FIBRE ARTIST, KNITWEAR DESIGNER, BREEDER AND EXHIBITOR OF LHASA APSO, MEDIUM, PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED, SURVIVOR OF CHILDHOOD ABUSE. NO RELIGION OR SET POLITICAL VIEWS. STUDENT OF LIFE. FEEL WELCOME TO COMMENT. DISSENTING VIEWS NOT REASON TO CENSOR. ABUSIVE OR THREATENING COMMENTS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. YOU MAY CONTACT ME AT :
APSO AT TANTRA-APSO DOT COM
If your foot is 9 ins long, you need to knit(and have your increases done by) until 7" long. Then you turn heel.
Okay. so lets say you have 10 rws per inch. 7" means 70 rows.
you want to increase 12 sts either side of sole(on sole needles). I prefer to do increases eve 3rd row. So 3 x 12 equals 36. Take 36 away from 70. You need to do your first increase on row 34, then on row 37, then on 40 etc.
Now when you reach row 70 you knit the instep sts. Now you are ready to turn the heel on the sole sts.
Lets say you sock is over 64sts. You now have 32st as your instep and 32 + 12 + 12 on your sole. ie. 56 sts.
You ALWAYS subtract 2 from your original cast on number, so this leaves 30 to take away from 56, which leaves 26. Divide 26 by 2, leaving 13. Now you knit 13 sts PLUS 30 sts. You have 13 sts left unworked. SSK and turn. sl 1Purl until you have 13 sts left unworked. P2Tog and turn.sl 1 and knit to gap, ssk, turn, sl1 purl tp gap and p2tog, turn
Just keep doing that until all sts on sole have been worked.
You will be left with 32sts on sole and 32 on instep, just as you started with. Now just knit up the leg.
The disabled changing room(!) was dirty as usual. Dirty unflushed toilet, muddy floors and muddy seat. Scum STILL on shower knob which is one of the plastic dial jobs, not a metal turn knob.
Okay, so during my swim, I was getting rid of this energy-swimming faster and with more effort-because I had promised I was going to keep my gob shut from now on.
Yet, I got back to shower and change and realised I was going to have to put my jogging trousers back on standing up because I was not going to put my naked bum on a dirty chair.
So I tried a different tactic.
I asked the manager, ever so nicely, to come and look. He did. And he saw for himself that I was not lying, not making a fuss over nothing and my name was not Victor Meldrew!
He apologised. And then made a statement which sums up the whole problem in this country and why our service is so dreadful:
'I had to support my staff. You were saying one thing and they were saying another. I have to back them up.'
PARDON????!!!!!
You see the customer is always wrong and we should shut up and be grateful.
I do wish people here in the UK travelled more in Europe. Yes I know millions of us go abroad every year, but they go to Majorca or a beach elsewhere for two weeks and that is it. If they went to ordinary German towns, for example, they would see and experience what I do-clean environment, reasonably priced goods and food and restaurants etc and excellent service.
Perhaps then things would change here. I really think that maybe people here in the UK have no clue how badly we are treated, how we are ripped off, and how we are disrespected.
I cannot believe that as a nation we truly don't care. I think we just don't understand how different it is abroad.
Just a brief trip to the USA would show how good their service is. I was astonished by it on my road trip. Only once did I experience negative service and that was in the late evening at a mom and pop store in the middle of Stephen King country.
Luna has 10 days to go. I think she will last another week before this lot are out. She is eating well but now has 4 small meals a day instead of two larger ones as she can't fit it in. She is being very loving and stares at me most of the time.
You could say I am down. Or maybe just not up. Though really it's not level but more down.
I have had two mouth ulcers since I got got back from Germany and now have a cold sore. I am tired. I keep feeling tearful. I am not in a great deal of pain, in fact this a good period as regards that.
I started using my light box yesterday.
I have had some bother at the swimming pool. They keep using the disabled changing room as a store room. We have no usable lockers. It is not clean. And now they are letting non disabled people use the only shower. This means that persons like myself have to wait around in the cold getting stiffer and more pained.
I have complained several times about the lack of proper facilities, the cavalier attitude to us and the lack of cleanliness. It has only resulted in me being ignored by the staff and gossiped about and generally subtly ostracised. None of my complaints have been taken seriously.
