The socks are finished - on with the crochet again

The socks are finished. I put in a spurt at the King's Arms knitting club last night and got them finished. Rather jazzy don't you think? I am sure that my niece will love them. I can't remember the name of the wool except that it is Opal but I did post it on here a few weeks ago when I started them (as did Ambermoggie on her blog more recently) if anyone likes the colour. I had a good time at the club last night and we had two learner men knitters and our usual band grew to quite a largish band last night filling the snug despite a few regulars being missing. The guy at our table was a lovely young man and has managed to master his knit stitch quite well apart from the regulation few holes at the start.

On the subject of knitting has anyone read the article on Simply Knitting web site?
http://www.simplyknitting.co.uk/page/simplyknitting?entry=more_knitting_in_the_guardian
Apparently the Guardian has been doing pieces this month mentioning knitting and there is supposed to be a supplement in this Saturday's paper. It might be worth mugging a Guardian reader for his supplement.
Steve Wells from the Guardian has done an article saying

"The knitting craze is the death of both alternative culture and feminism. But it's even worse that that," Steve writes. "Scratch a knitter - discover a Knit Nazi. Like the Nazis, alternative knitters have no sense of humour."

I always think of alternative knitters being the ones who knit covers for trees and parking meters. I can't be an alternative knitter - nor can most of my knitting friends as I think we all have such a good sense of humour. Any knit out is always accompanied by lots of laughter. Perhaps we should do a tongue in cheek Knit Out and all turn up in jackboots? I draw the line at wearing the uniform though. Perhaps not the boots either or we might be classed as hooligans in bovver boots!

My Interweave crochet books still haven't turned up from Pavi Yarns but I did get an e mail from them saying their supplier had been to a trade show and should be back today. I do hope that I get them before Thursday as I fancied a bit of light crochet reading in between the hospital sheets.

The weather looks like rain yet again. Where has our Summer gone this year? I guess it will be the track suit bottoms again today. I have barely worn any skirts, shorts or summer tops this year at all.Is is any wonder that most things I crochet have long sleeves?

To wrap or not to wrap

I am a fairly novice sock knitter. A relative newcomer to the delights of knitting on 5 needles. So far I have been coping quite well and since the advent of my Knit Picks needles fairly jogging along. Until ....... My niece gave me a Simply Knitting book Issue 21 and asked me to knit some Fancy Feet toe socks. Hey easy peasy I thought. I have made 4 knitted pairs and can tackle anything.

What do they say about pride coming before a fall? These socks have driven me nuts. I have managed to work out the constantly changing first stitch of the spiral lace ( The pattern says repeat 4 rows but when I did that the lace pattern went out of line all the time) and all was well until I got to the heel. It is a short row heel which I have not come across before and it was not very well explained. I went on the net to try to understand what a wrap was and their instructions made more sense. (I thought a wrap was a fast food delicacy from Mc D)

I have managed it but am not happy with it. One side is passable but the other side looks very amateurish. I found the whole process awkward to do. I am sure that I have used a similar type of shaping to this before but it didn't involve any wrapping. I think I will give these wrap kind of heels a miss once this pair is finished. The heel doesn't look very nice and it's not reinforced like the flap heels are. To add insult to injury the instep stitches left un knitted kept slipping off the needles (one drawback of the Knit Picks) which in a ladder spiral lace pattern is a bit *&%$. I am now on the foot bit and it is lace all around - even under the foot! I don't think I will ever knit these socks again.

The last photo is of my new designer sunglasses (well Florence and Fred from Tesco are designers aren't they?) I splashed out a fiver as I was fed up of the sympathetic glances I was getting for my eye. I am sure people thought I was a battered wife and had been punched in the eye. I am now being very Hollywood and wearing sunglasses in the rain! The eye is not quite as swollen today so I think the eye drops and antibiotics are working slowly.

I suppose I had better shake a leg and take this dog for a walk (paddle) in the rain. It's a stay in and knit kind of day today. Dull, rainy and depressing.

Edit - Just got a text that my niece Vicky's ex housemate had a baby boy by C section at 9.30am this morning. Charlie (named after her late father) weighed in at 7lbs 11ozs and Louise and Charlie are doing well. Not sure if dad Keiran made it into theatre with Louise or whether it was Vicky (her birthing partner)