Friend Julia gave me this gorgeous and useful creation, initiating me into the Sisterhood of the Basket. Acceptance of this beautiful basket also heavily implies (according to Julia) a dedication to Finishing Projects. I’m all over that. In fact, I was already dedicating this pre-fall time to heavy-duty finishing of all kinds of things.



Installment # 1 – three pairs of socks. The center pair is one I started some time ago and decided to finish differently, thinking I had only the single ball of sock yarn. Then, when I was looking for another small bit of yarn to finish the dark socks on the left – made from handspun yarn, by the way – I discovered the primary-colored socks. The knitting required to finish them clued me in on why the yarn hadn’t sold – by the time I finished knitting them, I couldn’t stand the cutesy brightness. “But they’re so YOU!” someone said – mercifully, I’ve forgotten who uttered this. So yesterday I dyed them green – a little too enthusiastically – meaning I used way too much dye for a project that small. Which meant I rinsed them about 40 times, then put them through the wash.



So here they are now. Please note the woodpile posing in the distance behind the socks. I was pretty quiet for a few weeks because I was stacking it – it started out about the size of a small schoolbus and ended up also about the size of a small schoolbus – only slightly more organized now. Not shown is the newly weeded garden – the removed weeds completely fill the compost pile. Nor do you see the results of days of tomato canning and pickle –making. You didn’t think I was sitting on my hands, did you?