I didn’t you guys the weirdest thing ever.  Mainly because it made me a bit salty but hey

So while I was knitting my beautiful blue cashmere socks of glory a few weeks ago a co-worker came up to me and asked me what I was doing.  She exclaimed that I was doing it all wrong.  I am, to the surprise of some, a ‘thrower’ and she moved her fingers to mimic ‘pickers’ repeating, more than once that my method was “primitive” I was, understandably, a bit undone by this.  After pausing to figure out a way to respond without being contentious I stated that there was no right way to knit and that I had done so professionally for over a decade–my knitting, primitive as it may be, was  comfortable to me, done for enjoyment, and the results were acceptable to others.

She then exclaimed about the ridiculousness of a book devoted solely to socks and not all types of knitting.

And then followed it up with it made no sense to be knitting socks because it was summertime.

At this point all I could think was:

I am like the freaking ant getting ready for winter.  A. Freaking. Ant.

In over 40 years of knitting I have never had anybody speak negatively of my knitting while in public.

Of course once I finished my socks I was weaving in the ends during my lunch and the same coworker came and said

Oh so fancy.  This takes a lot of concentration and skill.  I am sure you cannot watch tv and do something like this.  … If you ever want to get me a gift I would love a pair of socks.

Like

A

Ant

Okay so salt inducing incident aside I finished those socks, and knit a pair for the husband, and started a third pair.  The yarn for new pair is really old.  I think it was from my secret pal in ’05 aka SP6 but I cannot find those posts.  It was a difficult year… my fathers year long battle with cancer, his death, my marriage falling apart  yada yada.  I wasn’t very pleasant during that period.  Anyway pictures:

Finished husband socks and new socks in progress

My husband is quite pleased with his socks and has deemed them beautiful.  The picture from last post, of the cuffs, is more color accurate in my opinion but it is basically a marled yarn.  One strand is black, another tan, and then a brick red.  Well more than one strand of each color but that is the basic mix.  As stated last time I think it will look great with his entire wardrobe.  His shoe wardrobe at least.  He wears cordovan, black and then tannish colored climbing shoes.  The yarn has lost the tag over the years but I clearly recall buying the yarn for him about 8 or 9 years ago thinking they looked manly.  I recall being overjoyed at finding the Opal and Socka yarns since all the sock knitters blogging at the time were mad for them and they were not carried by my preferred local shops. Now I prefer solid or semi solid yarns but I am still entranced by the self striping every once in while.

The new pair of socks is also a marled yarn with black and navy being the predominate colors.  They also lost their tags but this one came in the tubes like blauband or wildfoot. There is some subtle striping going on as well.  I am not sure why I put socks in sunny places for photos.  They look way overexposed but then our spring storms were pretty dreadful this year and I guess I just wanted a bright spot when I had it!

His socks all alone:

For the Flame

Interestingly enough he is becoming a sock snob.  He stated that he thinks one toe is maybe a 1/4 too long –you know for the shorter foot–but he wasn’t quite sure.  This from a man who managed to live 50-some- years wearing store boughten socks.  Tis okay.  I like spoiling him when I can 🙂

yarny days and knitterly evenings

Elka