HALT!

My knitting progress was halted about a month ago when, as I was sewing together my orange and blue sock, I noticed a DROPPED STITCH!

Now, I knew I had dropped a stitch somewhere as I was knitting the foot because suddenly there were only three knit stitches before the rib, whereas there should have been four. I looked and I looked but I couldn't find the dropped stitch until I came to sew the sock up and there it was, in the heel. Short of unravelling the whole foot the only thing I could do to save it was to sew the dropped stitch and weave it in. So that's what I did.

A hole.

The finished result is - okay. I think if the blue had been deeper I might have liked the colour combination better. Not sure I still have the enthusiasm to knit the second sock though.

And on the subject of knitting socks - my colleague Fiona recently brought out from her bag one of the knitted socks I'd made for her Christmas. She had already rung slight alarm bells with me when she said she had used one of the knitted socks for her cat's Christmas stocking, to put his treats into - (raised eyebrows). But this was nothing to the maltreatment the sock had since undergone. It had been washed (agitated I later found out) and it had felted. The entire foot had shrunk, as had the cast on row at the top where the foot is inserted (no adult foot would ever get in there again). And that it was being used as a temporary phone cover. Needless to say, there will be no more sock knitting for Fiona. I resignedly came to the conclusion it was like knitting items for children - once handed over I have to relinquish any interest.

Some gratuitous shots of my feathered friends. Turkey is entering her egg-laying, broody phase. We've yet to find a Turkey egg. She hasn't really established a nest yet this year. She's acting like a moody teenager though.

And my lovely wee pals. I do love the chicks. Well, I love them all, but I still think of the chicks as the babies of the bunch, even though they're not. They fly onto my shoulder fairly regularly, which I love. 

And this is Delphus, our adopted hen. The photo doesn't capture her spherical-ness. She's a big ball of feathers. I've become quite fond of her too.

We have two new hens, Marmite and Twiglet. They are Isa Browns and they're gorgeous and sweet and have cat-like natures. Will upload photos of them soon.