merry christmas everyone

This year for Christmas I felt like getting out the tub of decorations I hung on to when we moved.  Sister Suzy mentioned this is the first time in a while I have shown any interest in Christmas or that she has had any desire either.  We discussed the toll stress has on one's enthusiasm for life.

I rummaged around in the back of a closet and found my monster tree (all two feet of it).  Sister Suzy mentioned the tree would look a whole lot better if it had lights on it.  I agreed.  So, I did a little research on how long a string I would need.  The experts on the tube say 50 lights per foot of tree!  I do not want to catch the tree on fire! Nor do I want to be blinded by the light!  Well, Michael’s and Hobby Lobby were both advertising short strings for craft projects.  We went for a look-see and I found a 35-light string that was nine-n-half feet long.  That ought to be plenty.  And, it was.  Sure makes the tree look a lot nicer!

I dug out my Greek-cookbook I picked up way back in the dark ages to do some Christmas baking.  Once a year the Greek Orthodox Churches in Wichita have a fundraiser where they make Greek pastries and such.  Dad worked with a gentleman out at the Air Patch who was Greek Orthodox.  He mentioned the bake sale to Dad, Dad mentioned it to Mom, so off we went to the bake sale.  We were hooked.  One year they had cookbooks for sale.  This cookbook is one of those collections where a plea is sent out to the parents and congregation for recipes.  The Book is called Hellenic Cuisine.  It was copyrighted in 1957 and my book is the 36th printing in 1986.  The cookbook even has a recipe for Communion bread called Prosphoron in it.  The symbols that should be stamped on it, the meanings of the symbols and how it is to be portioned.

One of my favorite recipes out of the book is Almond Roll.  I had forgot how wonderful these were!  These taste better the second day, if they last that long!  I never make a full recipe.  I can get four rolls and 28 to 32 servings with this half recipe.


Almond Rolls


1/2 pound of filo/phyllo pastry

1 pound of almonds

3/4 pound of UN-salted butter, melted

3 eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

2 oz whiskey/rum



Syrup

1 cup honey

Juice of half a lemon


The recipe calls for blanched almonds.  I do not bother.  Grind your almond fairly fine, a few chunks are okay in your food processor.

Beat egg whites stiff.  In a separate bowl beat egg yolks and sugar until light and creamy and the sugar is dissolved.  Alternating, fold in, the almonds and the egg whites until blended.  Then add the liquor.  I prefer rum to whiskey and I think if you had some Amaretto that would be good too.

Lay a filo/phyllo pastry sheet down and use a pastry brush to butter the sheet.  Repeat the buttering of each sheet until you have about a quarter of the stack of pastry sheets buttered and stacked on top of each other.  Should be four to five sheets.  Pour a quarter of the batter at one end of the stack and spread it towards the middle.  The batter will cover about 1/4 to a 1/3 of the stack.  Roll up jell-roll style; turn under the ends and place in a buttered jellyroll pan, seam-side down.

Repeat with the rest of the sheets and mixture.  While working with one roll be sure and cover the rest of the pastry sheets with a damp cloth or paper towels to keep the pastry sheets from drying out.  Otherwise, you will have a disappointing mess on your hands.

The directions say pour the leftover butter from brushing your pastry sheets over the rolls.  I do not, because I am pretty liberal as I am brushing the pastry sheets.  The butter will bake out and then be reabsorbed towards the end of the baking.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  I usually bake until golden brown and in my oven that is an extra 10 minutes.

While the almond rolls are baking put your honey and lemon juice in a saucepan and heat to boiling, stirring to keep from scorching.  Once it comes to a boil, turn off the heat and set aside.  Drizzle about half of the honey syrup over the hot pastry rolls.  The instruction say to cut immediately but I have better luck waiting until the pastry rolls cool and then cut.  I turn the slices on their sides and drizzle the rest of the honey syrup over the cut slices to soak in.  I get 7 to 8 slices per roll.  I store them in the refrigerator.

