Tea Socks for the Mad Hatter

In honor of Eunny Jang's ascendency to the editorship of Interweave Knits, out of the nearly million and one projects I have on needles, some of which will be finished, some of which, eh, not so sure, here are my Entrelac Socks.


I was attracted to these socks as soon as I saw them - and I couldn't put my finger on exactly why. I never wear knee socks, I'm not the hugest fan of the toe-up method, and when I knit in Koigu, I tend to use a multi. However, after I cast-on, I realized what it was that tickled me about these socks - everything about them screams youth.

I'm 37, soon to be 38. Not old by any stretch of the imagination. However, there are certain things that I can't, and shouldn't do anymore. I can't wear my hair down to my butt, ever again. I must always wear a bra. I can't wear jeans that are slung too low, exposing what shouldn't see daylight under any circumstances. Blue eye shadow is not such a good idea. Blue mascara is even worse. I could go on - but we all know there are crazy fads and trends out there that are best left to the Generation Whateverytheyares of the day. And, sadly, I think I cannot wear court jester-like knee socks as well.

After I cast-on, and began knitting together base triangles, I started thinking of the knitting as eating up stitches - the stitches of one triangle eat the stitches from the next triangle. Then, I started thinking about Ms. Pacman - it was kind like playing Pacman - and I imagined a little circle face happily chomping on stitches. Tee hee, I thought, these socks are silly - whimsical, but silly. I stopped knitting and I took a good look at them, imagined them finished. I had visions of Alice in Wonderland, live chess players running across a board, all wearing diamond tights. I saw circus performers, magicians, and, sigh, I saw girls in high school wearing these knee socks, with cute clogs, and denim skirts. So, while it would be nice to sit down and have a conversation with a Cheshire Cat, wearing Koigu entrelac socks, I don't think these are for me.

So, experience tells me, I'm not gonna finish these socks. But, I still love them, in the same way that I loved my high top sneakers, my friendship beads, and my Welcome Back Kotter lunch box. And, even though Eunny maybe doesn't have the most publishing experience under her belt, hopefully, her sensibilities, taste and talent, will bring some magic to the pages of Interweave, and I'm willing to follow her white rabbit, at least for now, whereever it will take us.

All is well.

I haven't entered the Promises Rehab Center. I haven't been building an ark in my back yard in anticipation of the apocolypse. I'm not the father of Dannielynn. I haven't been dumped, or lied to, cheated, or in any other way offended by anyone.

I've just been, well, busy, I guess. Until December, I was quietly cooling my heals in our appellate unit, waiting for a spot to open up in our homicide unit. While I had kept some of my cases from the Special Defense Unit, and was occasionally in court, for the most part, I was at my desk on a daily basis, plenty o' time for blogging. In December, I moved into the homicide unit. While I'm not on trial, most of my new cases won't be ready to go for at least a year, I am frequently at the prison, in court, or pow-wowing with my boss or trial partner. In the beginning of the year, I also started working at Rosie's on Saturdays. So, I guess blogging about knitting kind of became like blogging about work, and it just wasn't so relaxing.

As far as the podcast goes -- there will be another podcast! Christina and I are just both really busy, and we both work on Saturdays. That's it - no controversies, no mental health breakdowns, no rift - the conversation usually goes like this - "We really need to podcast." "Yep." "When do you want to do it?" "How's 2 weeks from Sunday?" And then 2 weeks from Sunday will roll around, and another obligation will have cropped up. For us, podcasting was always a hobby, and sometimes life just doesn't give you time for all of your hobbies.

I have been knitting - a lot. I'll try to be better about posting.

I am still waiting for my Rockin Sock Club package - I have to send kudos to the Blue Moon Team though - as soon as I emailed them that there was a problem - they got right on it. If only the cable company were as thorough!