Seven day socks

Six skeins of new sock yarn in one week weren't enough, it seems. I have decided to turn that Opal Rainbow yarn into argyle socks (using it for the solid diamonds), so I wanted the perfect complementary yarn for the background (a sort of medium grey) and the perfect contrast color for the diamond lines (in a bright yellow). So I ordered more yarn. From England. Because, you know, you can't get it over here.

Buy, hey, I did finish this pair of socks, and in 7 days. Rarely have I had that sort of single-minded fortitude in my knitting. Or time.


The Austerman Step socks mit Aloe Vera (I love saying, "mit Aloe vera"; I think it has to do with our extended-family trip to Italy when my mother-in-law was perusing a multi-language menu at a restaurant and somehow glommed on to the German column and ordered, "Schpaghetti mit tomahto." She kept telling people, "No sprechen der Deutsch.")

I'm pretty sure one pair of socks a week isn't going to do much to put a dent in my growing pile of sock yarn. My co-dependent knitting group is doing nothing to help me curb my sock yarn purchasing. It's like going to a bar for an AA meeting. "My name is Roxanne and I'm an alcoholic." "Hey, Rox, you can get the best and biggest Margaritas on the corner of Hamline and Thomas. They have a whole wall of different kinds of tequila!" Clearly, there is a reason why I don't ask my husband if he thinks I should buy more sock yarn. Sigh. I have a feeling I'll be sucked into the sock vortex known as Borealis some time in the next few days.

Besides tons of knitting time, the other thing I've had time for is movies, mostly of the romantic comedy variety, which will always be my favorite. This is a good sign for me, the alleged writer. The whole world of story evaporated completely from my brain a couple years ago. I stopped reading much, stopped writing, stopped watching movies. Knitting has filled some of the creative void, but in a different way than writing. Knitting is all about pleasing myself and having fun creating, something else that had been lost for me with my writing. It's a therapeutic sort of creating. Knitting also requires only certain parts of my brain at certain times. And it doesn't require opening a vein and bleeding onto the page.

Writing, on the other hand, uses the entire brain -- the creative, right side and the verbal left side. Character relationships, theme, motif, all that pattern-related, big-picture stuff comes from the right side; plot comes from the linear/sequential left side.

And then there's voice, the most important asset a writer has, and the asset that can't be taught.

Not writing has had as much to do with losing my writing voice as losing interest in story. Not feeling like me inside meant I couldn't express myself through my writing. Faking your voice is like faking your personality. You can do it, but everyone will know, and you won't be happy with yourself. These past six to seven months have been a gradual rediscovery of my voice in a non-threatening way. No pressure to produce for an audience (because, let's face it -- very few people read this blog, and the few who do are interested in the knitting), and certainly no pressure to survive a critique. For a while I was setting myself up for destroying my love of knitting via the Master Knitting program, but I stepped back from that and have worked on it only when I've been sure that I can handle being imperfect.

So. Knitting.

I started a new pair last night (Cookie A's Monkey socks) after swatching while Sophia had her skating lesson. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill (I think. The label was separated from the yarn, so I'm not 100% sure. A look at their website leads me to believe the colorway is Country Garden) We've been spending a lot of time at the rink, lately. Sophia is preparing for her skating test Saturday. She's past the early, group lesson-type levels and is in "Freestyle 1" (there are 10 Freestyle levels). It's the first level where part of the test is a program set to music. Pretty exciting. She has a couple different spins and a couple half-jumps (a waltz jump and a half-flip) and gets to use the entire rink. If she passes, she'll compete as a solo performer in early March. Very exciting.

I have to go now, so I can try very hard not to think about buying more sock yarn. I wonder what time Borealis opens?