Where your socks have been

Dear Adina,
Meet David. He's from San Antonio and he works in computers. He is a knitter who wears kilts with impunity. He knit that sweater he's wearing, and that kilt hose, too. Which is why I feel a little guilty admitting the following.
That thing he's holding?
It's one of your two socks. He's weaving in the ends of all the bits of yarn I made the sock out of -- a thankless, kind-of-boring task that, in retrospect, I feel like I badgered him into.
See, we were at this sheep-and-wool festival in New York over the weekend (a big one, sort of like the World Cup or Super Bowl of sheep-and-wool festivals), and we ended up hanging out at a Marriott hotel with a big batch of other knitters.
(There has to be a better noun for 'large group of knitters' than 'bunch.' Maybe 'skein,' or 'roving'? Will think.)
So there we all were in the lobby, a big roving of knitters and spinners, when David came to join all of us. He didn't have a project with him, just a beer, and when he started to look a little anxious, maybe like he was on the verge of fidgeting, I offered him your sock to finish off.
By offered, I mean, I threw it at him and said, "Bored? You can weave in ends!"
And he did! Amazing.

(I'm going to try this right now and see if this works in real life. "Bored?!" I'll shout at my husband, throwing him a dirty plate, "You can load the dishwasher!")

Anyway, hanging around in a skein of knitters and spinners is a good time. The Fool got to do his favorite thing - show people the Twisted German Cast-on. Here, he is inflicting, erm, demonstrating it to David.



Here, Thorny is watching in rapt fascination (patient indulgence) as he shows it to her.




Here's Lanea and Jayme, a couple of East Coast knitbloggers we met. They're good people to hang out with, because they apparently travel with homemade cakes and wine.
(They also bring their own crockery, so you will never end up in the situation I did at Celebration dance weekend two years ago when Ben-the-Actuary asked me if I wanted a martini to drink while I played old-time music and when I said yes, thinking, well, maybe Ben has a way to make a good martini in the dark, I found out his idea of a martini was warm bad gin in a styrofoam cup - anyway. That would not happen with these two.)

You may actually have seen them around, because they are contra dancers in DC. When you call at Glen Echo next, I suggest that in between dances, you ask the floor if Lanea is there, and if she is, whether she brought any of her family heirloom almond cake with her. It is That Good.



Anyhoo, that's what I showed your socks last weekend. I also took them to a Celtic festival in Kalamazoo, Mich., to work for a couple weeks, and to the Old Town School of Folk Music while I was house-managing. I believe they heard the Pine Leaf Boys and the Red Stick Ramblers. You should hear those bands too, btw. Anyway, they'll be in the mail shortly.

Cheers!
Meg