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

Comments

Anonymous said…
I always love reading your blog. I *covet* David's kilt stockings. Off to buy the yarn now, seriously.
meg said…
Those were some amazing stockings; knee socks intimdate me b/c of the calf shaping, but seeing a pair live is making me confront my fear.
Lanea said…
Um, I'm looking truly deranged there in the photo. Was I hacking on a crazy man on the metro, or was the nalbinding just making me crazier? Your newly-socked friend should absolutely find me at Glen Echo. I can even bring cake if I have advance notice.

I'm so glad you like the cake. I can even share the recipe, because someone else has already been disowned over sharing the recipe with a newspaper, so the doors have swung wide. I can't get in trouble (with, well, the dearly departed) for giving the recipe to a friend now that Si Anni has given it to all of Pittsburg.
Anonymous said…
Wow, my socks-to-be have their own blog entry? I - my feet - feel incredibly honored. There's snow flurries here in Asheville (October? -in North Carolina? I'm confused!) so impending sockage is very exciting. Knowing their pedigree (if they were gloves, would it be a manugree?) is even more thrilling.

Hi Lanea! I'll be calling at Glen Echo with Crowfoot on December 12....
meg said…
Oh, Adina, they're no longer socks-to-be, they're socks-that-are. You'll have an easy time spotting Lanea. She clogs.
Anonymous said…
Why is the German twisted? Did he have a rotten childhood? I use this cast on all the time and quite understand why the Fool would want to spread the word!
meg said…
I think the Fool said he found references to this as the twisted Norwegian cast-on -- so maybe it's a matter of who you're asking. I'm becoming a fan, too. Mostly because I'm afraid I'll forget how to do it, so I'm casting everything on with it.
datatech57 said…
I have tried to get knitters and crocheters to refer to a large group of themselves as a "stash." I think "skein" is the currently most used term, though, so I am swimming upstream!

Ruth
Anonymous said…
Lookee lookee my feet! Except that I don't have a camera, so imagine imagine my feet! Imagine two very happy, warm, stripy colorful feet ensconced in socks that fit perfectly exactly! I've never had socks that fit before. I wish I were kidding. Yes, Meg, you may believe in my feet now. Those measurements were spot-on.

I am in love with my new socks. And the knitters of said socks. Y'all are the best!

On a related topic, I find it very funny that the personal mail I receive never has a return address on it.
Anonymous said…
Um, I'm not anonymous. The socks really did go to the right person.

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