Halp! Me brain haz pain!

I thought for years that I should like knitting socks but all bar one previous attempt have failed miserably, with me yelling and pouting and then frogging. Simply, I didn’t the experience one bit. The successful socks were from a two needle side seam pattern, and I loved knitting them.

Saturday evening, I decided to stop procrastinating and try a toe-up pair, using the universal pattern from Vogue Ultimate Book of Sock Knitting. The toe wasn't great but acceptable, I passed the hurdle of the misprint/mistake in the foot length section (suppressed rant!) and on to the heel some time on Sunday afternoon.

For the life of me, I couldn't get an acceptable result on my short rows - nasty, nasty holes. I tried three times, then started trying other variations (Japanese, etc etc). I still couldn't manage an acceptable result. I practised several heels with different yarn and they were great, back to my sock and another rubbish result. (Silver lining - alternate uses for short heels blossomed in my head, more of that later.)

Out came the waste yarn as I decided that I needed to knit dammit not futter around with the same stitches over and over again, and an afterthought heel would be a learning experience too. I did cock up a bit there because I was tired and frustrated and not quite well but nothing that's unfixable and well, learning experience is learning experience. Now I've got a lovely tube with a contrasting stripe and while I'm still knitting up the leg I have been considering the Heel Problem.

Except I've been looking at different heel methods online and I'm totally confused. How, for the love of parsnips, am I supposed to choose which kind of heel? There are too many options. I need someone to just say, "Silly moo! This is the heel you're looking for - use it!"

So, in summation, me brain haz pain.

But Richard Armitage strips very nicely indeed, so I think I'll be staying tuned to Spooks in the hopes of seeing scenes showing him with no shirt. After all, what's the point of the character having all those tattoos if we don't get to see them regularly?