Elka Knits
It all started simply enough. Way, way, way back in the beginning the powers that be, that’s me!, decided that a harmless pick me up would be sock yarn. Such lovely bundles of color. So little yarn needed for a project. A minor indulgence really. Why if one thinks about it for any length of time one could easily justify purchasing a handpainted/hand dyed & hand spun sock yarn for way less money than one would need for any other project. Walking into a yarn store, especially a new to you yarn store which positively requires a token purchase, easily and painlessly results in new sock yarn. In my defense, should I need one, the sock yarn scenario followed a decade long lace yarn scenario of equal, nay exact same, justification. I have way more lace yarn than sock yarn...
Fast forward a half dozen years of compulsive sock yarn buying combined with sporadic and sluggish sock yarn knitting and slight rumblings began to be heard. Why just last fall the powers that be realized that there were enough hand knit socks to last a whole week stashed away. These beauties were augmented by a rather overly large pile of store boughten socks and thoughts of too many socks started flitting in and out of consciousness. There were a lot of unworn socks sitting sad and neglected amongst the shelves doing nothing else other than gathering dust and occasionally hurling themselves onto the floor where one might, at the very least, notice their dirty state and wash them. A more attentive PTB would have noticed these beginning signs of rebellion but alas such was not the case.
Although the war was now looming in the background things had still not gotten to a point where the now seemingly inevitable first strike had become the only sensible course of action. The proverbial nail on the coffins head? The divorce. Or maybe it was my father’s illness which proceeded the divorce by a year. Or maybe it was the combination of several such factors~ I needn’t list them all~because the end result was even more sock yarn buying binges as a much needed ‘little pick me up’ and even less knitting. Although socks did become the only knitting being done hmmmmm....... And even though socks became the only FO around, wait for it, suddenly the PTB realized that the last two pairs of socks being knit were for other people! That, my friends, was the nail.
OH! Of course knitting for others is a selfless and noble act. There are thousands, probably millions, of hopeful recipients for hand knit socks in the world. It is just that when instructed to pamper oneself to get through difficult times by various others~ therapists, family, friends, virtual strangers~ being selfless doesn’t quite cut it. The Joy of Giving, as awe inspiring and powerful as it is, doesn’t really do much in The I am Worth It camp. And I really need to remember, right now, that I am worth it. The need is so strong I am not even sure what it is~ goodness, respect, esteem, care..... Whatever the case may be knitting socks for others is putting others before me and I am going to be selfish. So there we have it the history and causes of the Sock Yarn Wars. Come back for a look at The First Casualties of War
yarny days and knitterly evenings, Elka
Above picture is Sock Yarn from Tongue River Farm
Sock Yarn Wars
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