For the other half pound of filo/phyllo pastry, I make Baklava.  I use a combination of walnuts and almonds with cinnamon and cloves and the same honey syrup.  But, that will be for another day!

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas!

Judy

tossed nine patch quilt

This is the fourth quilt I made for the girls.  It is called tossed nine patch and this you-tube video was the inspiration for it.

Sister Suzy wanted this one for herself.

I cut 5-inch square patches.  I used the dark-purple print in the border for the center blocks.  Then I used random purple squares for the outside corners and random green squares for the four inside blocks of the nine patch.

I had to add a fourth inside border on each end because the center of the quilt wasn't long enough to fill the space for a 48" by 72" quilt.  I cut a small diamond stencil that fit on-point and using my washable quilt pencil drew around the stencil for the quilting of that border.   As you can see I used stitch-in-the-ditch for most of the quilt and put a big X in all the larger blocks to make sure the batting didn't shift or bunch in those squares.

One of the things I did differently for this quilt was useing up a bunch of scrap batting that was the same weight or loft.  By spraying the backing well with the spray adhesive it was easy to butt the pieces of batting up against each other and get complete coverage without any shifting or bunching.  The quilt will have to be washed several times to see if I have enough quilting to hold some of the smaller pieces in place. I plan to try it again with another quilt with higher loft scraps.

I decided to go with big squares for the backing on this one.

And here is the label so it can go to it's new home with Sister Suzy.

As a Side note:  I was off-line for about a week as Hubby rebuilt my computer and him trying to get all the bugs worked out.  He ended up having to replace the new motherboard he installed because Windows 7 would not recognize the video card on that board.  The computer is still choking every once in a while so he has some more fine tuning to do.  So my access may still be spotty for a while.

I hope everybody is having a good day!

Judy

Xs and Os quilt

This is the third quilt I made for the girls.

The pattern is called Xs and Os.  The inspiration for the quilt came from a You Tube video by the Missouri Star Quilt Co.  I didn't want to make too deep of borders so I used four and a half blocks across the width of the quilt and alternated the placement of the half-block on each row. Which really made the Xs and Os stand out.  I discovered that after I had the quilt laid out so the light and dark blocks are bunched in areas. (You know, one of those, I wonder what this would look like ideas?)

Figuring out how I was going to pull off the way I wanted the quilting to look was a bit of a challenge.

I had to over-quilt some of my stitching in the ditch to have continuous lines of quilting instead of stopping and starting a lot. I originally planned for the dark red to be the outside border and binding but after measuring and some calculations I discovered I didn't have enough fabric so I reversed my layout of the border.

For the back I decided I wanted to do strips of fabric.

I didn't take a close-up of the label but it's there in the lower right-hand corner!  LOL!

Have a good day!

Judy

lover's knot quilt

Here's the second quilt I finished for one of Sister Suzy's flat-mates.

I picked up the idea from a quiltinaday You Tube video.  This quilt is a log cabin block variation.  You build two blocks that are opposites.  Then as you turn the blocks it looks like the colors are interlocking.   There are 20 of block 'A' and 20 of block 'B' for a total of 40 blocks in the center with a mitered corners border.  The border was four inches all the way around.  I used the dark fabric for the binding because I thought a thin dark frame on the outside edge would be the finishing touch.

This quilt uses 2 1/2-inch strips for the center.  EQ6 over-estimated the fabric by two 2 1/2 inch strips for each color.  I would have just as soon left that five inches on the pieces of fabric they were cut from but I thought I would be slick and cut all my strips at one time.

I used Eleanor Burns' construction techniques for the most part.  I would recommend that you square your block after each set of seams.  I.E. check to make sure you are still square after each set of seams.  Checking like that will save you a lot of grief in the end with all your blocks being the same size.  I had to rip a few seams out and re-sew the seam allowance a little bit smaller to get the right dimensions.

I chose to do very traditional quilt pattern that is normally only seen in hand-quilting by moving in from the seam line a 1/4 inch and quilting around the 'L' shape.