I decided to just to stop complaining. I need to swim. It does me a lot of good. If I have to put with disrespect and unsanitary conditions and unpleasant staff, so be it. My health is important. If I switch off from it I won't feel stressed and my going swimming won't be threatened. It is so typical of this country., We are treated like shit, people in general, service everywhere is appalling and we are expected to put up with it. If we don not and complain, we are labelled mad bad and dangerous and eventually forced to shut up and put up with it.
On the good side, I now swim half a mile 5 mornings a week.
Today, I did the back and front and collar of a Mongolian cashmere sweater. This is on my SR830 fine gauge machine. I am very pleased with it so far. Will complete tomorrow I think.
My friend Gail came around to see me tonight. She has just returned from a working ranch holiday in Montana. If you call cattle rounding and up at 6am a holiday! She thoroughly enjoyed herself though.It was really good to see her face so lit up. Gail has had breast cancer. She ran the London Marathon last year , a week after finishing her radiation/chemo! I admire Gail.
Luna is very very large. Her pups are due on the 6th.
My friends Dawn and Ron are on a Mediterranean cruise right now. They are back on the 7th and a week later they will come up to visit and take Shilpa back with them. They already own Moon and now will own Shilpa too.
I have fallen over 3 times this week. For no reason I could see or think of. One minute I was standing and the next I had lost my balance. With the kitchen fall that makes 4 times in about two weeks. The kitchen fall was clear-water on tiles but the other 3 were just loss of balance.
Tomorrow is Friday and John will be home in the evening. I am looking forward to his return. I am going to give a talk in Swaffham on Sunday evening.
Socks-have completed John's navy pair, my Tofutsies and just have one 2nd to do of the Amazon Knights. I am also part way through the first sock of a pair for Gail in multicoloured Blue Faced Leicester.
The number of readers of this blog tipped over the 100,000 mark today.
When I started it was with the idea it might be a good thing for me to do as it had often been suggested to me the keeping a journal would be beneficial.
They mentioned they had been 'saved'. They also mentioned how they felt badly for those people who have not been 'saved'.
One might be forgiven for thinking this was a compassionate soul.
Until one thinks it through, that is.
In order for this person to 'feel for those not saved', they would have had to have both judged and condemned the 'unsaved' first!
In order for this person to think they are 'saved' and others are not, they have to have be self righteous, not to mention arrogant.
So to me this is really a rather sad, mean spirited person who is so desperate to feel good about themselves, they are willing to judge and condemn others to achieve a sense of worth.
Overall, I do think this is a sad person, not a bad person, who makes the same errors as many of us do.
Self Esteem based upon looking down on others is not going to be substantial. Self esteem based upon believing in a god who will save them as long as they give over their minds is not only not substantial but dangerous.
Micah and Shameless went to a championship show today, Driffield.
Micah was 2nd to my friend Linda's dog, Luka, whom I am planning to mate to one of my girls.
Shameless was 4th and lucky to get that, little fidget. Honestly since her season finished a couple of weeks ago, she has been a right little madam. Time to leave her at home until she has moved thru this gawky teenage phase.
Me-well I still don't feel right but not as bad I was feeling. It comes and goes in waves. The meditation is helping.
Thank you to the commenters for their support and for telling me the stuff I knew but needed to be re-minded of. Keeping an onlinediary really is a good idea. I find the comments do help tremendously.
Feeling much better today and slept well last night.
Bathing up Micah and Shameless for a show tomorrow.
Giggle: Micah is on doggy anti inflammatories because he has had a girl, Rio, visiting him this week and he pulled a muscle while doing the job.....
This is TREKKING XXL colour 28. I knit it toe up using Hiya Hiya 2.25mm circular needle. I used my own Andersson Heel. This is my third such heel and the best fitting. I only knitted 8inches from toe to where I started the heel shaping. (My foot is 9.75"-10" long). The heel is very easy to do and requires no picking of stitches.
I had a bad night last night with pain. I awoke at 2am first of all , had a pee, a little water and went back to bed only to be awoken at 4am with pain again. This time I got into quite a tiz and fear almost overwhelmed me. I cried a little and eventually went back to bed at about 4.30am. No pain but slept fitfully till I got up again and 7. No swimming today.
I know what is going on with me.
I spent my childhood in fear and most of my adulthood. The fear as a child was overwhelming, paralysing. Literally. It is why I just let the abuse happen. I couldn't react. I like to say it was my only revenge - showing no emotion. No doubt it did infuriate the perpetrators of this abuse but revenge wasn't in my mind. I made that up later to explain why I just stood there. The fear was so intense I believed it would kill me if I let it out so I disassociated from it.
