Sock It To Me!

See that new sock? Know how proud I was of it? You'll recall the old saw: Pride cometh before the fall. Well I certainly received my fall. I thought the sock was quite misshapen and so I washed it, carefully following the washing instructions on the yarn packet. Imagine my horror when I pulled the sock out of the washer and found this huge hole in the instep. (That's my finger inside the hole, not a toe. I put my hand inside so the photo would show the extent of the hole.)

Don had bragged about my first completed sock to our friend Kay who got me started in the sock business. Subsequently, she had sent me a congratulatory note, so I had to write her back to let her know what had happened. She asked me to e-mail a photo as she thought she might be able to diagnose the problem and offer a possible solution. She was able to diagnose the problem (probably a dropped stitch that I had missed seeing) and to spell out a solution in enough detail for me to be able to follow. I will need the help of a local experienced knitter. This will entail a lot of work on my part and it will take quite a while, but as Kay pointed out (ever the academic), I'll learn a lot from the experience. So when I see Robbie Innes tomorrow night, I will ask if she can help me with this chore. Never fear, though, I am undaunted. I am hard at work on the second sock and plan to be extra careful with this one. I am having too much fun to stop. (Sock-knitting goes much faster when you watch Queen videos.)

On Friday, Helen Rae and I joined some Perth quilters on a coach to a quilt exhibition at Ingliston, near Edinburgh Airport. We were there from 10:30 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon and had a fine day. There were many vendors, as was the case last year, and a terrific display of quilts by members of the British Quilters' Guild. In fact, there were more art quilts this year than last. I took lots of photographs and it wasn't easy to decide on the two to show you here. (You should be able to click on the photos below and get them to enlarge so you can see some of the detail, especially the exquisite quilting.) I was most impressed.



The vendors were a good source of supplies. I picked up a couple of quilting books, some beige and tan fabric for an old ongoing project, another couple of odds and ends, and a metre of a white organza to make my Art Nouveau lady from for the log cabin project I've been working on lately. Alas it turns out that the organza is too sheer to show up properly so I must go in search of some white cotton organdy.

Friday night Haig and Trish Hamilton came over for drinks after dinner to celebrate Haig's birthday. We served cheese and biscuits with wine and, later, coffee, chocolates and brandy. We had a lovely time catching up with the two of them as it's been a while since the four of us were together.

Today while Don was out playing golf with Gordon, I put together 9 blocks with some of the yummy batik fabrics Shara's been sending me (via eQuilter). I got the method for the blocks from one of my new quilting books. They are looking pretty good and I'm thinking I will make this wall quilt my second entry in the log cabin contest for the Loch Lomond Quilt Show.

Before I forget it, on Wednesday, Donald broke 40 for the first time when he played golf in the afternoon with John Southorn. Let's hear it for the duffer! (At that rate, how much longer can he get by calling himself a "duffer"?)