How do I love thee? Let me Knit Socks.

For my dear husband, who is going through a rough patch, I knit alpaca blend socks in vacation souvenir yarn. Jim has been feeling slightly ill for a few months now. He has been undergoing tests for several months, but so far, all the doctors could find was a vitamin B deficiency. One of his symptoms is numb and cold feet.

Also, when he went back to work on after the Christmas break, he found out that there was only one more job to do and no work in sight. Jim is a sider (he installs siding on houses) and between the economy and the weather there are no new housing starts. Given his health situation and the bitter cold we've been experiencing, I'm actually glad. But it does put a kibosh on the great, get-out-of-debt resolution of 2009.

For my lovely mother-in-law, who will be celebrating her 85th birthday in February, I'm knitting some socks to specification, using Online purchased on sale.

While she loved the lace socks I gave her for Christmas, I knit them too loose and they won't stay up! Drat. Of course she's keeping them, but she requested a pair of fancy yarn ones for her birthday. I was actually bummed because I've been hankering to knit some fancy lace or two-color socks. My mother-in-law is a knitter, and one of the ways I show my love for her is to knit her really special socks. But I guess the most special socks are the ones that are knit exactly as you asked for them.