This fear has stayed with me all of life. I feel it now because my life is good. I am afraid it will be taken from me. What really pisses me off is that part of me is still afraid that I deserved all I got and do not deserve love or happiness now. As for the love part, I am never sure about it anyway. I don't really know what it means or what it feels like to be loved. I know that I am loved by John, that is obvious by all he does for me and how he thinks of things for me that I wouldn't have thought of. I don't feel it though. I was constantly told god didn't love me and I certainly was told I wasn't worthy all the time and was shown this by the treatment I received.
I go though periods, further apart and less intense, where I feel like this and something always triggers it. I think this time it is because I spent some time in the company of a person who I felt found me wanting.
I am well aware that this may not have been so.
I found myself feeling ashamed and found it very hard to look them in the eye. I also wanted their approval. In short, I felt like an unworthy child wanting love and acceptance. I have been feeling this shame since. I also feel quite ridiculous that at 48 I can still feel this. I felt I needed to explain my life. I didn't but did say things I wish I hadn't. I was so nervous.
So anyway, this whole fear and shame business has been doing it's bit on my life at present. I feel grief again for what for what I didn't have. Anger that I am not as grown up as I would want to be.
Yet when I can look at my life objectively, I know that I have done well. I have survived. I have experienced the deepest, darkest sorrows. I have almost lost my mind. I have almost given up. I have experienced fear so intense that death seemed preferable. I have felt grief so intensely that it caused tremendous physical pain which on it's own felt like it would kill. I have experienced such intense loneliness.
I survived it all. I may not be whole but I am not a vengeful person nor a selfish one. I feel empathy and compassion. I have love for others. I have talent. I have fortitude and strength. I can and do give of myself.
The god I was taught of that hated me doesn't exist. Those that believe he does have a real problem. Those that could have loved me growing up missed out.
And those that find me wanting should look to themselves as to why they they feel that.
PS: One thing that has never changed is my attitude to sex. I have never felt comfortable with it. Have always felt guilty and ashamed for having sexual feelings. Even now. One thing I feel glad about getting older is that I feel less sexual. I hope for it to go away altogether.
I was always told that sex was wrong. That is was a necessary evil to produce children but that was it. Girls only had periods because they had impure thoughts. Boys who masturbated were wicked and murderers.
I of course was sexually active from the age of five. So I believed. I remember this was my answer when asked how old I was when I first 'did it'.
It is a good part of why I never told. I truly believed it was my fault.
As a grown up I felt that I shouldn't enjoy sex. How could I enjoy abuse? Others have given me the feeling that I really ought not to like sex because of my abuse and that there was something wrong with me because I did. I find it next to impossible to see sex as an expression of love. I might add I would feel exactly the same way if I were st8. I have always seen sex as bad. End of. Yet I have always been rather obsessed by it too. Truly good people don't feel sexy and certainly don't indulge. I never had sex sober until I was in my late 30's.
So maybe one thing is true. Sex 'f***s' you up......
The most stupid fashion ever is this one of young(and not so young) men wearing their jeans so that the top is UNDER their bums. To add insult to injury they don't even wear CKs.
Now I know when we look back at old pictures we see John wearing long hair, flower power shirts and myself with flairs and platforms. It provides a good laugh.
However, these young men will one day look back and cringe at their ownstupidity and wonder how they could have been sodesperate to be hip that they were prepared to make themselves look so foolish.
Captain Nemo. The yarn is SWT's Tofutsies colour no. 722. I knit them on one 2mm needle. This was knitted toe up, using the Andersson Heel.
This is the first sock that I have knit which used up the whole 50gm for one sock. It seemed to go on forever yet the yardage is the same as for the wool/nylon sock yarn. 226 rows from cast on to finish, excluding heel shaping.
As for the name, well think sea food and ripples on the sea and colours of the sea.
7.30 and I was in the kitchen preparing the dogs' breakfast.
I turned away from the sink and the next thing I knew I was on the floor. Flat out. I banged my knee and hip as I landed.
I couldn't get up. Thank goodness it is Saturday and John is here so I just yelled and he came down. Funny, he didn't yell 'what?' back but came down stairs immediately.
The kitchen and hall floors are non - slip(!) ceramic tiles. (Most suitable when you have dogs. ) The floor is hard.
I have my textured soled slippers on. A tiny bit of water caused my downfall.
