I love my socks

My crochet socks are finally finished. I only went wrong about a hundred times but I are not thinking about that now just concentrating on the finally finished pair. I must say I am quite impressed with them not only for the speed that they crocheted up in but also the fit. I love the way that I could keep trying them on and make modifications as I went along a thing I haven't yet mastered with knitted socks as it's a little difficult to try them on when they are on 5 needles!( I can't knit on circular needles I can't do with all that waggling about - it slows me down to a snail's pace)

The pattern for the crochet socks came from one of my new books Crocheted Socks by Janet Rehfeldt and Mary Jane Wood (Amazon books). The wool was a gift from Vicky and I think it is Russian wool that she bought from E-Bay. The socks felt a little chunky and harsh on the hook but on my foot they don't feel much different to any other knitted sock which to be honest I can always feel the purl ridges under my feet it's just something that I have got used to.

I have shown a pair of my initial attempts at knitted sock making before I mastered my tension technique with the aid of a knitting belt. These are Jaywalker socks which was a free pattern from Knitty.com if my memory serves me right. I knitted them in Opal Elemental but if you look closely you will see that I got a faulty ball and the colour is wrong in one of the stripes plus there is a huge chunk of pale green on one heel where the wool lost it's multi colouring and went into plain. I knit from the centre of the ball so didn't notice until the heel was finished. I had to cut out and bin a sizeable ball that was the same plain colour otherwise half of the foot would have been plain pale green but luckily as I have very small feet I still had enough to finish pair. They were loose and baggy when I fnished them but after an accidental meeting with my washing machine now fit fine! The Jaywalker is still one of my favourite patterns as I think the zig zag stitch works so well with stripey wool.

Buster had to get in the act of course and is giving me that "Why are you taking stupid photos of socks when it's time for my walk" face.

I went into my local charity shop as I am ever hopeful of finding a yarn or knitting book bargain but of course there was nothing in there. No call for it they say! I did however find a pair of rejected Christmas present thermal gloves still with the label attached for £1.25 so my visit was not all lost. I ruin pair after pair of gloves throwing sticks for the dog.

I got some good news last night. My builder rang and said he is starting my new garage roof and doors on Monday. To be fair he did attempt to come 6 months ago but my son still had his wooden jeep (built from a kit) stored in the old garage so he couldn't exactly work around it. Since losing my time slot I had to wait until he had another slot for me. His usual work is big contract work so my small jobs is something he slots in between these big jobs. It will be nice to have some dry, secure storage space to keep the lawnmower and tools plus I would like a table in there so that I can use it for planting my vegetables into pots as I cannot bend and find that bit so so difficult. I think that is one reason why I wasn't succesful last year as I kept putting the re-potting off because of back pain. My house fund will have dwindled to almost nothing after he has finished the work but it all adds to the value of the house if I have to sell up. Apparently a garage is one of the best selling points of a house along with kitchen and bathroom. I can't afford a new kitchen but I had a new bathroom last year.