A chronicle of derpitude and a gorgeous free pair of socks (2013 FO #4)

Chronicle of derpitude

I do not know what is going on inside my brain at the moment but I have turned into a derpy, scatty vacant-minded idiot. Yesterday, I locked myself out of the house on an eight-degree night and had to wait over an hour for my spare keys to arrive. The worst thing is even though I had both books and knitting it was too cold to knit and and too dark to read! Completely the worst. This morning, I went to the library and left my keys on the loans desk, then spent five minutes staring at my car door trying to figure out how to get inside. Just then I had a shower and shampooed my hair twice instead of using shampoo then conditioner. I'm going to get some multivitamins or something because this level of absentmindedness is terrible!

In happier news

I have a new finished object to share with you: my Ocean Wave Socks.

These are made up completely of leftovers - the Ocean Blue Socks (Rav link), the Ishbel I knitted in Hamilton Island (what a divine place!) and Sam's Anniversary Socks.

I used this technique I saw on Christi's blog to knit the heel, talked about here.

It actually made a really-fitting and handsome heel and it meant I could easily continue the spiralling pattern I was using but it was a bit fiddly and did mean more ends to weave in, so I will probably only use this technique on socks where striping is vital to the sock.

On the subject of weaving in ends, I actually finished knitting this sock during Finish It February. However, because it was made up of lots of leftovers there were lots of ends (felt like about 300, probably really 40) and it has taken me this long (two months!) to weave them in. I hate hate hate weaving in ends!

But now they're done and I have a lovely new pair of socks that were effectively free and have the added bonus of making me feel smug about how thrifty and crafty I am. Win win win.

Now let's just hope I can go through the next few days without doing something really stupid like locking myself in a cupboard or forgetting my pin while standing at an ATM with a queue of people behind me...

Saturday, glorious Saturday!

This afternoon I should have been working, writing, studying or exercising. Instead, I played hooky for an hour and sat outside in the glorious sunshine knitting and listening to the new Regina Spektor album. I started the Merino Lace Socks from Favorite Socks in the Mountain Color Barefoot I bought a few weeks ago. It's my second Christmas gift project and I'm hoping starting early this year will avoid a log jam closer to the Big Day.

 Using this yarn is like knitting with butter! It's soft and delightful and I want to replace all of my clothes with clothes made from this yarn and make blankets and socks and hats and be covered in it from head to foot! It's that delightful, really. 

During the week I finished the fun stranded part of Sam's Anniversary Socks:

 I am really pleased with how it turned out. It clearly needs to be blocked and the A is totally wonky but I think it looks awesome and I can't want to give them to him! The best thing is I realised they don't have to be stealth socks - I can cover the grey part with the cuff and the message disappears.

As much as I want the finished project, I'm not very excited about actually knitting the rest of the sock. Socks for a size 12 men's foot knit in black on 2.25mm needles...not fun. It'll be a slog but I'm certain it'll be worth it in the end.

Lucy kept me company (she loves Regina too). After an hour I started feeling guilty about all of the stuff I wasn't getting done, so I packed up my knitting, strapped on my walking shoes and set off into the street for my daily constitutional. I am really glad I did because everywhere I looked I was greeted by sunshine and gorgeous flowers.

 So beautiful!

I even made a new friend.

Although I didn't tell Lucy about that. She doesn't like to share.

All in all, a lovely Saturday that will only get better when I pop open the bottle of bubbles I have in the fridge. I heart sunshine and weekends :)

Shhh!! It's a secret...

Every year I make Sam three pairs of socks - one for his birthday, our anniversary and Christmas. Over the years I have perfected his perfect sock - 76 stitches per round, stockinette, 20cm long cuff and a  ridiculously high instep. These socks fit him perfectly but they're neither interesting to knit or interesting to blog about! So for the sake of my sanity and having something noteworthy to share, I spent Saturday afternoon messing around with knitting graph paper and coloured texts and came up with this:

Socks with a message! Sam has an uncanny ability to find his presents before they're due to be given to him so this is going to be a majorly stealth project. I think he will really heart these - I cannot wait to see his face when he opens his present! Of course I have to actually knit them first, but details schmetails - this project will rock.

In Other News: One of these is not like the others

I was collecting water bottles from various rooms of my house before refilling them because paying for bottled water makes me both incredibly ragey and feel like an idiot at the same them, when my cat saw them and decided to be a joiner. Too cute!