Anyway, after a bit of a struggle, I am up and back to business though now my left knee is a funny colour and beginning to nag at me and my hip is piping up with it's opinion.
We went up to Darlington today for a show. Micah and I left here at 4am, there by 7am, left by 11am.
Micah wasn't placed as well as he could have been. 4th. Better than a kick in the teeth. It was the judges' first time and I assumed she would prefer a different type than Micah as her own dogs do not look like Micah. I was right!
I have to give every judge a go and then they either go on the repeat list or not again list. (Unless, maybe, with a different dog)
Luna is 6 week gone and suddenly looks very pregnant.
I am off to bed and will read some more of the latest Potter book. I only read in bed at night so it is going to take a while to read this.
Minnette Walters new book is out this month. I am looking forward to that. Excellent writer. Crime writer but not like any I know of. More psychological exposes. Un-put-downable.
I really had to force myself to go this morning and it took about 10 lengths before it stopped hurting. I won't be able to get to the pool now until Sunday, hence making myself go today. Swimming in the early morning is proving much better than last thing in the day. My BP today was 116/56 with a pulse of 53. Not bad going.
DOG SHOW
I have a dog show tomorrow, 154 miles away at Newby Hall. Only Micah is going. Shameless is a 'gawky teenager' at 9mths and she just had her first season so she is all over the place.
ATHEISM
Many people wrongly assume I am an atheist. I am not. Or rather I might be. Nothing is that simple. I don't know one way or the other and whilst I can suffer from arrogance just like anyone else, my arrogance does not extend to saying I know there is a God or that there isn't one.
Of one thing I am almost certain - we all survive physical death.
I often wish it were not so. I was very very angry and more than a little afraid when I had the experience which indicated strongly that physical death was not the extinguishing of self. Since that time I have had many many more experiences, shared with and experienced by John, which all indicate the same thing. Both of us have thought our way around this, through it, dismissed it, researched it, then experienced it over and over till we cannot find another explanation for it other than we do indeed survive physical death.
And that the surviving of death has nothing whatever to do with what we believe.
Those who see me as being anti religion are correct. I think religion is pernicious, an evil force upon the psyche of humankind. Those who argue that our values and morals come from religion are mistaken, don't understand humankind or it's history and clearly do not see what is around them.
So the above is my answer to those who have not been able to get their head around what I believe in.
I believe in Good, the power of Goodness. I believe we are all connected, we all come from the same source. If you like, we are all drops of water and the Ocean is our source and our power. I believe we are each personally responsible for ourselves, that we each reap the results of our beliefs and actions-positively and negatively. No one pays for us. That it takes much much more than is possible in even the longest lifetime to achieve wholeness. That growth is continuous, even after we leave our bodies.
I don't believe in gurus, gods, miracle workers, leaders, clerics. I do not follow anyone. I live according to my own conscience, which is the only thing I can do. It is also the only thing you can do, even if you think you are living by a code written down elsewhere. You live according to your conscience regardless. Maybe not well, or happily, and even maybe in a way that damages others, but it is still yours.
I was at the pool when it opened this morning. I was first in. I chose to swim in the lane closest to the wall. Here I am less likely to get kicked or slapped by passing swimmers.(One of the hazards of length swimming in public pools.)
I got to the end of my fist lap and a woman asked me if I would move somewhere else as it was more convenient for her to swim in that lane because she liked to do backstroke!
Had this been the old me, I would have immediately moved. Today, I have a stronger regard for myself, therefore I responded with a polite NO.
She wasn't happy. Quite miffed in fact. Thought I was rude. If I had not wanted to get on with my swimming, I would have informed her that:
1. by her mature age (older than I) she ought to have realised that the world did not revolve around her.
2. that her request was plain bad manners.
and
3. What sort of ****ing idiot swims back stroke in a crowded pool?
So Osama is on the TV spouting his evil and we are encouraged to be upset and hate him.
Funny, when Falwell, Robertson and that ilk are spouting the same evil, we are meant to admire and praise.
Ooops, how silly of me.
The first is a Muslim, so is evil anyway. The second two are Christian, so are naturally good.
I get it.
Edit:
Terri wrote:I, for one, don't think he's evil because he's Muslim, it's because he preaches hate. (Yeah, I'm judging...) etc
I reply:
This is my point Terri. I should hope you DO judge his preaching as evil. Note I think his preaching is evil not him. )This harks back to my earlier post about condemning behaviour/attitudes not the person.)
