You remember my lovely beaded socks? The ones from Tour de Sock. These ones:

When I first mentioned them, some people were sceptical about how practical they would be. I knit them anyway. I can now tell you that they are practical, as long as your outer footwear in no way covers any of the parts of the sock with beads attached. On Saturday I wore them for the day. My slip-on mules were fine for wandering around the village in the course of my work, until the socks slip down into the foot, then it is a little uncomfortable. Wellies, for a walk through the woods to the beach, were a really bad idea. On the plus side, they were very uncomfortable but did not result in blisters. The other thing that is a really bad idea is kneeling on the floor and sitting on your feet. That hurts quite substantially.

I now have wool socks that are too hot for the time of year when I would be wearing appropriate footwear. My next plan is to wait until it is cold enough to be wearing two pairs of socks and try again.

Next time I play with beads, they are going on a scarf, or perhaps only on the cuff of a sock.

Gloves

Progress has been made with the gloves and I have learned two things:

• When the pattern tells you how many stitches there should be, maybe count and check this is the number you have, don’t just go merrily on your way knitting for another 2 inches and a whole finger.
• READ THE PATTERN

I should be considerably further on with the glove by now, but I put an extra six stitches in the hand by mistake and ripped back substantially to fix it.

To look on the bright side, Millamia wool is so lovely to work with that it was an absolute breeze to pick up the stitches and get going again.