New socks

Three weeks ago I had a little accident down the allotment and cut my leg, nothing too serious just a deep graze, but it left my leg sore for a while, and it helped me realise that it isn’t just my joints that are getting older, my whole body is!

With my leg sore I noticed that both legs actually swell through the day, not something I had paid any attention to until then, especially round the ankles. Now if I was working I don’t think the level of swelling would be as much because I would be wearing tights, but I spend most days down the allotment so I’m in the toughest pair of trousers I own, and socks, and those socks have strong elastic round the tops to hold them up, and make the swelling worse.

As Christmas is coming I thought I’d do some research and tell hubby what socks to buy me and where, that don’t have elastic ribbing. Was I in for a shock! £10 for one pair of socks of dubious quality! Hmm, that needed a re-think.

So I looked through my collection of sock patterns, (those who know me, know I am an avid pattern collector, so I had to search through quite a few!), and decided to make myself some instead. I chose to crochet them as the cuff would be stiffer and stand up on its own. The choice of yarn was easy, my friend Linda had given me some lovely scarlet wool and enough to make several pairs of socks if I so chose.

After starting and discarding several patterns because they weren’t working up the way I wanted, I finally settled on a free slipper sock pattern I found on line some time ago and had already made in to the best pair of slippers I have ever owned! They are warm, thick and have a cuff that can easily be made longer or shorter to my hearts desire, which is thick enough never to slip down and bunch around my ankles.

The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, (which is double knitting to us here in the UK) but I had originally made the slippers in chunky as I feared they wouldn’t keep my forever cold feet warm enough with double knitting, so I knew they would work up a little smaller in the double knitting.

The feel of the socks in the shoe is totally different from a normal bought sock; there is actually some degree of friction due to the stitches being bigger, but this brought an unexpected bonus, it increased the circulation in my feet so even though the last few days have been a bit cold around here, my feet, and hence the rest of my body, have been toasty warm, and I haven’t had to turn the central heating on!

The pattern is super easy to make, so I have whipped up a couple more pairs, and to be honest I don’t think I am ever going to go back to shop bought socks again!

Another added bonus to these socks that only appeared after wearing them for several days is the increased circulation has reduced the hard skin around my heels and toes markedly, to the point where I suspect I won’t have any hard skin in another two or three weeks!

So last night, as I settled down to sleep, I did my usual thing of thinking what I had done that saved me money during the day, and my mind instantly went to my new socks. I have saved the cost of buying socks, at £10 a pair, (and I now have three pairs so that’s a saving of £30!). I used a free, online pattern, so saved about £2.00 there. I used yarn that I had been given, so saved £4.00 there. And since wearing them I haven’t had to turn the central heating on, so who knows how much I have saved there! So in all I have saved £36 plus for only four hours work, that’s better wages than I could earn out in the labour market, after tax, so I’m a very happy bunny!

Lucy, the flour used to make pasta is plain if you want to go cheapskate. There are some fancy ones you can buy to make it special, but you’d have to look at the packets to see which ones are specific, because I really am a cheapskate, and don’t have a clue!

Angela, Linda, Lucy and Posh and Trendy, thank you for your kind words about the fox. My head knows there are many foxes out there, and they are a problem in urban areas, I also know I did as much as I could for her under the circumstances, (the RSPCA doesn’t like coming out for foxes as they consider them vermin). But my heart tells me I had formed a bond with a wild animal, which is a rare thing to happen and that I should treasure it, and I will for the rest of my life. My consolation is the foxes injuries were such that she must have died instantly with little or no pain, and at least I gave her the time to experience some of her life. I am grateful she didn’t have time to give birth to a litter of pups, which would have really torn me apart emotionally.

A daily money saving target

Every day, before I go to bed I like to try and think about how I have managed to save some money, that I would have, in a past life, spent without thinking.

Since finances became so tight with my illness and I had to give up work I have had to have a complete re-adjustment towards my attitude to life, money and the roll of advertisers.

Before I used to watch the adverts on TV, scour the flyer's that came through the door, read the ads in the magazines, just in case there may be something of interest to me.

Now that just doesn't happen, I have suddenly realised that advertisers are paid to part me from the few pennies I have.

For instance, do I really need that new anti-bacterial washing up liquid to keep my family healthy? My family has always been healthy before so what is different now that I have to change my spending habits and buy something that is a third again of the price of what I normally buy?

Nothing, that's what. They are using our fear of 'super bugs' to sell us something we do not need, and may in fact actually cause more damage in the long term.

Let me explain. Our bodies need to encounter both good and bad bacteria. The bad bacteria is just that, bad, but our bodies have an amazing thing called an immune system, that, if you are relatively healthy, will fight the bad bacteria in to a cocked hat. It only needs to do it once, and from there on in, you are protected forever from that particular bug!

So if you kill every single last germ in the house, wash your hands with anti bacterial hand wash, use anti bacterial hand wipes when you are out and about, how is your body supposed to encounter and build up an immunity to even the simplest bug? It can't, is the basic answer.

Admittedly, if your immune system is already compromised by illness, then it is a whole new ball game, but generally speaking, we don't need anti bacterial anything!

Now take that same basic idea and apply it to every single advert you see.

What is so different about that new car that makes it impossible to live without? Will that new shampoo do any more for your hair than your normal one, or will it just smell different and cost a few pence more? Does that new format newspaper have any more news in it than what you can get off the TV or the Internet? Sure if it has a DVD of a film you would like to see as a free gift, buy that edition, but why buy it every day? Do you see where I'm going here?

So what did I do today to save some money? I left the house without any money on me, and didn't even realise until I got home again. That would have been an impossible thing for me to do before, I would have HAD to of turned round and gone home to get my purse because there was always something else I had to buy.

It makes me shudder now, to think how much money I have, literally, wasted over the years, and I really wish I'd had this epiphany when my children were small.