loop on the crochet hook, making a new stitch one row up from where you started. Then repeat this all the way until you have no ladders left and you're on the same level as the stitches on the needles.



Next you'll put that stitch that's been worked right up the line onto the left handed needle.



Now tell yourself "YAY ME!" You just picked up a dropped stitch and worked it right up the line and are ready to knit around and around creating new toes for your formerly worn out socks!! How cool are you? Unbelievably cool, for sure!

PS, thanks for the good thoughts & prayers while my son was in the hospital. He's home and though he's not back to regular level of health yet, he's getting a bit obnoxious, which means he's feeling better for sure! I had a lot of time to knit and darn so I'll have more tutorials out soon. Stay tuned for the woven darn for the bottom of a sock, coming soon!!