“Seeing an Earl as an owl on a mantelpiece, and having part of one's face removed by a cat, both on the same morning…”

“…can temporarily undermine the self-control of any man.” 

Do you know what I wish? What super power would be really useful in life?
Well actually quite a lot of superpowers would be really useful, but I’m talking about one.

Multitasking. 

And not just any multitasking, in particular I would like the ability to knit and read at the same time.

I can hear you cry: “Why Philly, there are audiobooks! You can listen to books as you knit!” but it’s not the same. I’ve tried it, I do it occasionally, but it’s not the same. I find the balance of concentrating on both too difficult. I’ll come to a tricky part of my knitting and find I’ve not been listening for 10 mins. Or I’ll concentrate on a juicy bit of the plot and then realise I have no idea how many pattern repeats I’ve done. It's frustrating.

I do listen to TV programmes while I knit and I don’t find I have the same problems. I guess it’s easier as voices change, I can glance at the screen and, to be honest, the plot just isn’t as detailed or intricate. Plus when reading a Real Book (as opposed to those hypothetical audio books) you just get through it faster. You can jog along with plot, get caught up and stuck in.

As you might be able to tell, I love reading. But I feel sad knowing my knitting in languishing. I also worry about how sporadic knitting on a project will affect the tension - I certainly do not want uneven stitches.

I hoped last week I would be able to show you some knitting progress and technically this week I can show you progress, but I am unable to show you a finished object. I can show you this:

One sock. One crappy sock.

Everything was going so well until the end, where I realised I had a ridiculously long toe. So I ripped back, but I couldn’t work out what I had done wrong so I didn’t know how to do it right. So I got a bit cross and just, sort of, ended it. So the toe is awful.

I’m hopeful that when I come to make it’s pair I will magically be able to understand what I’m supposed to do (after a night’s sleep I think I have an inkling). I’m just grateful that I began with a pair for myself rather than for someone else – I would cringe to give someone such a shoddy sock (a shock, if you will, or a sod?).

I guess these will be house socks. That’s a thing, right?


*Quote from Mervyn Peake