The other point I was making is that Robertson and Falwell also preach hate but that is not noticed. The fact you failed to mention this in your comment makes my point clear.
I awoke at 6.15am and knew I had already slept 6 hours so I got up and by 7am was swimming in the pool. Much better time to go. Not because it isn't busy, it is, but we are all doing the same thing: swimming lengths, which makes it easier.
My dogs looked at me through bleary eyes when I let them out before I went. In fact, I had to force them out. I swear they said to me 'you must be ****ing joking!'
I managed to take them all for a walk last evening. They are really good, they seem to understand that I cannot cope if they are boisterous. I use my walking stick in my right hand and hold all five of them in my left. They walk on well, knowing not to pull or get in my way.
Both the swimming and the walking do me in but I can do as I please after I have done it. I rest or sleep. The important thing is not the pain but the keeping mobile. The longer I can do that, the better.
Just a short note to thank all those who take the time to read this stuff. Even more thanks for taking the time to write such nice comments.
It amazes me how much the Internet has changed my life. I have met so many people, physically, because of it. My line of dogs I would not have if it were not for the Internet.
I would not have developed my knitting the way I have.
I have always been on the outside looking in, so to speak. I still am but I have reached, and been reached by, others who share my interests through this medium.
Isn't that amazing? That I can 'know' and 'speak' with someone 10,000miles away? That we can show each other our work? Our pets? Our lives?
Surely this can contribute to the idea that we are all one and that all this fighting is for nought?
This yarn is Galaxy number 1555 by Regia. I bought this yarn whilst visiting with Lia in Sandhausen, Germany. I knit them using 2mm for the ribbing and 2.25mm for the rest. 38sts and 48 rws per 10cm (9.5 and 12 PI). I really like this colourway and design. I named them Major Tom. You may be old enough to figure out why! I did a Sherman heel. I increased from 36 sts to 46 sts on the sole before I did the heel and then decreased again afterwards back to 36. It fits well.
I have been feeling a bit low, almost like grief, for a while.
I realised why as I was leaving the show today. I had this excited feeling about getting home, like I was looking forward to something. Yes - certain foods or cigarettes. Then a weight fell in my stomach and it really dawned on me:
Not being able to eat certain foods without causing myself problems is not a temporary thing.
Not smoking any more isnot a temporary thing.
This fatigue, aching and pain is not a temporary thing.
The food thing is the one that p's me off the most. It is so inconvenient and I miss foods I like and I feel resentful when I see others eating them!
Last night has to be one of the worst nights I have had for a long time. I couldn't sleep for longer than about 30mins before being woken by pain.
First off by acid reflux. I think anyway. Although I have been eating properly. I did eat carbs on Monday and yes, I often get reflux a few days afterwards. Don't ask me why. I also get it at the time I eat the wrong thing.
I say I think because I get this pain even though I take Protium. I have told my doctor this but she wasn't concerned. You'd think a drug given to stop acid that didn't work would warrant something else, no?
Anyway, I get this dreadful burning pain but it's in my side, under my right ribs or breast. I must say though that I have had reflux when I have been hunched over the PC too long and the pain has stayed even upon standing until I take the liquid for it. It then goes str8 away.
Now this pain, although similar, isn't quit the same. It goes as soon as I sit up. I have taken liquid for reflux and it eases but is back as soon as I lay down. I can take a drink of water and it goes. But is back once I lay down.
Previously, it has meant I might have to stay sitting for 10-15minutes before I attempt to sleep again. Then I go back to sleep and that is the end of it.
Last night though, it just kept happening so I kept waking. I also happen to be hurting badly in my legs and hips, perhaps it is related?
I eventually got up entirely at about 4am and tried to sleep in the armchair. The pain didn't return but I couldn't sleep. So I went back to bed. I was awake with the pain again about 40 minutes later.
Interestingly, I got the pain whilst lying on my leftside. The pain was in my left side and similar but not the same or as severe.
I am up completely by 7am and no pain since. I feel sore.
Despite how I felt in the early hours, convinced I had a terminal disease and was on the way out painfully, I know that doesn't make sense because this has been happening on and off for about 14 years.
I used to get, but no so often, a very similar burning sensation that would start in my jaw, left or right, and would seem to travel all long my major nerve routes. It was awful and then it just stopped. I still get that but not often.
Anyway, this pain in the side, might be to do with the arthritis or fibromyalgia. Or it is reflux and I just happen to feel it to the right side of my centre.
