Kicking Myself
Wednesday was my sister in law, Mindy's, birthday and since she got the gift last night I was going to blog it today. I was going to have a pretty picture and tell you all about what I made for her. I had taken pictures before I mailed it to her, just so I could blog it. That was all great, except yesterday morning I decided to clean out the memory stick from my camera. Yep. Cleaned out everything! So now you get a blog entry with a picture of something else. Make sense?
A year or so ago, Mindy and Rick were up here visiting and we had gone shopping. Mindy found some orange clothes. Now for some reason, (I'm really not an orange person at all), Mindy really wanted to buy the orange clothes. Fortunately, she asked me and Caleb how she looked in orange before she made the purchase. Caleb and I explained to her that while some people can wear orange near their face, most of us can't and she fell in with the "most of us" category. I believe Caleb was a little more blunt with an, "Oh Mindy, that's not good" kind of reply. Apparently the orange thing hasn't let Mindy go because when I blogged about my dandelion yellow Crocs, she emailed me about orange ones. Crocs are a long way away from your face so this seemed like a perfect option for fulfilling her orange jones and keeping her from looking like the walking dead. (Remember, Caleb is trained in stopping zombies, we wouldn't want him attacking his only aunt because she wore orange. I mean, this is how serious family squabbles start.) Well, when I went to MDS&W, I stopped at the Tess Yarns booth, like I always do (you really can't walk by that booth without at least a fondle or two - of yarn!) There in the sock yarn pile, was the perfect sock yarn for Mindy. It was like the clouds parted, a sunbeam shined down on that yarn, and the angels began singing Mindy songs. Except of course, there were no clouds, the sun was shining on everything, and I couldn't have heard an angel singing in that booth if it was sitting on my shoulder what with all the mayhem, knitters grabbing skeins left and right, and the mass chaos that is Tess Yarns at MDS&W - but you get the idea. What was the perfect sock yarn? A soft, orange sherbet kind of orange, except that being hand dyed, it had hints of mango and tangerine too. It was beautiful, and it was orange, and I apologize to anyone I might have elbowed/pushed/kicked/stepped on to get it, but there were only two skeins of this yarn in the ENTIRE BOOTH and clearly it was dyed just for Mindy.
When I got home, caught my breath, washed off whatever it was that had gotten into my Crocs and made the bottoms of my feet black, and the buzz from the wool fumes started wearing off, I started thinking about patterns for Mindy's perfect sock yarn. I thought about various things, but in the end I chose the Waving Lace pattern from IK and also in their new Favorite Socks book (it's on the cover). I love this pattern, having knit it for myself a year or so ago and it shows up well in hand dyed solid types of yarn.
Fortunately, I do have a picture of my own socks so if you can imagine them in a soft, sherbet orange, well this is what they look like:
UPDATE: I just got an email from Mindy with sock pictures! Now you can see her actual sock. And since I know how much you all like fur babies, the gentleman with the white face is Jack, a Golden Retriever who is convinced he is a person and who as a puppy, had the delightful talent of turning on the bathtub, closing the drain and flooding their apartment. The paw you see on the right belongs to Stephen (unless my brother has developed a serious body hair issue), also a Golden Retriever. Stephen is all dog and Caleb actually taught baby Stephen to climb stairs. Mindy and Rick were not really ready for Stephen to climb stairs at the time, but Caleb had his own agenda.
A year or so ago, Mindy and Rick were up here visiting and we had gone shopping. Mindy found some orange clothes. Now for some reason, (I'm really not an orange person at all), Mindy really wanted to buy the orange clothes. Fortunately, she asked me and Caleb how she looked in orange before she made the purchase. Caleb and I explained to her that while some people can wear orange near their face, most of us can't and she fell in with the "most of us" category. I believe Caleb was a little more blunt with an, "Oh Mindy, that's not good" kind of reply. Apparently the orange thing hasn't let Mindy go because when I blogged about my dandelion yellow Crocs, she emailed me about orange ones. Crocs are a long way away from your face so this seemed like a perfect option for fulfilling her orange jones and keeping her from looking like the walking dead. (Remember, Caleb is trained in stopping zombies, we wouldn't want him attacking his only aunt because she wore orange. I mean, this is how serious family squabbles start.) Well, when I went to MDS&W, I stopped at the Tess Yarns booth, like I always do (you really can't walk by that booth without at least a fondle or two - of yarn!) There in the sock yarn pile, was the perfect sock yarn for Mindy. It was like the clouds parted, a sunbeam shined down on that yarn, and the angels began singing Mindy songs. Except of course, there were no clouds, the sun was shining on everything, and I couldn't have heard an angel singing in that booth if it was sitting on my shoulder what with all the mayhem, knitters grabbing skeins left and right, and the mass chaos that is Tess Yarns at MDS&W - but you get the idea. What was the perfect sock yarn? A soft, orange sherbet kind of orange, except that being hand dyed, it had hints of mango and tangerine too. It was beautiful, and it was orange, and I apologize to anyone I might have elbowed/pushed/kicked/stepped on to get it, but there were only two skeins of this yarn in the ENTIRE BOOTH and clearly it was dyed just for Mindy.
When I got home, caught my breath, washed off whatever it was that had gotten into my Crocs and made the bottoms of my feet black, and the buzz from the wool fumes started wearing off, I started thinking about patterns for Mindy's perfect sock yarn. I thought about various things, but in the end I chose the Waving Lace pattern from IK and also in their new Favorite Socks book (it's on the cover). I love this pattern, having knit it for myself a year or so ago and it shows up well in hand dyed solid types of yarn.
Fortunately, I do have a picture of my own socks so if you can imagine them in a soft, sherbet orange, well this is what they look like:
UPDATE: I just got an email from Mindy with sock pictures! Now you can see her actual sock. And since I know how much you all like fur babies, the gentleman with the white face is Jack, a Golden Retriever who is convinced he is a person and who as a puppy, had the delightful talent of turning on the bathtub, closing the drain and flooding their apartment. The paw you see on the right belongs to Stephen (unless my brother has developed a serious body hair issue), also a Golden Retriever. Stephen is all dog and Caleb actually taught baby Stephen to climb stairs. Mindy and Rick were not really ready for Stephen to climb stairs at the time, but Caleb had his own agenda.
Labels: socks
posted by Melanie at 7:17 AM
4 Comments:
I LOVE the socks!! As much as I love orange, I have limited myself to buying in the form of fruit, scrapbook paper, and notecards. Now that I have the socks, I can enjoy it on my toes.
And Caleb's exact words regarding a pair of orange courdaroy pants were, "Well Mindy, maybe you would want the brown ones." He's a surprisingly helpful shopper!
: ) Mindy
You must have gotten to that booth before I did. I just LOVE that sock & baby yarn - and for $15 it's a bargain! But you can get a pair out on one skein.... what did you do with the other one?
Orange... I am in the "can't wear orange" club myself, but I really like it in the abstract. Totally unfair.
I, too, have a son trained in zombie handling. It's good to know these essential life skills are being passed along.
With respect to the memory card cleaning thing, I have instituted a practice which involves *always* cleaning the card off when I take photos off it, so that if I stick that card in the computer, I do so thinking carefully about how I could lose photos if I slip up. So far, mostly so good.
Mostly. ;-)
That orange is yummy. I would be tempted to think her feet were made of orange sherbert and then she (and ME) would be in trouble!!
Lovely pattern, too!
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