Singing the blues. And the berry-reds.
Friday March 28th 2008, 12:00 pm
Filed under: Friends,Knit

I walked into Purlescence last night and three of the regulars instantly stared at my head. Meg exclaimed in mock indignation, “Where’s the blue?”

I laughed a good one at that, telling her, “I thought of you when I wrote that!” Meg has beautiful blacklight-fading-to-royal blue highlights in her black hair. I’ve often told her how great I think it looks on her and have mused out loud about playing copycat or perhaps multicolor a la Lucy Neatby, but I rather like the combination of youngish face and graying hair with a good bit of length to it and don’t forget the Birkenstocks to complete the image, myself.

Speaking of which. I walked out of Trader Joe’s the other day and was accosted by a woman about ten years older than me, quite well dressed, well coiffed, calling after me from behind with a combination of disbelief and a tone of being not sure whether she should be outraged, “Hey! Lady! Your socks don’t match!”

deliberately mismatched socks in cotton“Yes!” I answered her. “They came this way. Aren’t these cool?” (I am SO my modern art-dealer father’s daughter.)

That stumped her a second, and then she looked like she wanted in on this new fad too. “Where’d you get them?”

“At a knitter’s convention in Baltimore.” One of the Stitches vendors (I think this was the one) was selling them.

That was one oddball thing past the point the woman could deal with, and she waved me away in disgust, exclaiming “Pffffft!” at me. Heh. My head might not be Neatby’d, but my feet like the idea.

Oh. Before I sign off. RobinH asked about the knitting. I put down the Camelspin project to do a church scarf. (Monica, it went back to Sweden with your friend, if it’s not the right color red for his wife, rat on them for me, would you? It’s a bit towards the rust side, the baby alpaca was probably originally light brown on the hoof. Thanks.) And I did a Concert scarf pattern for someone who doesn’t know it’s coming, so, shhh, pictures later, and…

I didn’t decide the edging on the Camelspin. So there it has sat for a week. I finally admitted to myself why it wasn’t done, and when Sandi and Kay asked me how I was last night, I told them I was a bad girl.

They looked at me like, right. You. Uh huh. Explain.

I grinned, and told them that I was knitting it up with the idea of the (still-not-entirely-sure-I’ll-do-this) next (knitting) book, but I kept feeling like the right person for it was about to show up and I was too cheap to spring for two skeins of that expensive yarn twice for the book–so I’d dyed up that merino/silk that afternoon to try to match it to try to head off whoever that was going to turn out to be.

Sandi guffawed, exclaiming, “I’ve done that!”

“You HAVE?!”

Camelspin in berry and my merino/silk, trying to match itOh good, I’m in the best of company. As for the berry Camelspin, it’ll go where it’s supposed to go. Having faced up to it by my friends having asked just the right question I needed to be asked when I needed to be asked it, if I’m meant to get more Camelspin, it’ll happen.

That merino/silk, on the other hand, while it’s lovely and soft, just isn’t quite the same. The recipient will get the one she’s supposed to.


13 Comments so far
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I love the socks story. Some people are just so OCD about strange things. And there’s no link to the vender. I just saw some socks kinda like this at Elephant Pharmacy.

And your dad was a modern art dealer? How cool is that!

Comment by Renee 03.28.08 @ 12:27 pm

Thank you. Huh. Works on my screen. It’s socklady.com.

Comment by AlisonH 03.28.08 @ 12:32 pm

Aw, thanks! 🙂 I do think blue would be a fantastic color on you!

Comment by meg 03.28.08 @ 2:32 pm

Cool Socks!! Gonna have to make me a pair like that:-)

Comment by Danielle from SW MO 03.28.08 @ 4:00 pm

HA HA HA – I can see the look on the woman’s face!

Comment by Amanda 03.28.08 @ 6:53 pm

Love those socks. The colors are gorgeous and go so well with your hair!

I’ve pretty conservation from the pants up, but my socks are as wild as I can get them. I have FUN feet!

Comment by Dee 03.28.08 @ 8:32 pm

I had that happen – where someone tells you that your socks don’t match. For me, it was at a Design With Heart conference in Monterey. A lot of very hoity-toity design types. The woman pulled me aside at a reception and whispered discretely that my socks didn’t match. I missed it entire – just exclaimed, “I know. Isn’t it neat?” Her look said it all. Now, what really interests me is why do those people feel that they need to tell us?

Comment by Linda W 03.29.08 @ 9:01 am

I ADORE mismatched socks, knitting them and wearing them. I am a Libra with Libra rising, and decisions are always momentous things. Before I knew about the whole astrology thing, when I was a kid, I spent 30 minutes deciding on which socks to wear. Sometimes, in desperation, I narrowed it down to two, and wore one from each pair. Yes, my mom thought I was weird (she still does, but she’s more used to it). My favorite thing to knit for my husband are bed socks, because I can use the same colors but knit different combinations of them for each sock (he’s not up to two different colors on the socks, even at night). He was more prepared than Mom, though. He knew I was weird when he married me :-}

Comment by Diana Troldahl 03.29.08 @ 9:25 am

Tell Renee I still am. Dad

Comment by Lawrence Jeppson 03.29.08 @ 10:40 am

oooo – i love those socks. my kind of colors:)

Bev

Comment by Bev 03.29.08 @ 5:38 pm

I have so wanted to do my hair in colors – but my fear is that I would be committed to it for ages – white doesn’t lose color quickly and it is about shoulder length so I would have rainbow stripes as it grew out? Nahh..my poor conservative hubby has a heck of a time with my choices a lot of times – that may be a bit too much hehehe (of course if he were to really tick me off some day hmmmm)

OH I totally love the socks – I am so going to do that – how the heck have I missed out on that idea for so long.. 😉 I’ve done it unintentionally enough – now it can be on purpose 😀

Comment by rho1640 03.29.08 @ 7:47 pm

What on earth inspired that DEAR soul to notify you that your socks weren’t identical? Because to me, they do match. Same colors, just in different places. Some people can’t appreciate art.

Comment by Channon 03.30.08 @ 11:31 am

Love those socks!
Poor sole thought she was helpin’. Snicker

Comment by Toni 03.31.08 @ 8:55 am



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