For a bit of whimsy I added a heart in each corner.

I made a template for the diamond pattern I quilted the border with.  Here is more whimsy for the backing.  Instead of blocks how about some stripes?

And finally the quilt can't go out before the label goes on.

All-and-all it was an easy top to set together.  The largest majority of my time was spent quilting.  There was a lot of stopping, turning, and starting! 

Have a good day!

Judy

Christmas knitting

Merry Christmas to everyone!  I hope you are having a peaceful one!

My Christmas knitting!

LOL my only Christmas knitting!  I got a wild hair at midnight on the 23rd after watching Hubby rubbing his hands because his gout was bothering him.  His hands were cold. Cold makes gout pain worse so I asked him if he would like a pair of fingerless mitts to wear while he is working on the computer and watching TV.  He was agreeable so I went to work.

The pattern is Men's Fingerless Mitts by Kathy North at piece-by-piece.net  As you can see these mitts are not exactly per the pattern for a couple of reasons.  For one thing the pattern says to knit stockinette until it is three inches above the cuff.  My best guess based on the photograph from the pattern is she meant three inches from the thumb opening.  Three inches from the cuff puts the beginning of  the ribbing at the top of the knuckle for the index finger on the hand.  One inch of ribbing would put the end of the mitt at the first knuckle.  We wanted the mitt to end just after the second knuckle on the middle finger.  I added three inches of 2x2 ribbing to tighten the opening up to keep the warmth in and make the length we wanted.  The next change was to lengthen the thumb so it covered the knuckle down to where the nail bed begins.

I didn't do a swatch. (I know baaaddd knitter!)  So when I had the stockinette part about half-knitted I got my stitch gage out and sure enough, I'm getting 4.5 stitches per inch instead of 5.  Doing some quick calculations said I had 4.5 stitches to many, with that I decreased 4 stitches spaced evenly around the mitts to tighten them up a little.  When I got to the thumb the pattern calls for 20 stitches with a decrease to 16 but I only needed 13.5 stitches to get the 3 inches of circumference for Hubby's thumb.  I did two decreasing rounds of three stitches each to bring the thumb down to size.  2x2 ribbing wasn't going to work so I went with 1x1 ribbing until I had the thumb long enough which in his case was two inches long from where I picked up the stitches for the thumb.

I used worsted-weight Red Heart Heathers in Cocoa on US# 6 circular needles.  I started to do these mitts on two circulars and here.   My initial reaction is what a pain trying to keep track of all those needles and all that yarn.  I transferred everything to a 47-inch circular and used the Magic Loop.

Ah! I hear the timer for the au gratin potatoes for our Christmas dinner.
Once again I hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas!

Judy

Christmas quilts #1

I decided to make Sister Suzy and her flatmates quilts for the Holidays.  This is the first one I finished.

I got the idea from Rose Smith of Ludlow Quilt and Sew.  Here is a link to her You Tube video showing you how to construct the quilt.  I couldn't find any black prints I really liked, so I went with a navy blue with a very small white floral print.

I had to do some research to find out the dimensions of a charm pack.   They come in two sizes; the most common is 5 inches square and the other is 6 inches square.  Most charm packs have between 40 and 42 squares of fabric in 10 to 12 different fabrics.  However, some charm packs do not.  So if you decide to buy charm packs pay attention to the number of fabric squares.  Also, be aware of the cost, twelve dollars for 2/3 of a yard of fabric in my book is pretty expensive way to buy fabric.

I went through the stash and cut two of each fabric I liked, cutting a total of 58 squares, using about a one and a quarter yards of fabric for the charms.  EQ6 said I need about 2 5/8 yards for the dark background.  I bought 3 yards and used 2 1/3yards, which also included the binding for the quilting.  EQ6 also said I needed 3/8 of a yard of white and I forgot to measure the two-yard piece I bought after I cut the white strips for this quilt.  The back took 3 yards of fabric so I used about 7 yards of fabric in total for a 48 inch by 72-inch quilt.

