Wednesday May 31st - month end

 Vicky-the-gardener came today with three cardoon plants! I am so excited! We have planted them against the fence; I wonder what our neighbours will think when they suddenly appear?

Tuesday 30th May - Water...

I've been trying to drink more for a while now. I know some 'experts' recommend drinking what seem to me to be huge amounts of water every day, but around 2 litres per day, including soup, coffee, tea, is what I'm aiming for in a fairly relaxed way.

Before I started on this I knew I hadn't been drinking enough; half a glass when I took my pills, a glass with lunch, another at supper... No, definitely not enough.

Drinking more has been quite easy to achieve; a whole 250ml glass three times a day for pills, water with every meal, and I'm at 1.5l already. A couple of mugs of tea or a smoothie during the day and I'm there.

I have just gone out to refill my glass. We're watching 'Britain's Got Talent' and and there's a man threatening to insert all kinds of ironmongery into his nose or mouth and I really don't want to watch, so it's a perfect moment to leave the room.

Phew. He's gone, and been replaced with the most wonderful male voice choir. Much better.

Tuesday 30th May - knitty gritty - socks.

I'm blogging this to give me half a chance of not lising my notes!

This is how I made my toe-up, forethought, weird pointy heel socks.

They fit surprisingly well!

I used 2.5mm Addi Crasy Trio dpns (I strongly recommend these!) and enough sock yarn  - 100g - and some spare contrasting sock yarn. Instructions wre derived from  thespruce.com, louisetilbrook.net and also 'Arne & Carlos easiest socks' and other youtube tutorials. 

The addi crasy dpns come in a set of three, all having a length of bendiness in the middle like circular needles. Otherwise you might be better off using 5 dpns so you can spread your stitches across 4 needles, at least for the increasing and decreasing sections.

Here goes... this is what I do for my English shoe size 5 feet, about 9.5 inches long from hel to toe

cast on 16 stitches and divide between the 2 addi crazy needles or 4 dpns. You will be left with an opening to sew closed, so second time around I did a provisional cast on, and grafted the seam later. Much neater, and actually much easier!

Divide them between 2 addi crasy dpns and join in the round. 

Increasing; 

Round 1; K needle 1 and needle 2

Round 2; for needle 1, K1, K through back and front, K2 to last to stitches, K through back and front, K1. Do the same for needle 2.

If you are using 4 needles, then for needle 1 and 3, K1, Kthrough back and front, K to end, and for needles 2 and 4, K to last 2 stitches, K to last 2 stitches, K through back and front, K last stitch.

I now have 20 stitches!

Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until you have 60 stitches.

Then just knit round and round and round until it is 7.5 inches from cast on and it is time to mark the heel. I've read that generally this point is 2-2.5 less than the overall foot length.

Marking the heel

It is important that the line of the waste yarn is in the same plane as the line of the cast on! Otherwise you will end up with the heel sticking out from the side!

Using the waste yarn, knit across crasy needle 1, or needles 1 and 2 if you are using 4 dpns for your stitches. Leave decent tails. Pick up the real yarn LEAVING PLENTY OF SLACK FOR WEAVING IN LATER and carry on across remaining stitches as though nothing has happened. 

I've summarised the measurements and instructions for myself on a paper ruler that cane with one 9f my notebooks. This lives in the cloth bag along with the yarn and a 2.5mm crochet hook for grappling with dropped stitches!

Leg

Continue going round and round until leg is 1 inch short of required length, and do 2 x 2 or 1 x 1 rib for last bit. Use a stretchy bind off method. 

Heel

Pick up the stitches above and below the waste yarn, removing the yarn as you go, so you have 30 stitches above and 30 below.

Now reverse the process for the toe, doing K2tog instead of K through front and back, until you have 8 stitches left on each needle. Leave a long tail of yarn when you start.

 Graft together, or bind off and sew closed.

Finishing

Weave in the end at the cuff, and use the long tails of yarn at the heel to close the gaps at the join between heel and main part of the sock. 

Monday 29th May - another couple of steps forward

 I've successfully made coffee today¡

I've completed a suduko without making a mistake!

And I've even dared to a little bit of cross stitch. But it's unlikely I will be putting it in the post in time to get to Ang before the end of the month... hopefully I'll finish in the next day or so. There's not a lot left to do.

I'm just trying to take things slowly; I'm desperate to plant out the four or five beans and one pea that have germinated,  and sow more carrots as only two plants have come up. I ate one of the four radishes that grew, and have left the three lettuces and two spring onions to carry on. The seeds I sowed at the end of April have been almost a complete failure, so I'll just throw some more on and see what happens. 

