Toe-up socks and baby booties

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

For Mothers' Day, I bought two copies of Wendy's book, "Socks from the Toe Up," gave one copy to my mom, and kept the other one :-) I also gave my mom a 47" circular needle, and some sock yarn. I was expecting her to visit the following weekend, which she did, and we spent most of that time together exploring the local yarn store scene, and knitting socks.
This was the first time my mom had tried the magic loop technique, the Turkish Cast on, and knitting a sock from the toe up. We wanted to at least get past the heel before she had to drive home, to get through all of the new techniques before she had to leave. Here's my mom's sock in progress just before her departure from my house:In the book, among many other techniques presented, Wendy has a gusset heel, which is a different heel from any other non-flap heel I've made. I think it is clearly the easiest, because it doesn't involve any wraps and turns, nor yarn-overs, so that's what we used for these socks. Here's a close-up of Wendy's gusset heel:I'm still plugging away at the other socks I was working on, too:I also made a pair of baby booties for a new arrival, using this seamless baby bootie pattern:
These were made with worsted weight yarn, though still size 5 needles. They are a little large for a newborn, but should be just the right size in fall for this Minnesota baby. One pair takes about three hours to make, and are mindless enough for social or TV knitting.

In news about real life, I'm officially a "second year" PT student now. I'm doing another clinical rotation, again at a hospital, though a different hospital than where I was in January. It's a lot like having a full time job, though I have to say that I'm enjoying the break from homework and exams. In another four weeks, it's back to summer school.....

One more thing -- another plug for exercise! There is smooth muscle which lines our arteries, and it is this smooth muscle which executes the functions of dilating and constricting those blood vessels, based on signals it gets from various circulating chemicals. When you exercise, you increase the amount of blood flowing through your arteries, and this causes nitrous oxide to be released by some cells lining your vessels. Nitrous oxide is a vaso-dilator, which means it makes the diameter of the vessels bigger, which, in turn, lowers your blood pressure, since larger vessels have less resistance for the heart to push against. And, this higher level of nitrous oxide carries over to your resting state, too, which could help lower overall blood pressure! (Yay for exercise!)

Well, I hope you're enjoying this Memorial Day weekend! My neighbor is a double leg amputee who was a prisoner of war in World War II, and knowing him and his wonderful spirit is quite humbling to me.

I hope the weather where you are is as nice as it is here! My kids are outside washing their bikes; I'd better go check on that situation...

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)