There are times when I see a pattern and think it’s the greatest thing ever.  Then, when I get the pattern and want to start it, something makes my knitting mojo sink.  I’ve had the Fish Lips Kiss Heel pattern printed out for over a year.  I had heard about it being the best heel around – comfortable and knit to fit your own foot – so I figured I had to try it.  I went and bought it (only $1 on Ravelry!) and printed it out.  Sixteen (16!) pages later, and seeing the need to make a template of your foot, I thought to myself, “Hmmmm.  Maybe later.”  I put it away for another day.  Recently, I started hearing about it all over again on a few podcasts.  Paula from the Knitting Pipeline podcast said it was the only heel she ever uses now.  Since I love Paula, I decided to revisit the pattern. [As an aside, Paula also recently gave a 5-star review for the iRobot Roomba 650 Vacuum Cleaning Robot for Pets.  Her daughter-in-law said it changed her life- changed her life! – and I am now dying to get it since I hate housecleaning.]

Originally, what turned me off was what seemed like the “extra work” involved (making a template of your foot).  But this time I decided to just jump right in and follow all the suggestions.  If Paula could do it, so could I.  I enlisted Paul’s help (since the pattern says you should absolutely not trace your own foot because you should be standing with your weight evenly distributed).  Got the template made and my toe-up sock started:

(And now you know how weirdly shaped my wide, flat, no arch, getting-a-bunion feet are.  Nothing like a blog to “put it all out there”.)

See the solid line and dotted lines on the template?  You use those to tell you how far to knit your toe and then the rest of the sock before starting the heel:

I did mine as a toe-up sock, but this template can also be used for a cuff-down sock!

Then you do the special, fancy, not-hard heel and then finish the sock:

Pretty neat and totally fits me great.  Apparently, that little pucker in the heel is how the pattern got its name.  I’ll be scheduling a class to teach this at The Spinning Room coming up in April.

In other knitting news, I finished the pre-steeked portion of Paul’s Perun vest:

He said it looks “fancy” which makes me nervous that he won’t want to wear it.  I promised him it wasn’t fancy and that it was very “outdoorsy”.  Also that the neck would not be that tight since it is a zippered vest.  I am very happy with how it turned out so far.  Since that was done, we went and bought a zipper.  Now I have no choice but to do the steeking.  I’m very nervous.  Stay tuned.

In students-who-finished-a-project-news, look at Jan’s finished (but for the button-sewing) Tea Leaves Cardigan!:

It looks GREAT!

In Doodlebug crafting news, they made Martha’s heart garland for their mom and dad for Valentine’s Day:

Then this week they made some pinecone bird feeders:

And then drew pictures of birds eating from them (based on my very artistic sample):

Mr. Doodlebug decided to make his into an alien rocketship (on the left).

And then we hung them in the yard, and in one tree, where there is a nest every year, we put some extra wool yarn in case they needed it for their nest:

Wish me luck on the vest steeking.  Hoping to get started on it this weekend….

[If you like my blog and think others may like it, please share it.  Also, if you don’t want to miss any of my posts, you can sign up with your email on the right-hand side of the page!]