All and all it was a fun easy project.  I used stitch in the ditch to quilt it and top-stitched the binding on.

If you look carefully you can see where the horizontal white stripes are smaller than the vertical stripes. To get the center panel to come out the right size I had to increase the vertical stripe units by a quarter of an inch and decrease the horizontal stripe units by a quarter of an inch.  Not real noticeable unless you look closely.

Why I didn't photograph the whole back I'm not sure.  I pieced the back in 12.5 inch squares in several different colors so the quilt is reversible.

As you can see the label is on!

Have a good day!

Judy

finally finished

I started this quilt before Christmas of last year.  I finally found my mojo to finish it!  Yes, another gingham quilt!  I only have 3/4 of a box of blocks to use up now.  LOL!  My youngest sister decided to get a regular-size bed so I thought it would be a good idea to make her a quilt that fits it for Christmas.  Weeellll, a year later it's finished just in time for Christmas!  LOL

This is a 'trip around the world' quilt set together using the Crazy Shortcut Quilting method for quilt-as-you-go.  This works really well for bed size quilts.

Here's the plan from EQ6:

I had to do some playing around with where I wanted the setting strips to go.  I wanted a nine-patch that was balanced on both side and top-n-bottom.  I end up starting in the middle and working my way out, some days I'm a little slow.  ; >)

Then I went through the box picking out blocks for the colors I wanted to use.  I picked out all the seams, pressed the individual pieces and trimmed or rejected any pieces that were not the right size.  Then I stacked them up in piles to sew together.

Then based on my plan I started setting the blocks together and quilting them by stitching in the ditch.  I used 80/20 cotton batting because polyester batting beards through fabric with high polyester content like gingham fabric.  I used scraps of backing fabric from Mother's other quilt projects for the backs of each block.

I ended up numbering each block as it was finished because I was having trouble keeping them in order and reversing the tops.  I choose black for the setting strips because I wanted the eye to see it but not focus on them.  This is, also, why symmetry was so important.  You want the eye to see the whole design.  I used gingham strips on the back for some color and the border.

I had to repair a block.  Somehow, I nipped the quilt somewhere along the line with either my scissors or the rotary cutter.  I used fusible web and 2 small hearts of gingham to add a bit of whimsy to the repair.

The borders were sewn on after setting the body of the quilt together.  Then stuffing the batting between the two pieces of fabric and quilting.  I have started using a basting spray because I want to stipple a quilt so I gave it a shot on holding the batting in.  Much better than what I have done in the past.  I wanted to use gingham for the binding and thought about a multicolor one.  I rejected that idea as too busy and went with just black.  I'm glad I did.

I ask myself, "Why did I lose interest in finishing this quilt?"  I have a couple of thoughts. One, gingham is very ravelly and can be a trial to work with.  The other is I have done quite a few quilts in gingham and want to move on to something else.  Then you really don't get a sense of accomplishment as you are setting 'a trip around the world' together like most quilts.  The, "Oh Boy, this is looking good!"  You have to wait until the quilt is finished and then stand back and look at it.  I'm glad it's finished and I like it a lot.

More quilts to come have a good day!

Judy

Update 12/23/12:  My youngest sister came over on the 21st and saw the quilt hanging over the balcony railing and said she liked the quilt with the yellow in it.  I said that was good because it was hers. Yeah!

merry christmas

I hope every one has a very Merry Christmas!

I am off to play for a few days!

Judy

and another one

Miss S's sister, Miss A, ask if I could make her an ear warmer like Miss S's only in red. I said sure.



I used Red heart Designer Sport in Warm Red with Michael's sport weight Loop and Thread in white on US #6 needles. Cast-on 27 and follow the directions in this post.



It turned out well and I hope she likes it.



Now back to other knitting and quilting!

Judy

a christmas quilt

This is one of the quilts I wanted to make for Christmas. The quilt is for a little boy. I dug around my fabric stash pulling out all the prints I could find that I thought a little boy might like. Using the Crazy Shortcut Quilt Method I made three different types of blocks.

