Midweek Rambles

Socks for a Brain

You may recall that on Sunday I said that I had "decided I need to attack my sock stash over the next few months as I've got a silly amount of sock yarn." Now I've made some progress in this area. So far this year I've made 3 socks, 1 hat and half a kid sock. Not a huge dent in the mountain (my rough estimate is that I've got 40 pairs worth of yarn here), but a solid start showing commitment and determination.


I was feeling smug.



However, smug overheats my brain and makes me do odd things.

Today, during a quiet moment at work I suddenly found myself looking at a page confirming my order of 2 skeins of sock yarn. (Petal Shower pink and gorgeous Lipstick Lava red Smooshy sock yarn from Socktopus.) I swear I have no recollection of actually deciding to buy more sock yarn.

If the New Year Resolution police turned up I would claim that I bought the yarn because my Mom asked for a pair of socks. But between you and I, I know that I could pick out ANY of the yarns in my possession, knit them up in ANY pattern and my mom would think they were the best socks ever made anywhere.

Cake and Crochet Meet
As some of you know I am fortunate enough to work with the Caked Crusader. The key benefit of this is that every Monday I get to taste whatever amazing cake(s) she baked over the weekend, while the rest of the world just gets to drool over them on her blog. She is as well, very clever and incredibly funny, but it is the cake thing that makes the friendship work.


Anyway, this week the Caked Crusader has decided that she'd like to learn to crochet. I could claim that it was my enthusiasm for fibre arts that inspired her -- but I'd be lying. No, the Caked Crusader decided to take up crochet because I had been sharing with her some of the 'crochet discrimination' tales from Ravelry. To be honest I hadn't previously understood the cloud crocheters live under -- but it's bad. Real bad. One poor women is apparently "regularly insulted by the knitters" in her local yarn shop. Regularly insulted. Rough neighbourhood. Another poster sympathised and wondered why the owners didn't stop the abuse but figured that if they didn't see the abuse themselves it would be difficult to take action.

So the Caked Crusader is going to take on the cause and make granny squares. She may even make a toilet roll cover. She is ready to do whatever it takes to reclaim the hook.

Naturally I've had to distance myself from her since this crochet decision. I bought her a book (Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller) to facilitate her learning, but have decided to minimise socialising until she sees sense.

(It's ok - I've arranged for someone else to pick up my cake from her office on Monday mornings.)

(And - for my own protection - here is a picture of a finished object from a few years ago proving that knitting isn't my only yarn craft. I've been crocheting for almost as long as I've been knitting. I even spent a couple of hours this week tuturing the Caked Crusader in the art of the hook. But I'll be honest, these crochet discrimination stories - they make me laugh.)


(The pattern is a combination of a couple of projects from an Anna magazine in the 90's. I centre flowers were from a pattern for a table runner, and the lower edge was from a pattern for a piano/mantle cover. I made it using a thicker cotton as a curtain to fit perfectly in my hall window. I've moved 3 times since and it no longer fits any window. It lives in the linen chest, and as this picture shows, it's in need of some blocking.)