Orphan Sock Week

There is considerable cyber ink being generated this week on the fun topic of Orphan Socks. We all have them, the lone (or many more than one) mateless socks that we find in our sock drawer, hamper or dryer.

Growing up in a family of eleven people, my mom had an orphan sock hamper. It was the place where mateless socks went to languish until either they found their mate or she got so sick of seeing how many orphans one family could generate before she turned them into cleaning rags or worse just pitched them out.

We in the angelmeg household have an old apple crate (I think it might be a bushel sized one, but not having grown up on a farm I could be wrong on the proportion) that holds our orphans until they befall the same fate. Except I got wise on one issue. For mr angelmeg as well as Son and heir, I always purchase exactly the same brand of sock (son and heir gets the grey variety to keep them seperate) That way rather than having to match up pairs of socks I just have to match up brands. The two men have entirely fewer socks in the orphan bin than we women who tend to wear, shall I say, more colorful varieties of sock.

When we came down to Florida five weeks ago I requested that each person only pack a few pairs of socks so I didn't think I would have a problem with orphans, and yet, somehow that first week when I did the laundry I came up with one mateless sock.

Hmmmm, there are three plausible explainations for why this happened . . .

1) beautiful autistic daughter brought an extra sock in her suitcase, just in case . . . and believe me this is a definitely plausible option.

2) the washer down here decided it was hungry for a small white sock (I have heard many legends from my mother about washers being sockivores)

or

3) the mate to this particular sock decided that it wasn't seeing enough of the Gulf Coast, and went on a little walkabout of it's own. (It could happen, as Jerry Seinfeld used to say, if you ever see a sock by the side of the road . . . it is one that didn't make it)

My dilema now is; do I keep the sock until we go home in hopes that the mate turns up, or do I pack it in and throw this poor mateless darling out right now and spare myself the mysery, knowing full well that if I do that I will be sure to find the mate pining away in beautiful autistic daughter's sock drawer back home? It is a puzzlement.

Pax

Knitting Wool Socks in the Florida Sun

This is what I have accomplished in the last three weeks. The brown pair was my first pair of socks EVER! If you could get a closer look you can really tell that they are my first pair ever. They are totally cozy warm though and I love the way they feel.

The purple pair are a child size version of the same pattern that I made for the angelbaby. They are much nicer quality wool, and I did a much nicer job in the stitching. She loves them and even sleeps in them down here!

The blue pair is a variation on the same pattern I made for my beautiful autistic daughter. They are in a microfiber blend that she chose from Walmart (very inexpensive yarn, but one that she liked the feel of very much). Considering she will probably run a hole in the sole of one or the other of her socks in less than a month most likely the inexpense of her socks will be a good value. The next pair I make for her I am going to try a trick I read about where you use a smaller size needle on the sole of the sock to get a tighter gauge which is supposed to make the sock last longer. With all the pacing she does longer lasting socks will come in very handy.

Anyway, Now that I am done with these socks I am back working on my sweater, which is a daunting task because the yarn I chose, while very beautiful, is very difficult to work with, and I am still not sure I know what I am doing. I think I prefer socks, At least you see success a lot more quickly with them.

An interesting side note: The three Crane wives that are down here are all knitters. One is actually a lot better than the other two of us, and one hadn't knitted in years before she came down here but we all love it. In fact they have promised to teach me how to do cable stitch, something I have always wanted to learn. So I bought some cable needles and am looking forward to learning how to do that. I wll post more pictures when I have something else to show you.

Pax