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Monday, October 27, 2014

Socks of many colors


I gave up the search for good cotton socks for summer some years ago, when I realized I could knit them. Not as easily as purchasing socks, but in the absence of decent socks, my last resort.

The idea actually came to me in a JoAnn Fabric store, not the ideal source of sock cotton. I went up and down the yarn aisles, and found nothing smaller than dishcloth cotton. I took a trip down the crochet cotton aisle, and was completely unimpressed with the current offering. Where is the fine DMC, eight ply, 30 weight my grandmother taught me with? Do they even make it?

I rounded a corner into embroidery floss. There on an end cap was a sampler packet of DMC floss, eight strands. I bought two sampler packs of primary colors , fired up the number two double points and made a pair of socks.

The first sock I knit from the top of the sampler to the bottom, the second from the bottom to the top.  One might argue they met in the middle, but only I knew that. No one even noticed one sock was half the rainbow, the other the other half. This was fifteen years ago, before mismatched socks were sold on purpose.

No, people just said “Nice socks!”

Except one little boy.

Somewhere in public a child screamed. I looked around and saw a small boy, clinging to his mother, pointing at my socks and screaming. His mother tried to turn him away, he couldn’t quit looking and screaming “Her socks don’t match.”

Eventually his mother picked him up and carried him off, but he continued to hang over her shoulder, wailing and pointing.


He couldn't have had a bad Dr. Seuss experience; it must have been a clown.

29 comments:

  1. That was some reaction ..... what a meanie you are, traumatizing poor little kids with your mismatched socks.

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  2. Well your not old enough for that child to be George HW Bush, but maybe you both got the idea at the same time.

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  3. A child noticed your mismatched socks and screamed - that's too funny and strange.

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  4. So when has it bothered you that kids are intimidated by you-whether your "tell your mother what you did" to mis matched socks or even sneakers? Tough old broad from my viewpoint...Keep it up.

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  5. Too cute with his reaction, but I admire you for knitting your own socks!

    betty

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  6. Mismatched socks ment something bad to that little fellow or maybe he was just very neat.
    Merle............

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  7. 50 years ago I decided to buy only white cotton socks (because man). This did not change until Daughter began sending me socks for gifts. Some had moustaches, some Mr. Spock ears, Einstein's face, and the grandchildren delight in identifying them. They cause no trauma. The child who screamed at your socks doubtless later got into his drawer and experimentally mismatched his own. It's how we learn!

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  8. Poor child, he's OCD waiting to happen!

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  9. Hari Om
    Jacqueline is closest; there are children who get very distressed when things don't square off... he'd have a frightful time round me!!! Great work on the production though; having wrestled with mitts once, socks will just have to remain one of my 'never' tasks... YAM xx

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  10. I'm impressed! I've darned plenty of socks, but never made them from scratch. I like the idea of rainbow socks.

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  11. Recalling her ankles sticking out from under that house, I now understand the source of the Wicked Witch of the West's power.

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  12. I've knit a number of things, but never socks. Impressive!

    Pearl

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  13. when I was in Oregon this summer we went into a yarn store and they were selling hand knit colorful socks, 3 in a package (I guess for the inevitable loss of one). they were expensive (to me, probably cheap at twice the price if I was knitting them) so I had second thoughts and didn't buy them.

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  14. Hey Joanne: I love love love knitting socks. I made a pair of cotton socks w/dishcloth yarn - they were awful and hurt my feet! I just looked at Knitpicks and their fingering weight cotton yarn has 25% acrylic :( I think I'll just stick with knitting wool socks!

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  15. Hilarious! You would be right in fashion a few years later.

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  16. In my younger days I used to purchase all black socks, dump them all in one drawer together in a jumbled pile. My wife who is over the top organized gave them all to charity and now my sock drawer has pairs of socks (no pair alike) so I am forced to keep things neat. Mine is a cruel but organized world.

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  17. Those socks remind me of toe socks back in the day.

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  18. I love to hear about your creative flair -- from gardens to weaving and now socks. It also makes me realize the depth of creative folks the have wonderful blogs. It would be great to sit down with the bloggers and chat about their art.-- barbara

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  19. I have some red and orange striped socks to wear with red shoes. The Hurricane says they make my feet look as if they should be sticking out from underneath Dorothy's house.

    Love,
    Janie

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  20. I wonder if that little boy grew up to wear mismatched socks. Probably not, he didn't even have imagination when he was four or five.

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  21. Poor Kid -- he is bound for a hard time in this life ...

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  22. Dear Joan,
    first: I admire you being able to knit socks (that is not easy - I only knitted a scarf once, wouldn't dare to try so many needles as you need for socks). Second: they look very colourful. Third: the kid was very attentive. Had somebody said: "Wow, that's great that you see that!" he might have had no reason to scream. I bet his mother said: "No, no, you are wrong, nobody is wearing mismatched socks" without caring to look herself. So he protested.

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  23. Dear Joanne, you are a woman of immense talent. And I suspect that Briggitta, in her comment above, has her finger on what would have stilled the child's protests. Peace.

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  24. Oh, that is so funny. I don't wear socks, so that has never happened to me.

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  25. Lol. Poor little boy. There is something so nice about colorful socks.

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