Idle Hands Make More Socks

If you take all those minutes you spend waiting, whether it is travelling on a plane, waiting at the airport, standing in line, breaks, pauses, downtime, waiting for the bathroom and even between the calling of numbers during bingo, and knit - you too can have a sock and a bit in less than a week. (I'm in the early stages of the cuff on the second sock). At some point in my life, I might have worried that folk would think me odd to pull out my knitting in odd places, but honestly, most people have reacted positively and its definately started more conversations with strangers than I can count on my fingers. My hope though, is that it inspires other people to knit. I think it is one of the most relaxing and rewarding hobbies that I've ever picked up. (Merci Gabriel) and despite people's protests that they aren't coordinated enough or patient enough to knit - well, I'm living proof that neither quality is needed. One only needs to try and decipher my hand-writing to know that my fine motor skills are insufficient for writing personal letters, let alone being a brain surgeon and while I have patience of a sort - I'm not sure its what they mean when they talk about knitting. I may be patient with people - but honestly.. its actually my impatience that leads me to knitting. I simply hate being idle. I hate waiting and I even find it hard to sit through a whole TV show sometimes. But when I'm knitting - I can do all of these tasks without any trouble and I can still be social and aware of my surroundings at the same time (difficult when deeply engrossed in a book) and the best part is that you end up with things at the end of it!

This seems to be the year of the sock for me. In the last 12 months I've knit 2 pairs of of "fair-isle"ish type socks and this is my 5th pair of kroys socks. Last year I knit a lot more hats (only 1 this year) and scarves (only 3 this year). I do have a sweater to tackle. However, I do need to knit one more two-handed fair-isle project before I take on the sweater - or maybe two. I really want to get my technique perfect before I take it on. I also am still hoping to make a dead fish hat and maybe a pair of Omingmack slippers. There are a few scarf patterns that would make nice quick knits and I really want to try some felting. I'd also like to make something with cables (??socks) and some regular hats (also maybe with a bit of cable work).... ah.. and I don't really have that much time to knit - so I'm thinking that the sweater will be pushed to next fall and in the interim I'll finish off the socks I'm working on and probably work on a scarf and/or toque and then maybe a pair of trillium mittens to match the socks I just knit.

The down side to these wonderful trillium socks (in which my feet are currently happily snuggled) is that they seem to contribute to the intensity and frequency at which I get shocked. Yesterday night I was lucky not to break a glass, when I padded down to refill my water before bed, figuring that I didn't need any light until I hit the kitchen. I reached out to the kitchen switch and zap!!!!! Well, I dropped the glass and some how it must of hit one of the boxes waiting for the garbage before rolling across the floor - because it didn't break. It was a nice, visible arc of electricity. Since moving to the north, I've gained the habit of always grounding myself before touching my computer (metal desk frame is perfect) - but sometimes the light switches still get me. However, since I finished my socks, the shock factor is much worse.

On a completely random note, I stumbled across something disturbing in the news.... Apparently, the conservatives are hard at work, coming up with personal attack ads to rebrand Michael Ignatieff as a foreigner, American and a flip-flopper (their words not mine). One conservative was quoted as saying that they were concerned that it was too late and that they might have missed their chance to shape the view of the public firmly against Michael Ignatieff. Granted that politicians are expected to work towards getting elected - shouldn't the conservatives put their energy into developing policies that will make people want to vote for them because they are competant and heck, just put their energy into keeping our ship afloat in stormy waters..... Branding.... that is something corporations do to make people buy their product regardless of whether a product of equivalent quality and/or value exists. I, for one, don't care what party you are from - if you are the Prime Minister - your job is to run the country, not count the number of times the leader of the opposition used the word we, when referring to Americans. Frankly, personal attack ads are a form of bullying, so perhaps the Prime Minister and his party might want to consider the kind of values they are modelling for the youth of this country.