i made some socks

what do you do when you're waiting days and days for your landlord to bring you a working fridge and it's 90+ degrees outside? you get out some fat, hand-dyed wool and start on some socks. yeah, i know. but on day 7 of the saga of the fridge, i stomped out of the house, took the train to one of the local yarn stores and splurged on some malabrigo yarn because i'm worth it. i got two skeins because i had no idea what i wanted to do but you should never buy just one skein of anything. i stomped back out into the warm bathwater air and trudged home. i got boxed california rolls at the hippie store by the train and ate them with the cheap plastic chopsticks while sitting in the underground station at 7th avenue. 200 degree subway station. california rolls with wasabi. bench. honeysuckle tea. a pile of yarn in my bag. ahhhhh. what a wonderful world.

the sweetie had been saying he'd like some socks and i found myself a nice pattern knit up by a man whose father had size 11-13 feet. i figured with my fat wool and larger needles, i was set. so i started knitting. i'm not sure i mentioned my sock knitting skills so now seems like a good time. several years ago, i attempted a sock pattern and managed, after much crying and swearing, to make one rather ugly sock. there didn't seem to be a reason to make a matching one, so my sock making career was born, flourished and died in that moment.

until.... something in my brain has shifted and the risk-taking part of me seems to be coming back. that's right. i plunged right back into the high-risk, danger-laden, fear-fueled world of sock knitting. hell-bent, i tell you. and now i know why all those lunatic knitters chatter on so about making socks. it's like crack. i'm not saying this lightly. i have known crack addicts and it is terrifyingly close. the high is quick and brief before you need more. more and more of your world begins to revolve around how you get that high. you don't care what others think. you just don't.

so i tried it. and i made a sock. it had a heel and a toe and all the things socks have. then i made a second one. they matched. i had no idea. there are things i don't much care for about my socks. i didn't use an appropriate yarn so they're a little bit boxy and since i made them originally for the sweetie (oh, yeah, i misjudged how much i'd need to knit for a size 14 sock and ended up with something for my own self), they're slouchy. the yarn itself is beautiful, but you never know what will happen with variegated stuff and it's certainly not what i expected. on the other hand, i have incredibly soft, exceptionally warm, hand dyed and hand knit wool socks for my own feet. and i did something i almost never do. i read a pattern, followed someone else's directions. they are nothing fancy, but they are a good first step.