Christmas is just over 3 weeks away and I still have so much to knit! Argh!

The good news is that I have one completed gift. I finally finished the Having Hope socks for my dad. I think they’ve turned out really well and I’m certain he’ll like them (I just had to do my utmost to impress upon him the importance of not putting them on a hot wash and/or tumbledrying them).

I will take a better picture of them at a later date; I had to rely on my bedside lamp to give me enough light to take a halfway decent picture. The second sock only took me a week to do – by that point I was happy about the w&t method of doing the heel and the vickel brain (which looks fab!). I must say, though, that things got a bit worrying when it came to the cuff as I only had a small amount of yarn left. By the time I finished, I think I must only have had a foot of yarn left!

I’ve now moved onto the socks for Elle, my brother’s girlfriend. I’m using another of Diane’s patterns (what can I say, Diane creates so many beautiful patterns) – Latté Lace – and sock yarn from Artist’s Palette Yarns. Here’s what I have so far:

Front and back views of sock

This is just before the heel turn. I’m hoping to have them done by the end of the week so that I can start on my brother’s socks which make take some time thanks to his size 12 feet!!

When you’re ill it’s really difficult to find positives. I mean, what possible positive can be found in a drippy nose, sore throat, aching muscles, foggy head, lack of energy and lack of appetite? Yes, the outlook for positivity would look pretty bleak under those circumstances but I have found one positive to feeling this way all weekend and today: I have been able to knit.

Knitting is a sedate enough activity for me not to tire and intellectually stimulating enough that I haven’t been clawing at the walls – I hate being off work with illness because I get so very bored at home not to mention the inevitable self-imposed guilt that I’m not contributing to my team’s efforts at work.

My dad’s socks have been taking me much longer than I expected. However, with the first sock done I am now whizzing through the second one (yes, Ali, the tables have turned and you can tell me “I told you so”). The only thing to worry about is whether I run out of wool before the end – I’m hoping not. Sure, I messed up a few times, tinked, re-knit, tinked again, re-knit again and even fudged a few mistakes I made, but I’m rather proud of the socks as they stand. I hope that by the end of the week I can take pictures of both completed socks, dependant upon the aforementioned yardage left.

I’ve also been invited to a knitting circle by Emma at work which I’m really looking forward to. I always prefer to knit with other people around – I never realised what a communal craft knitting was until I started learning. So I definitely have something to look forward to in the next few weeks .