Well it is progress, although very very slow!

In between putting the sock down and nearly admitting defeat I darned about 3 ends of the baby hexagon piece. And that was the sum total of my crafting for the last week. Do you also sometimes find that a setback can put you off doing anything at all, until you figure out what to do?

Instead of doing a tension check, stupidly being a bit lazy to, I upped to a 4mm hook instead of 3.5mm at the start. I always find my tension comes out tighter than required when I do check it. Yesterday I realised that if the foot fits perfectly then that suggests the tension is right, but halfway through crocheting the gusset the sock was huge on my foot. So I undid what I’d crocheted to the end of the heel piece, counted my stitches three times and went with my hunch. I swopped to a 3.5mm hook and all is well. It was obviously me and not Vicki’s pattern at fault.

Rather than frog the sock and use the yarn for my first pair of knitted socks I picked it up again and I’m glad I did. It’s the first time I’ve tried crochet socks and I want to crack it, plus I feel my honour as a pattern tester is at stake. Saying that I’ve probably already failed as I didn’t check my tension, but it’s been a very good lesson. I’ve ‘helpfully’ been reminded that this is only one sock, so I’ll need to make a second unless I want to hop. Grrr! There are a few other progress photos, including the ridiculously long one on IG if you want to see them.

I’m joining in with Ginny’s Yarn Along once again. This is a library book I grabbed on impulse, I had taken a friend to change her books and saw it on the Quick Choice display just inside the door. It’s one I’ve heard good things about, so I had to take it. By page 53 I’d laughed and cried so much so that I recommended it to my sister in law for her book club. It’s really funny, so far, in a gut wrenching kind of way. If you like the Irish humour of Roddy Doyle’s books you’ll enjoy The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes.