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...

Taking time to smell the roses

There was a lot of drama happening at Chez HereIKnit last Saturday when Lucy brought in her present for me - a live mouse. While I appreciated her generous gift (and she was so proud of herself!) I didn't so much appreciate the two hours I spent chasing the damn mouse around while trying to prevent Lucy from eating it.

Mice aren't a big issue for me but even I had to object when it tried to use my bed to take a nap!

It was all a bit much.

This morning when I was planning my day I realised the feeling of 'it's all a bit much' summed up the last two weeks of my life. There's been nothing particularly stressful or tiring going on, it's just that there's been such a lot of stuff on that I haven't had any time to relax. I'd been operating at such a high level for such a long time that I hadn't realised that I was tense, tired and in need of a break.

So, this afternoon I gave myself permission to take an hour off and took my knitting outside. It was delightful and exactly what I needed.

I've been intrigued by an idea I saw on Christi's blog for doing the heel on toe-up socks. Basically, instead of turning the heel, you knit in a row of scrap yarn where you want the calf to go and knit another toe.

Then you pick out the scrap yarn (as you can see I very intelligently picked out scrap yarn that was in the same colour family as the yarn I was using, meaning that it took me 20 minutes to figure out which bit of the foot I was supposed to be picking out) ... 

.. leaving you with two very oddly gaping socks ...

.. which you then pick up and knit as normal. 

It's a bit fiddly so I can't see it becoming a favourite method for me, but it did mean I could continue striping all the way up the heel without trying to figure out how to keep the lines consistent with the short row.

Lucy is still so tired from her mouse-catching that she can't stay awake for more than a few hours. 

It's hard being a cat!

Radiohead-resultant emptiness and self-defeating behaviour

I have spent the last 20 minutes trying to wax lyrical and explain how today feels but I can't capture my emotions in words. Instead, I give you this:

I saw Radiohead on the weekend and they were amazing. Unbelievably good. Hauntingly wonderful and experientially sublime. The thing is, I've been waiting so long to see them (over eight years!) and I enjoyed it so much that now I feel empty, like my Christmas, birthday, New Years and just because celebrations were rolled up into one, were fantastic, and now will never happen again. 

I also learned that iPhone photos are not kind to those who wear dark lipstick and take photos without a flash while inside a darkened stadium. No surprise there though.

Oh, and I started a new pair of socks. Completely made of leftovers. I know I said I was trying to get my WIPs under control, but I am completely hopeless. An empty pair of sock needles does me in every time...but aren't they pretty?