The quilt measures 48 inches by 72 inches. Meaning he should be able to use it until it is wore out as an adult. The other reason I made it that large is because I have held and rocked sick babies all night. Having their favorite blanket and it being big enough to cover both of us was essential.



I used the fabric that came with the border print for the backing. I discovered I should have used black thread in the bobbin after I got most of the blocks quilted when I switched to black thread to finish quilting the apple border prints.

I used a high loft batting cause that's what I had on hand. The quilting and setting together was a bit fiddly, but I like the definition of the quilting particularly the star blocks.



I wanted to make a block that showed off the large-scale prints, so I made 6 quarter square triangle blocks and then quilted in eighths.



This is the original block I started with. I thought a skewed star would look really nice. I made six of them and wasn't impressed. So I thought up some different types of blocks. However, after I quilted the star blocks I wish I had made more. Silly me!

To make the star blocks I used six pieces of 13 1/2 by 14-inch square material. Made five cuts, re-sewing after each cut. Then trimming to 12 inches square.



This block was a great use of a big piece of border fabric and scraps of fabric I had lying around. None of the scraps were big enough to make either one of the other blocks but were perfect for this block. I made 12 blocks. Six blocks the apples were on the top and six with the apples on the bottom because the apple border was directional.



I like how the quilt turned out. This is just half of the gift, the other half is two books that you can record your voice reading the books. As the pages are turned the child gets the next page read to them. What could be better than snuggling under a quilt listening to a book being read to you?

Have a good day!

Judy

it didn't happen

Well I was going to take and post photographs of my Tappan Zee sweater. It's clean and free of cooking residue at this very moment, but it's cloudy and drizzly.

I was going to take and post photos of the quilt I just finished for a Christmas gift, but it's cloudy and drizzly.

I was going to take and post pictures of the two completed pair of socks but you guessed it; it's cloudy and drizzly.

I did get some apples cooked down into chunky applesauce. Hubby will have to decide if he will like it chunky or whether he wants it a little smoother because he is the apple sauce connoisseur around here. Then I've got to decide if I am going to freeze it or can it in quart jars because we are out of pints.

I still have 2 quilts to finish for Christmas. I also need to get about a half-dozen crochet and knitting projects finished up to for Christmas, so back to it.

Have a good day!

Judy

Hubby's Christmas slippers

Yet another pair!

This is another pair with the modified pattern of the Two Needle Slipper to knit top-down. I also made modification to compensate for Hubby’s busted up feet. Around heel, left 16 1/2” right 15”; ankle, L & R 12”; ball of foot, L & R 11 1/2”; length, L& R 11”

I also discovered using short rows to get rid of the “baggy” heel. And, the best part? They fit! I may go back and re-do Sister Suzy's to 'tighten up' the heel.

Here's what I did.

Cast on 60 using twisted German cast-on using size 8 needles.
Transfer stitches to size 6 needles.
Mark center front and beginning of round.
Knit 3” of cuff using 3 x 2 ribbing.
Row 1 Knit until 2 stitches before center front; place marker; purl 4 stitches move center front marker to end of purl 4; knit to end of round.
Row 2 Knit to within 3 stitches of marker; make 1 knitting in front and back of stitch; knit 2 move marker; purl 4; move marker; knit 1; make 1 knitting in front and back; knit to end of round.(62 stitches)
row 3 Knit to marker; move marker; purl 4; move marker; knit to end of round.
row 4 repeat row 2 (64 stitches)
row 5 repeat row 3
row 6 and 7 repeat row 2 (66, 68 stitches)
row 8 repeat row 3
row 9 and 10 repeat row 2 (70, 72 stitches)
row 11 repeat row 3
row 12 and 13 repeat row 2 (74, 76 stitches)
row 14 repeat row 3
row 15 and 16 repeat row 2 (78, 80 stitches)
row 17 repeat row 3
row 18 and 19 repeat row 2 (82, 84 stitches)
row 20 repeat row 3
row 21 and 22 repeat row 2 (86, 88 stitches)

