Sock Salvation...

Enough already...

Snow, Snow and more snow... watching it come down, while looking at pictures of a beautiful California beach... somehow the two simply collide.  I have never had a desire to go to California, after all the snow this week (that we somehow don't seem to be able to get a handle on after almost a week), it is looking tempting.

Beautiful beach vs. Snow... hmmm no brainer?

This mom's heart is feeling much stronger.  The kids are having a good time, and the bits and pieces of life are falling together for my youngest.  Car - check, Apartment - check (lease gets signed today), sunshine - yep got that too... each text or phone call has me feeling better.  Even though they are so far away thanks to technology... they seem next door.

My girl and her friends on the beach

yep that's my boy avoiding the sun

Yes... he just bought his first car!

It's been a nutty week so far because of the weather, the start of the year, and simply just making it from day to day.  I wasn't feeling good earlier in the week which really put a kink on getting things going.  And here it is already Thursday... Which is good, because I am going to need a weekend this week!

My son is quiet, in fact other than asking what's for dinner, you wouldn't know he was here.  But with him gone, it's quieter, how does that happen.  I am slowly working on cleaning up the house from the holidays, doing some cleaning out, the tree and decorations will come down this weekend.  Yes I know it will be mid-January, but I wanted him to be able to enjoy it until he left. 

I have decided to challenge myself in my knitting this year.  I joined my first ever KAL, me a knit along?  I know it's insane, the ultimate in non-joiner, joining an online knitting group.  I was suckered in, that is all there was too it!  One of the dyers that I follow posted about it on Facebook, with a picture of the most delicious looking sock yarn, I was sold!  And I can get behind a knit along that simply requires you to knit something on a pair of socks each day of the year.  I love to make socks, almost as much as I love to wear them.  Seemed like a perfect win/win for me.

Soft sock yarn and beautiful German needles...

Early last week in an effort to calm my nerves, and yes creating does calm my nerves, I pulled out my beautiful needles from Germany and some sock yarn that I had fallen in love with last year and cast on... a week later, with lots of interruptions, I have one sock done and I am working on the gusset of the second.  I love this pattern, it is just fancy enough to showcase the beauty of the yarn, but it feels wonderful on the foot.  This pair in vintage rose is destined to be a gift.  Although I am fairly certain there will be another set made to add to my own sock collection.  I am just not sure it it will be in Vintage Rose, I seem to have a bit of an obsession with those colors and not much variety in my own collection.

Sock 1 waiting patiently for it's mate

I rarely make socks that do not have a short top, I am an ankle sock fan, even when I have longer socks I push them down to the ankles.  And I have found that most of the folks I gift with socks are the same.   My absolute favorite pair has the standard seven inch top, and I push them down to ankle height, so why waste time when I am simply going to do that anyhow? 

Hubby asked me the other day if I would ever sell my socks, it kind of made me sad to say no.  But I said it anyhow.  Socks require more time and concentration for me.  The yarn is pricier and honestly I just don't feel folks would pay what I would have to charge for a pair of hand knit socks.  The only way that anyone will receive a pair of my hand knit socks is as a gift of love. I give them for Christmas and birthdays, I have a nephew that loves the house socks I make him.  So much so, that a few years back he took all of his Christmas money and bought yarn so that I could make him socks for each house in the Harry Potter series.

It took me years to be brave enough to make socks, oh the complexity.  I could never manage to use four needles to make socks, yarn would slide off, I was too uncoordinated, oh yes I had an excuse for everything. Two hand surgeries later, bored out of my mind and only able to use the tips of my fingers... A passion was born.  Oh I know there are other ways to make them, not every pattern is on four needles, some use the magic needle method, there is toe up, and the two at a time method.  But I find great pleasure in top down, four needle traditional. I love the discipline that comes from keeping those stitches even as you slide from needle to needle and the beauty that comes from a perfectly grafted toe.  I am probably insane in that I love to graft the toes, but I do. 

Maybe over the course of the year I will really try a few of the other methods, more than just one pair of socks each, or maybe I won't.  I think we have established that I am a bit of a traditionalist, and I am often times quite inflexible about things.  Took me almost a decade to accept that not all quilts had to be hand quilted... I warm up to those newfangled things rather slowly...

Well, it's time to start getting ready for yet another snow commute into the city, I will knit, while Hubby drives (I love that we work in the same building!).  Tonight we will see our Grand baby and take her to soccer if it isn't cancelled due to snow.  I can't wait!  I will also check my phone a few hundred times to see the progress the kids are making.  Sis is due home this weekend, so lots of miracles will be happening over the next 48 hours... Even though I can't be there to enjoy it, I can still be part of it!

Enjoy the day... and if you are in this freezing cold... stay warm... if not... not so sure we can talk about it right now!