I feel better for having written all this out because it helps me see it more clearly. More importantly, as I have had this for so many years, it is not likely to be a terminal disease!
People get their knickers in a twist over this. Have you noticed that when someone resorts to telling you 'you shouldn't judge' that they are doing precisely that! They are judging you!
(As in recent correspondent regarding my Nonsense post. It seems that at least two, one wrote by email, thought I was writing about them personally. If this is the case, then I can only assume they think in the manner I wrote about and that somehow I must have known this.)
Back to the point.
We all make judgements everyday. More importantly, we judge others daily, hourly, minutely even!
Huh! I hear you shriek, I DO NOT JUDGE. I am a good person. Bollocks!(English for rubbish) I say.
You do. If you don't, you need locking up and medicating . If you have children, they need to be taken away and given to someone who knows how to care for them and who does not endanger their lives.
Someone knocks at your door. You open it. You see a stranger. If you do not judge, you let him in, let him play with your children. You leave him to it whilst you go out to the shops. This man was a god send. You can get away without the children for a while.
Or it's evening time and you are walking alone along the street and you see a crowd of skinheads coming your way. You stay where you are and smile at them when you get up close.
Or you are on a country lane at night, two men step out in front of your car and ask you to take one them to get fuel as their car ran out. If you do not judge, you willingly do this. If you judge, you recognise your vulnerability and refuse, ready to put your foot down on the accelerator should the need arise.
Okay I think I made the point. (That last one happened to me-I realised that being in my physical state, I was not able to defend myself if they were not genuine.)
Now if the commandment was DO NOT CONDEMN, LEST YOU BE CONDEMNED it would make more sense.
It is never a good idea to condemn anyone. No one is beyond redemption, no one is without the tiniest bit of light in them. Above all, no one is so above reproach that they have the right to condemn anyone else.
People who do this, and there many who do so in the name of their god, are behaving in a vile and unrighteous manner.
Condemning an action as wrong can be sensible. However, even then it is not simple. Things are not black and white. For example, THOU SHALT NOT KILL. There are times when killing is the right thing to do or the most compassionate thing to do, or the lesser of evils. It means we have to use our brains.
Of course scholars say that the commandment is Thou Shalt Not Commit Murder. which makes more sense.
Oh and if you align yourself with a particular belief system, do not be surprised when others take this to mean you believe certain things. One would be a cretin if one announced one is in the KKK or BNP and then get upset when others assume one is a racist!
Rather the same as when one announces one follows a certain faith and then gets upset when one is assumed to be a believer in the principles and edicts of that faith.....
I have put 8 of my sweaters on Ebay. The link will take you to one of them. When you get there you will see a link which says 'view seller's other items'. Click on it to see other sweaters.
I did the heel slightly differently for the second sock. I increased for the gusset every 3rd row instead of every other-ie with 2 rows between increases. I also added garter stitch borders to the heel part - I knit 3 sts in Knit before and after each slip stitch. When you sl1 you knit the next 3 sts no matter if you are on a knit row or a purl row).
Whilst John was sorting out my stash for me, he came across some yarn he wanted a sweater out of.
Dark navy wool/cotton slub. How could I refuse despite finding it rather hard to see what I am doing.
I knit it on the fine gauge machine at 36sts and 36 rows per 10cm. For the mathematically challenged (or Americans) , this is 9sts and 11.5rws to the inch.
I have done the front and back and neck and joined it all, ready for the sleeves.
I am knackered!!!
Gosh, I used to be able machine knit and sew up two sweaters a day.
This is the little town that Lia and Lui live in. This is John and Lia. This is John and me. This is of a woman rolling tobacco. This is a tobacco growing area. I saw my first ever tobacco growing in fields. Had no idea the grew it here in Germany.
These pictures are of Speyer. I really enjoy old places like this.
Holly took us to the museum and we saw an expo about Attila the Hunwhich was excellent. We have tried doing this sort of thing before but have not found them accessible. However, they are and fortunately Holly speaks German so was able to ask and we were then able to find the disabled entrance and facilities.
My John is a well educated man, used to teach and an Historian by trade. Holly is a Doctor(MD), Lia is a language teacher and Lui a Professor. I have to say that I often feel completely out of my depth in such company. My education finished at 15 and I have educated myself since. And certainly not in the way these people are. So I am not really able to talk with them in the same way. I cannot have conversations, educated ones,about history of art or history. I handle that most of the time. Sometimes though I feel so inadequate and it can affect me thus: I either clam up and people can think I am sulking or miserable, and I am neither, or I rabbit on nervously and make a fool of myself. I have this voice in my head telling me to shut up! So I think I might have enjoyed myself better if I was could talk with these people on their level.(I hasten to add that no one spoke down to me or anything.)
