The Sock Addiction Continues: Tarn with German short row heels

This is a time-warp post, having languished in draft for years, because I mislaid my design book with the notes for a while, then found I hadn't dated them. Note to self, put dates in the book when you make notes! I think they were completed in January 2017, as they were completed before the 'Strong' Heel socks and had been worn and washed by the time I took the photo in March 2018. And now it's January 2020 and I'm just completing it, having unearthed my design book.

This was then ...
However mild this winter has been, and however impatient I've been for finer weather so that I can get out into the garden, I must admit I have been enjoying the colder weather as an excuse to wear wool socks.

They feel warm as soon as I slip them on, in a way that the commercial cotton-rich socks I would otherwise wear do not. There is an inexpressible feeling of snuggly comfort, and a few times I've taken them off when getting ready for bed, only to find half an hour later that my feet now feel too cold, and I slip some bedsocks back on. I find the warmth does wonders for reducing the arthritic pain, often stopping it altogether. I know, I'm repeating myself. If you're a fan of wool socks, you'll know what I'm talking about, and if you're not, perhaps the way I rave about them gives you a clue as to what you might be missing.

Since I'm loving them and wearing them, I reckon I'm allowed to knit myself another few pairs, to replace some of the worn-out cotton socks. The trouble is, a pair of the wool socks takes up about twice the drawer space of a pair of cotton socks, so I'll have to retire two pairs of old socks (at least) to make room for the new wool socks. Or decide I need a second sock drawer.

My 'everyday' socks are definitely my comfort zone, although they could perhaps do with some tweaks. Just so that I don't get too set in my ways, I decided to do a different heel, choosing German short rows for no particular reason.

A local shop had a lonely ball of Wendy Roam Fusion in Tarn, predominantly blues and greens plied with all sorts of other colours. The main colours tend to pool, but the plies create drifts of different coloured flecks and I love it. I was late to the party with this yarn, and, in typical fashion when I find something I like, it's now being discontinued. I looked at the yarn reviews are there were complaints about its quality. I haven't had any problems with the balls I bought, but I find it knits up 'large', as if the yarn is slightly thicker than, say the DROPS Fabel (although that grows a little on washing).

I cast on 72 stitches on my usual 2.75 mm dpns, 12 rounds k2, p2 rib and 48 rounds stocking stitch for the leg.

At this point I would normally start a Sweet Tomato Heel, so it was no problem to switch to German short rows instead. I watched some YouTube videos and found the technique quite easy and straightforward. I followed my usual shaping, using half the total number of stitches for the heel (leaving half for the instep) and then decreasing on a third of the stitches on either side of a central third. I knit clockwise and begin my rounds at the start of the heel stitches. On the last heel round, where the round starts with a double stitch, I knitted that round as the last round of the heel shaping, marking the next as the first round of the foot.
The resulting heels are quite smart with neat diagonal lines of decreases, but even though I knit tightly, the decrease line is slightly more open than I would like. The heels don't sit quite as well on my round heels as the Sweet Tomato Heel, so that remains my favourite.

Since the yarn knits up a little bigger than usual, I decreased one stitch on each side of the foot on rounds 1, 3 and 5, and knit 59 rounds for the foot. The sock fits well enough, but in a yarn which knits up smaller, I think the decreases should be on rounds 6, 8 and 10. On row 60 I decreased another single stitch each side to leave 64 stitches, redistributing them so I had 32 stitches each for the instep and sole.

I knit to round 64, then started the toe round 1 (on what would have been round 65), decreasing using SSK at the start of the heel and instep sections and K2tog at the end of the heel and instep, to reduce by 4 stitches on heel rounds 1, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, leaving 24 stitches.
Kitchener grafted toe (12/12). I noted at the time this may have been a little wide, but haven't noticed it since and Kitchener stitch of 12 instep to 12 sole stitches has become my standard.

So my plain socks pattern exploration and refinement continues.

Big Garden Birdwatch 2020

Having given this up as a waste of time last year, I was in two minds whether to keep an eye out for what I might see for an hour, given the poor weather and the fact that my garden, at the moment, has little to attract bird life, although there is water, a hedge to hide in, and the remainder of the evening primrose seeds (which the sparrows have been enjoying).