Sunday 28th May - the proof is provided by the coffee machine...

Am I 'better'? I have two tests of 'wellness'; can I reliably complete a fairly straightforward suduko? and can I reliably operate the nespresso machine? The answer to both questions is 'not yet'.

I am constantly making small mistakes in the suduko program, so that the numbers I just entered flash up RED; grrr,

and as for the coffee machine...

He likes a straightforward espresso. Simple. If you remember to check the reservoir is full so that it doesn't try and pump air instead of water (ooops, that was close) and can remember whether he wanted the red pid or the dark one, and remember to pour away the plain hot water which do run first to heat the cup before make the espresso... I like mine with hot milk; so even more room for error. The microwave's shortest setting is 10 seconds and it takes 15 for the milk to suddenly boil over... I've lost count of the number different ways I have failed to produce two espressos without mishap this week!

Ah well, things continue to improve. 

Knitting; I was concerned that the yarn I had used for the provisional cast on was a bit fluffy so I paused in going round and round and round (ideal brainless knitting) and did the 'grafting' or 'Kitchening' the toe thing.

I was right to be concerned; unpicking the cast on and getting the stitches on the needles was a bit of a pig,

But the grafting was very straightforward and I am delighted with the appearance. 

Cross Stitching

This is Ang's May piece. It's very pretty.

I've sorted out how I'm going to finish mine, but daren't go near with needle and thread until I can complete a suduko AND make our coffees without disasters...

 

Saturday 27th May - To and fro, here and there...

 Another day of 'possessing myself in patience'. But I am definitely improving.

I read for a bit (have finished a young adult fantasy book called 'The Left handed Booksellers of London', by Garth Nix, which I started yesterday because it was only 99p on Amazon Kindle)

and wandered out into the garden to commune with the broad beans. They have such a calming effect for some reason.

Then I came in, and took out the knitting I did yesterday - there was something very wrong, either with the shape of my toes, or the shape of the knitting. The knitting was going to be much easier to alter than my feet. Also, I have been having misgivings about the feel of the wool - it's not worth putting the effort into knitting socks if they are going to end up all 'itchy'. I shall use it up, no fear, probably knitting hats for charity.  

Then I ambled out to the kitchen and stare out of the window, and back to the settee and started the next book - 'Ayala's Angels' by Anthony Trollope (free on Kindle!). It was mentioned in a very light-weight romantic comedy, 'The Tall Stranger' by D E Stevenson (99p on Kindle!) which I downloaded and read in the two or three days before the Garth Nix book. (Yes, after several misunderstandings and wrong turnings, the right girls marry the right men, and all ends happily every after, never fear).

Then I spent time watching youtubes on how to do 'Kitchener stitch', having read Annabeth's comment on yesterday's post. 

Annabeth's instructions, and the video, have made everything crystal clear. Then I had a brainwave; if I leaned how to do a 'provisional cast on', I could do Kitchener Stitch on the toe as well!

So I have started another sock with a provisional cast on. Those of you with L o n g memories will recognise the yarn from the dreaded 'twice-knit' socks, the first I ever made using sock yarn and tiny needles, which took over a year to complete after many trials and tribulations. I have enough left over to make another pair... 

After lunch I went upstairs for a snooze, and Radio 3 this time. I have no recollection of what was being played, apart from waking to a lovely bit of Scottish violin playing.

And downstairs again. And television again. And knitting again. And into the garden again... sticking to anything, or being in one place for long is beyond me at the moment.

I have a hankering to make a sort of folded A3 booklet. I came across Shaun Levin's website about 5 years ago and have bought a few over the years. He creates these A3 booklets on heavy paper, either on 'how to write' topics, or as periodic collections of short stories, poems and art works (the A3 review)    

I find the writing topic books irresistible, but I'm not sure how useful they really are. That doesn't seem to matter. I just want to collect the set, because, well, there's something about collecting sets of things... I'm not so smitten with the A3 Review series which is a mercy when it comes to exercising self control.

So, when I have run out of energy or attention span for knitting, or reading, or watching, or listening, I can do thinking about how I would go about creating one/some, and what I would put in it/them.

Unfortunately cross-stitching isn't happening at the moment; that requires too much concentration. Maybe tomorrow. I have to chart something more to fill the empty spaces. Ang has sent me her May stitching. I'll post about it tomorrow.