So last night it was just watch a film night. I did not want to knit or do anything, just watch a film.
I chose Premonition with Sandra Bullock, who could be Carly Simon's daughter.
I found the film disturbing and upsetting and would have rather not seen it. However, I was engrossed and intrigued and emotionally affected by it. John on the other hand didn't like it and would have turned it off after 10 minutes!
We then saw a film called Sleeping Dogs which was most unusual to say the least. I cannot say here what the premise was. We did not know when we chose the film. It was entertaining and thought provoking though.
Later in bed, getting my back stroked, I felt really weary, fed up of never feeling comfortable. If not hurting, then aching all the bloody time. This week my hands are burning and aching, my knuckles sore. I have not had real pain in my legs or hips but have been very weak and unable to walk far due to that. So I console myself by saying well at least the pain isn't bad. Then early this morning I am awakened by my hips and have to get up. So it starts again.....
Yes I know moaning is of no use at all and most of the time I am good at ignoring it all and enjoying John, my dogs, and and the knitting. Sometimes though, it just really pisses me off. 24/7 pain or discomfort is annoying at best.
Plus my new spec frames are in. I had to order them cos the nose bridge on mine has broken. I bought the damn frame in Peterborough. This means I can only go on Saturday to collect them because I cannot go on my own(the shop is in a mall) and John needs to be with me. We have not got a free Saturday for a while....
I HATE the dependency this condition brings with it.
Okay here it is. This just an explanation of the heel, not a whole sock pattern. That you can do for yourself.
Lets assume you have 72sts all told for your sock, split into two. (if you insist with knitting with the hedgehog, you'll have to work it out over 3 or 4 needles yourself.)
You are knitting toe up. You want to increase a total of 30sts (the amount that suits my instep)on the 36sts that make the sole. You also want the increasing to be completed just about 1/2 to an inch from the end of your foot. My gauge was 13 RPI and I started by increases on row 81 and finished on row 109. (I do not count my cast on and toe increase rows). (You must be prepared to frog so that the you ge the heel to be right for your foot length)
So on row 81 I increased every other row on both sides of the sole, 1 stitch in. When I had the required number of stitches, I knit another row and then across the instep stitches.
Now I am ready to make the heel.
The heel middle needs to be 34sts. I increased 15 sts either side of the 36sts I started with.
Subtract 34sts from 66sts which leaves with 32 sts. Divide the 32sts by 2 = 16 sts Add to the 34 sts. I need to knit 50sts, SSK and turn. Sl1, Purl until I have 16 sts left, then P2tog and turn. Sl1 and knit to stiche before gap. SSK, turn. Sl1 and purl to 1 st shy of gap, P2tog and turn
I Just kept doing this until I had worked all sts. I will have 36sts left on my needle.
I then just continue in the round.
Note: there were gaps when I rejoined to knit in the round. I closed them my way and you can close them the way you do.
If your sock was 60sts all told, you'd 30sts for your sole, you may increase to 50sts. In which case you'd need 28 ts for you middle heel, divide what is left by 2, in this case that would leave 16. So you knit 44 sts, SSK, turn etc
Your middle heel is always 2sts less than the total sts for your sole. The amount of stitches you knit before you SSK and turn is that total original sole sts minus 2 plus HALF the sts you increased.
EDIT: I found this fits better when I start the heel shaping 2 inches from foot end. i.e my foot is 10" long and so I start to turn the heel when sock is 8" long.
This is the sock yarn from Germany at 0.70 pence a 50 gm ball! That is €1 or $1.40. Very soft. 75% wool 25% nylon.
I knit the whole thing on 2.25mm Hiya Hiya needles. It is knit from the toe up.
The heel I am especially pleased with. It has a gusset, and a wide German style heel. No picking up of stitches. I have rather modestly named it the Andersson Heel. ;-)
It really is easy to do. Took a bit of working out-it got frogged twice -but by the 3rd attempt, I had it figured out.
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Oppstart
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Ganske motvillig men etter mye dytt fra Erica http://mikkmakk.com/mekk/ så
er jeg nesten i gang.
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