Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Beautiful, guilt-inducing handknit socks

Probably I will never be able to think of these as anything but 'the guilty socks' even though I don't have reason any more to feel guilty about them.  And even though I could just as easily call them 'the beautiful socks'.

Knitterly Things Vesper sock yarn

That blue stripe, for all that it matches the cold sky in the background, reminds me of good weather and spring and other yummy things.


Things like... purple flowering plants in the nursery in springtime, when you're full of hope about how much you're going to get into the ground and actually take care of this time, watering it and weeding around it and helping it generally to get established so you have more plants than dirt in you garden in September.

(this is something I go through practically every spring, a fleeting faith in myself that inevitably results in a million reasons not to take time to put plants into the ground.)

self-striping sock yarn
Bet you've never seen this pose before.

That's the socks.  The pictures of the socks are making me think of other spring and summer things, like how much maintenance goes into a house during those seasons.  That cobblestone walkway, for example.  Guess who put that in?

Or this pose!  I like to call this one: 'the knitter in repose'.  Like knitters are never in repose.

Yours truly, my friends.  Three. Times.  The second time, I think because I realized it was a bit slanted, and the third time because the guys who did the driveway made it necessary.  And that time, I accidentally touched one of my knuckles with a stone I was about to put in, and about 45 seconds later I noticed it was swelling up but huge and I had to run into the house to get it under cold water.  About two minutes after that I came super close to passing out entirely.  (and then as soon as the egg on my knuckle disappeared, I went out and finished the job.)

That was about ten years ago and the path hasn't shifted since, so I guess I did a pretty good job in spite of not knowing much about laying stone.  Speaking of which, the super heavy flagstone all over the front yard, which I set down before being entirely recovered from pneumonia?  That hasn't shifted either.  Go me, girl of hidden talents and equally hidden good sense.

And then there's the porch, which Ray will be replacing in just a few weeks, around the same time he's repairing the garage door and waterproofing the side of the house and replacing the floor in the basement.


Not A Moment Too Soon, as far as I'm concerned, but looking at all this peeled-away paint reminds me of how often one has to paint a wooden porch one cares to maintain.  It's about five years since I decided this one was going to have to go, and it's held up really well and given a fabulous rustic backdrop to many a sock photoshoot.  When the new one is in, I'm going to have to stay on top of the painting again.

Sigh.

Still: all that work is worth it if you get to have nice weather, right?


Especially nice weather that is sunny and bright and cheerful but a little bit too cold at night for paint to cure properly, and then a little bit warm and softly grey and with just a little bit too high a risk of rain for paint to go on in the first place, so I can spend my time feeling guilty about not getting plants into the garden. And knitting, of course.


I am so ready for those days, and for the soft perfume of budding fruit trees and soil and damp breezes you only get in spring.  That's what these socks make me think of, and I am

so

so

GLAD!

that I'm going to keep them.


Okay, I'm off again: gonna be super productive today so I have time to take some fun pictures for Friday's post.  Tomorrow will be a tweet.  Have a great day till then!

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