My knitting time was severely curtailed last night due to 1) a meeting and 2) the demand for clean clothes by my children.  I got my fix by looking at all the pretty pictures in Latvian Mittens.  I read some of the words, too.  It is an informative and interesting book to read.

I am thrilled and rather surprised to say that Mdd is enamored with these mittens, too!  She has been having knitting fits and starts, so I picked up Klutz Knitting over the weekend for a Christmas present.  I have loved -- more importantly, the kids have loved -- every Klutz book we've ever owned, so between the book for reference and my support, I think Mdd will enjoy more success.

The time between loading machines and folding clothes -- time that would otherwise be spent knitting -- was used to sort through and attempt to find partners for orphan socks.  Really, it's so bad in my house that Mdd doesn't even care if her socks match -- kinda-sorta is okay with her.  There is a milk crate in the laundry room that serves as the collection point for orphan socks and the attempt at sorting/matching is made a few times a year.  The crate has overflowed. The socks are like a tidal wave creeping across the floor.  I have kept and held out hope for particular socks for years -- I don't know why -- even if I found the match to one of the half-dozen purple sock variations the elastic is probably shot, the grrs have probably outgrown them, and none of them will even wear purple socks these days.

That's it (pretty much)!  I sorted through all the colored and patterned socks and made lots of matches.  I tied together three or four that I've finally given up on and made a new toy for Mickey.  I threw the rest away, um... except for most of the patterned ones.  Am I an optimist or an idiot?  (You really don't have to answer that one!)  Damn it, how can so many brightly colored socks get LOST?

The crate is still full of white socks.