Monday, June 4, 2012

Citrus socks, complete

The yarn for these socks really went ZING for me when I spotted it at the Royal Winter Fair last fall.  There wasn’t really so much by way of I Will Never Wear Those Colours thought.  It was mostly, I need this skein.


Sometimes that just happens and you don’t question it.  You just say, Okay Knitting Muse, I will do as you wish.  I will buy this skein of yarn and make socks with it even though it is mostly alpaca and everybody knows you don’t make socks with alpaca because they will wear out superfast.  Even if they were spun with a bit of nylon. 


So I bought the skein, plus another one that I knit first because really? Lime and Lemon?  When would I ever wear those?? And in the first pair I used regular wool yarn for the heels and toes so I didn’t have to worry so much about holes. 

Newflash: they are holding up fabulously well in spite of frequent wear, even in the parts knit without the wool.  Go alpaca/nylon blends!


I would have done the same with the second pair’s heels and toes if I could have.  Go figure, I didn’t have any scrap yarn to go with bright yellow and bright green. 

But it didn’t occur to me that what fit perfectly with a little wool for give at the critical stretching points might not fit so perfectly with just alpaca and nylon and no give at all.  And so I lost faith in the citrus socks and turned away from them.  Even when I went back and worked on them a while later it was because I needed the table space.


And then

Something happened.


Not a great thing - in fact, a pretty bad thing.  Its only upside was its illumination of something that needed to be addressed.

Sidebar: have you ever noticed that when a bad thing happens, even if you can’t make it unhappen, you can patch up in such a way as to be stronger for the future if you just deal with it right then and don’t ignore it?  Trust me, it’s true.  ‘A stitch in time saves nine’ applies to a lot more than just a hole in a seam.  

Okay, so there I was last week, busily working away on my course, feeling not at all on top of it but at least running alongside, and I got this bad news about a thing that had already been worrying me a bit.  I coasted on for the next two hour session of the course and then I was done for the day and



BLAMMO

I got covered with a big dump from a pail of the goo of the bad thing.  I was worried.  distressed.  anxious.  despairing.  I needed help!

And, wow.

There were the citrus socks-in-progress, sitting on the table, untouched for weeks.  

 (Isn’t it interesting that I named them after a major source of vitamin C?  I think it’s interesting.)  

I picked them up, and I started knitting them, and I didn’t stop.  Alpaca is incredibly soft and soothing, and the Lime and Lemon are cheering, and getting closure on socks I’ve been knitting for months was inspiring.

By the time I was finished these socks, I’d put a good few fixes in place for the bad thing, and felt optimistic each of them would help shore up the situation for the future.  I hadn’t just not buried my head in the sand. I’d also realized that I knitting has a huge role in my life as a calming agent.  Specifically, the knitting of yarn as supersoft as your most comforting childhood stuffed animal friend.

So after I finished these socks and set them aside... I cast on something new that is soft.


Just in case.

2 comments:

justmeandtwo said...

So sorry to hear of bad stuff but glad the socks helped. I have to agree, yellow is always cheery for me. I painted a little sewing table "taxicab yellow" this past weekend to help ease some sadness. Who can help but smile at that color? ;)

Mary Keenan said...

I think this is really the answer - the sad happens to all of us, to some degree, all the time! and you just have to accept it and shore up with soft things and bright colours. Like, erm, the new pink shoes I just bought ;^)