No crocheting - I have been knitting socks

I have been lured into a realm I never thought I would ever venture. Hand knitted socks. I blame all these US knitting blogs I have been following with their Sockpalooza. I have now knitted my first ever sock on 5 needles. A first indeed for a girl who has to tuck her needles under her armpits to knit (try doing that with a 7" double pointed needle). I managed in my own fashion by pinning a thick wedge of spare knitting to my waistline at my right hand side and jamming the needle that I am knitting onto into that. I have the bruises to prove it from the few times I jabbed me and not the wedge. I saw the idea in the Shetland Isle Knittters of old who used to walk along the road knitting with the needles jammed into an oval padded leather pad on a belt (Wish I could find one of those) Success! I am still working on my tension though as I have knitted the first sock a bit loose for my taste. I will have to knit the second sock the same but next time I will take the needle size down one.

I got seduced by this Monkey Sock pattern http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter06/PATTmonkey.html that I had seen knitted up so many times on the blogs that I made them up. I have not yet been dragged into the hand dyed multi coloured socks as yet. I just made them from Sirdar Country Style 4ply (UK thickness) in black as I am sorry but I refuse to pay £10 or so (plus p&p) for a sock kit. I will try to find some sock wool next time I visit the craft shop in Ramsbottom. I tried the local yarn shop in Bury but they looked at me very strangely when I asked for sock wool and had very limited choice in 4ply. Mostly baby shades apart from black and navy.

I went to the gym for the very first time ever today. It has been a week of firsts for me. I am on the BEATS programme for people who the GP thinks may benefit from doing exercise to help with a long term condition. ie, my bad back. I have heard back from my MP who is investigating with the hospital for me as to why I am still waiting for an operation after being put on the list in May 2005! The MP's letter says he has had a letter back saying they are looking into it for him so I guess there won't be an answer this side of Christmas! They haven't answered my last 5 phone calls so I hope he has more luck than I have had.