In the end, I managed the survey, but the results were as unimpressive and unrepresentative as in other years.

6 sparrows
1 dunnock
1 starling
2 blue tits.

Even my resident jackdaws were off somewhere else. The regularly-seen robin and resident blackbirds were absent, as were the occasional visitors, which include a wren, goldfinches, bullfinches, long-tailed tits and rooks.

I suspect that the enclosed and untidy space that is the back garden (at the moment, anyway) is just not very inviting. I really miss the numbers and variety of birds I could see when back on the farm. My neighbour's new fence could be a good place for a couple of nest boxes once I plant up against it, having given it a lick of preservative first. More work to do, but worth it to increase the local bird life.

The starling is beginning to look like a new resident, with loud song and beautiful breeding plumage. I shall have to see what I can do to encourage him and others to stick around.

Walk this way ...

There was a time, which now feels like another lifetime, when walking 5 km/3.1 miles was really no problem for me. Before I had a car, I used to walk a lot more, because there was never a bus going where I needed one to go to, when I needed one. Walking was free, even if I did tend to arrive a little sweaty. But as life and the demands of household, work and leisure got busier, using a car was the only solution. I would have had to take leave from work to deal with solicitors, estate agents and banks when I bought my first house in 1991, if I hadn't had a car. But with a car, I got lots more done, and walks were more scheduled events.

Even then, I had started getting pain in my feet from arthritis, although it wasn't formally diagnosed. My GP at the time told me it was gout and if I didn't agree with his diagnosis, we had nothing more to talk about. He also said I had to lose weight and should join WeightWatchers. I explained that all the WW classes clashed with my dance classes and rehearsals, I preferred to dance. He said I should stop the classes because of my gout. It was clearly not gout (he didn't even look at my feet!) Sorry, I digress. It's one of those things which still rankles after all these years.

So back to the present day, 5k feels impossible to me now. My right knee is still painful, waking me at night, giving me stabs of pain when I'm just sitting. The trouble is, I've started to feel my lack of exercise and I know I need to move. Just standing for 20 minutes to do things like cook and wash up leaves me ready to sit down again. My legs shake, my knee gives way, my feet hurt. I'm even starting to feel it in my hips. Bloody arthritis!

But managing osteoarthritis includes strengthening the muscles around the joints and keeping them strong, and pain does not necessarily mean more damage. I have to move or seize up entirely. Use it or lose it! I used to enjoy walking, if I could go at my own pace, in good weather, with birds, trees, water and preferably without many people.

It's the time of year when everyone is signing up for walks and runs, exercise programmes, diets, going vegan or teetotal for a month. I had previously investigated 'Couch to 5k' plans before, but there seems to be an assumption that it will be for a run and that you can already walk for an hour.  Then I found a 'beginners' couch to 5k walk plan and it sounded just about right. If I can stand for 20 minutes then I should manage the five 15 minute walks in the first week. It's about 10-13 weeks long, but although it would be great to be able to do it sooner rather than later, I'm not going to pressure myself into that timescale. I've been lucky this week, with high pressure giving lovely weather instead of the high winds and rain, some of it frozen, we've been having for what seems like weeks. Months, even.

Because the idea glimmered in my brain a couple of months ago, I bought myself some new walking shoes, and a running (walking!) belt which will  hold my (now new!) mobile, house key and hanky. It has an elasticated belt, so it fits comfortably and I can tuck the sleeves of my fleece in when I get hot. I took advantage of this week's lovely weather and did 3 walks, overdoing it on the second one because I got a bit carried away; the weather was so gorgeous and there were birds to look at and dogs and their walkers to greet.

Brunel Trail: The tantalising onward view at my 1 km turn-round point

I'm tracking my walks on Strava, which shows me little maps and motivates me to do more.

My knees and feet aren't really feeling any the worse for the exercise, but the other muscles in my legs, which haven't had much use since November, really ache. I was ready for a rest day today. Then I need to do two walks and have another rest day, and see if next week I can do five 20 minute walks. I expect I will plateau for a couple of weeks, but that doesn't matter.

I'm not looking forward to the next one as much - the weather is due to change, but hopefully so too will I!