Inappropriate clothes, odd habits

Many of my peers greet the arrival of warm weather with a mix of joy and consternation, but not because of the wild temperature swings that afflict our beautiful capital.

We grumble about the variable weather, of course -- make up your mind! -- but their consternation really stems from the fact that after months of long trousers, tights, and generally being covered up, they are pale. Exquisitely, luminously, blindingly pale.

I am not so bothered about paleness. Around the time I was 13 or 14, I figured out that all the time lounging around the pool would not change my skin tone, except, perhaps, to give me a thicker sprinkling of freckles. I'm going to be blindingly pale no matter what.

But here's the thing:  no one else seems to care about my complexion, or that of my pale-legged sisters, and I don't see why I should, either. I skip the spray-tans and limit my legwear to a generous coating of sunscreen. The most serious sartorial concern in summer is the way sandals rub blisters on parts of my feet that have been sheltered for all the dark part of the year.



Pattern: Bikinisocken (The German-language web page which calls these 'Bikinisocken' is apparently offline now, but the English translation, with the considerably less amusing name 'Short-toed socklets' is still available. I am sure you understand why I have kept the German title).
Yarn: KnitPicks Stroll Multi in Blue Violet Multi
US 2 / 2.75mm needles
Raveled

These are pretty silly, and despite my best efforts they rumpled up a bit under the straps of my sandals. But they do keep my sandals from rubbing between my toes.

The yarn is 1/4 of the last half-skein left over from my blue scarf from a couple of years ago. Most knitters are thrifty souls, in the sense that while they will spend outrageous amounts of money on yarn, they hate dearly to waste an inch of it. I do not know anyone who knits who does not have a bag or two of odd lots of leftover yarn. I have several myself, sorted by yarn weight.

Now, some of these scraps might be filed with the old joke about string to short to be saved, and doubtless many knitters go to their graves having never disposed of their leftovers. But this is not because we don't try. The internet is full of patterns designed to use up small quantities of yarn and knitters never seem to tire of dreaming up new uses for scraps.

The sandals are wedges from Romika that I bought a couple of years ago. I like them very much, outside of the blisters between the toes problem.

A friend from Ravelry asked me 'is that your own skin?' so perhaps I should affirm that the colour in the photograph is accurate.  I really am that pale.

Rita Dove