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Friday, April 12, 2019

Sock it to me!

(Or, this is what procrastination looks like.)


Pile 'o socks
And I am giving you the unvarnished view of my kitchen counter - I hand-wash my socks in my kitchen sink.  Vitamins to the right are mine, all meds on the left are the Pat's.  The toaster is still relatively shiny.


While I adore my own socks, I do not adore hand-washing them.  So they pile up until I am one pair shy of running out of clean socks.  My goal?  To knit enough to keep me in socks for a year.  THAT will be some pile 'o socks - more like a mountain o' socks.


I have broken my to-do list into a variety of Post-It notes.  It seems to lull me into the false sense that I can make great progress on a weekend.  I did make some good progress this week - I've vowed to resist the gravity pull of my chair-and-a-half in the evening until I get Something Done.  Ergo, the great sock washing.  I also made a batch of yogurt and found my Carrot Kraut done.  It is good!  It's from a recipe that came with my Mason Top fermenting kit.  I have always wanted one, but resisted until it was sufficiently marked-down and I tapped into my birthday/xmas money.  The rest of my bd/xmas money went to something else.  All will be revealed...


My car is now totally legal and I am beginning to relax around it.  I even let it get dirty.  So I can run it through the car wash tomorrow and gloat when the car wash owner gets an eyeful.  He did everything but sneer when I went through with the Hyundai.  I took it personally. 


After numerous attempts to reach the chimney cleaner/repair people - I started calling three weeks ago and it's been...(crickets) - I went on their website, pulled down their Contact Us form and said that no one had called me, I was unhappy and I was going to give them an honest but unfavorable review on Facebook.  Literally minutes later, my phone rang and an appointment mysteriously became available.  There IS power in social media.  I just wish it didn't bring out the snarkiness in people - people are the worst when they are cowards.  Can't we just use it for good?  I'd like to order up about 1000 tons of fairy dust and dump it on the world.


Anyhoo.  Can you tell I had TWO lattes this morning?  I hope I can burn off this caffeinated craziness before bedtime...

18 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I would procrastinate about hand-washing socks too. I hand-wash NOTHING.

Susan said...

Debra, hand-washing is the brutal reality of knitting. Even if they are knit in 'superwash' - meaning machine washable - they will wear out superfast.

Buttons alias Grace said...

Fairy dust oh you think the way I do. A years worth of socks would be nice😊 The last day pair.... not so much. B

Michelle said...

Ugh; I have ALWAYS hated hand-washing, which is part of the reason I hate to block my hand-knits (the other part is the back-breaking task of pinning it all out, if it's a scarf or shawl, my go-to knitting). Glad you FINALLY got a response from the chimney people; grrrr....

jaz@octoberfarm said...

call me crazy but i like hand washing things.

Susan said...

Yes, Buttons, what the world needs is a mega-load of fairy dust! And more cows in hats. :)

Oh, Michelle. Blocking is the worst! Especially something large and intricate, like a shawl. Which is why I have been putting off starting a lovely one. I know it has to end in blocking.

Joyce, you ARE crazy! Having said that, I will give you a jingle when I'm down to my last socks... :)

Mama Pea said...

You've just struck terror in my heart with your statement that not hand washing hand knit socks will cause them to wear out faster! You know I've been on a tear knitting socks for Papa Pea and have eight pair done that he's wearing and another pair just half a toe away from done. But I do wash mine right in the washer with like colored loads in warm water. I don't put them in the dryer, but out on the line or on a wooden rack inside. Please, please, please tell me they aren't going to fall apart as I detest (with a passion) hand washing anything! (No wonder I've never had delicate unmentionables.)

Susan said...

Don’t worry, it’s not like they will crumble in your hands after a month. But machine agitation does shorten their life expectancy. If I had a delicate cycle on my washing machine that was actually delicate, I’d rethink handwashing myself.

Susan said...

As we are confessing, while I don't like hand washing, I adore ironing and polishing silver. If only we all lived close and could parcel out the chores between us.

ellen abbott said...

I guess I won't cajole you into knitting me some socks then (I've never had a pair of hand-knitted socks) because of the whole hand washing thing and besides I don't even do the laundry, the husband does. but we might could make a deal over polishing the silver if you lived closer since we use our silverware every day (why have it if you aren't going to use it) and since polishing it kills my hands what with the arthritis in my thumb joints, it is all fairly tarnished. my outdoor to-do list is getting shorter and shorter, my indoor list however is getting longer and longer.

Nancy In Boise said...

I have smart wool socks from costco, into the washer and dryer they go! And can you post the recipe for Carrot Kraut? Thanks!

Lynne said...

I have a hand wash cycle on my washing machine and that's what I use now. I use to hand wash all of my socks to before I got this machine, thank goodness!!! The carrot recipe look yummy!

ElaineChicago said...

You don't need to turn off the lattes.....just enjoy getting crazy stuff done at the speed of light

Retired Knitter said...

Wow, I didn't realize that so many people hand washed their knit socks. When they were newish I did put them in a small wash bag for delicates, but I don't even do that any more and I haven't noticed any problems with wear. I used to use a gentle cycle and I don't do that any more. They just get dumped in with other laundry. Now I do hang them up on a hanger to dry.

Believe me, if I had to hand wash them, I wouldn't make them. No matter how wonderful they are (and they are wonderful), I wouldn't hand wash them. I was trying to think if they were all super wash - I don't remember. I am guess some aren't. Of course I haven't make hand knit socks for years now - I have a draw full of them. Maybe because I have so many they don't get washed as often as someone with fewer.

Joanne Noragon said...

I too knit socks. Wool socks, knit by moi, are my foot coverings from September through May. I turn them inside out, put them in a laundry bag (so all are in one place to be retrieved) and wash them with my laundry. I hang them to dry. This method works for handspun through those machine friendly wool yarns I buy. Do not trust goat angora or mohair. It shrinks.

Sam I Am...... said...

I wash my wool hand knit socks in my HE washer and then hang them to dry and have never had a problem. i must admit i take each item out of the washer and shake it before throwing it (literally) into the dryer. i have never had a problem losing one and i ensure i have each 'pair' before i turn that drier on!

Leigh said...

I love your goal! Actually, I don't think anybody likes washing socks by hand. My mother used to tell of her mother hating to do dishes. She would stuff dirty dishes away in the cupboards, oven, anywhere out of sight. I suppose once she ran out of clean dishes it was time to wash them.

Ed said...

Whenever we get a new car, which isn't often, I clean it regularly and that generally lasts until the first scratch/dent which usually appears in a grocery store parking lot within a handful of months. After that, my car stays much dirtier looking and I find people start giving me more room in the parking lots!