row 23 knit 8 stitches place marker 5 times, the 5th marker should be about 2 stitches before the marker for the purl 4; knit the 2 stitches; move marker; purl 4; move marker; knit 2; place marker then knit 8 placing markers 4 more times. At last marker start short rows working evenly from marker to marker on each side keeping the increase pattern of 2:1 going. Finish knitting row 23 after the 5th set of short rows, removing the 5 extra markers on that side. Should have 100 stitches on needles.

EDIT: 12/29/2010 Short row increases are too much. Hubby's slippers relaxed and are too long. I'll have to knit him another pair and get back with you!

Row 24 knit removing all extra marker and replacing center front marker in the middle of the purl stitches.

SOLE
Rows 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45 Purl
Rows 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38 Knit
Rows 40, 42, 44 Knit 1, ssk, knit to within 3 of marker, ssk, knit 1, move marker, knit 1, knit 2 together, knit to within 3 of end of round marker, knit 2 together, knit 1

Close sole by using Kitchener stitch. Weave in ends. Rinse and repeat for other slipper.

Have a good day!

Judy

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone, may your life be filled with peace in the coming year!

I was reading Cathy's blog, Keeping It Real at 66 Degrees North Latitude, she has posted a brilliant video. It brought tears to my eyes, it was so wonderful! Thanks Cathy!

Judy

the last of the girls slippers

Yeah! The last pair of planned slippers finished and before Christmas!



I moved the short rows to the bottom of the stockinette. I think it looks better. In the last row of of the stockinette I added short rows 20 stitches long on each side of center. Then in the first row of the garter stitch I added a short row of 10 stitches each side of center.

Hubby wants a pair and at one slipper per day he get a pair for Christmas! Cool!

Have a great day!

Judy

more on christmas

These are 4 of the 6 gift bags I made for Sister Suzy's gifts she wanted to give. As I was contemplating on how to wrap the gifts I had a stroke of brilliance and decided to make draw-string bags to put everything in. (I didn't have enough gift bags in my stash.) Sister Suzy was in love with the idea when I demonstrated how it all went together. I apologize for some fuzzy photos I think I was to close.



I fiddled around with size based on the size of afghan. I added 4 inches to the width and 3 inches to the length after making a prototype that I thought was too tight. This will make 2 bags.



What you need: 3/4 yard of material in whatever holiday material you bought on clearance several years ago after the holidays. Thread in a complementary color. (See Mom, I don't use white for everything! LOL) Rotary cutter, mat, ruler, scissors, pins, small safety pin, iron and board, sewing machine and button-hole presser foot. I think that's it!

Square up your fabric. Cut a piece 2 1/4 inches off the folded side which should give you a piece 4 1/2 inches by 27 inches. Cut this piece into three strips of 1 1/2 inches.



Turn your 1 1/2 strips 90 degrees of each other, off-set a little bit and pin



Sew and trim seam allowances to 1/4 inch. Press open.



Fold the strip and 2 large pieces in half and iron.



To make the draw-string fold the edges to the middle.



Fold in two and sew shut.



I don't normally pin making draw-strings, but I needed my hands free to use the camera.



Cut the draw-string in two.



Unfold a large piece measure 1 1/4 inches from selvage edge at the fold. Make a button-hole about 1/2 inch long using whatever method your sewing machine calls for. Cut the button-hole open.



Fold the selvage edge in 1 inch and pin. The button-hole should be centered between the selvage edge and the fold line. Sew it down. To pin or not to pin, I probably do more pinning than most people because my machine feeds the two pieces of fabric at different rates. I pin and stretch the fabric while sewing.



Using the small safety pin, hook one end of the draw-string and feed it through the button-hole. Even up the ends of the draw-string and tie a knot. Finished! Rinse and repeat for other piece of fabric.



Voila! Two draw-string gift bags!



So this is what we ended up with, except the DVD with Sister Suzy introducing some favorite Christmas clips and a greeting. The DVDs were being burned while I was taking photos. And best of all, Sister Suzy is very pleased with the results of our effort of making Christmas gifts that were within what we had to spend.

Have a good day!

Judy

christmas knitting

Five pair done and one more to go. Sister Suzy wanted something to give to her friends for Christmas. She told me about a conversation she had with one of her friends. They were standing in the cold talking after school. She mentioned to her friend she need a Snuggie to stay warm with. We looked for some, the cost was too much and the some of the reviews were not favorable.


So I suggested making slippers and maybe buying some fleece and making afghans.



The pair with a white body is because I go bored looking at the same thing. I wanted to change it up a little. I also added some short rows to the fronts because they pull down a little in the front. Adding the short rows in two places worked out well and I learned something new.



I added several variation of ribbing to the cuffs; 2x2, 3x1, and 3x2. I think the 3x2 and 2x2 ribbing worked the best



This pair was done with two inches of garter stitch at the top. The pattern is written with one inch of garter for the cuff.

The pattern is called the Two Needle Slippers and can be found at The Irish Ewe or Ravelry. I have heavily modified the pattern to a top-down slipper:

Cast on 40 (for a size 5 or a tight 7) using the twisted German cast-on and size 8 needles. Switch needles to size 6. Join, do not twist, using double needles, circulars, or magic loop. Mark beginning and middle.

Gauge: 4 stitches to the inch and 23 rows equal 3 and 1/2 inches. I cast on 44 for a size 7 increasing to 76 stitches. The same cast on (44) for size 9 increasing to 78 stitches.

Cuff
Knit a two inch band using whatever you like for a cuff.

Body of Slipper
row 1: no increases; knit to within 1 stitch of center purl 2 stitches knit to end of round. (At this point, I add a second marker before and aft of the purl stitches so I don't mess up the center line.)
row 2: knit until 2 stitches before marker, make 1( I use knitting in the front and back of the same stitch because I don't get a hole.) knit 2, slide marker, purl 2, slide marker, knit 1, make 1, knit to end of round. (42 stitches)
NOTE: Knitting 2 stitches before the marker and 1 after the marker gives me a column of 2 knit stitches on each side of the purl column. Your mileage may vary!
row 3: repeat row 1
row 4: repeat row2 (44 stitches)
row 5: repeat row 1
row 6: repeat row 2 (46 stitches)
row 7: repeat row 1
row 8, 9, 10: repeat row 2 (48, 50, 52 stitches)
row 11: repeat row 1 (This is where I added a short row using 10 stitches either side of center.)
row 12, 13, 14: repeat row 2 (54, 56, 58 stitches)
row 15: repeat row 1
row 16, 17, 18: repeat row 2 (60, 62, 64 stitches)
row 19: repeat row 1 (This is where I added another short row using 10 stitches either side of center.)
Row 20, 21, 22: repeat row 2 (66, 68, 70 stitches)
Row 23: repeat row 1

Sole

The pattern calls for garter stitch for the sole. To make garter stitch in the round you knit one row and purl the next. (I also go back to just marking center front.) So:

Knit rows 24, 26, 28, 30
Purl rows 25, 27, 29, 31
Row 32: knit 1, SSK, knit to within 3 of center front, SSK, knit 1, slip marker, knit 1, knit 2 together, knit to within 3 of end of round, knit 2 together, knit 1 (66 stitches)
row 33: purl
row 34: repeat row 32 (62 stitches)
row 35: purl
row 36: repeat row 32 (58 stitches)
row 37: purl

Close using the Kitchener stitch or whatever method you prefer.

The pattern doesn't call out the decreases in the sole. I have added them because we don't like the pointy toes and heels (elf look) of the original pattern. The best direction (videos) for the Kitchener stitch and short row I have found were on Knittinghelp.com.

Have a good day!

Judy