First, I have a funny little story that I didn’t plan to add to this posting… Because I’m too lazy to change the keyboard settings when writing all of my I posts, I just google the Turkish word I’m looking for so that I can copy and paste the word with the proper characters. Sometimes I just use an online Turkish keyboard, but usually I’m lazy and just let google do my correcting. Today I was entertained to find that the top two google hits for ‘çoraplar’ are about sexy socks. I kid you not. Check it out here. (You can use google translate if you need to.)  That made my evening!

So on to the real posting.

What’s this about throwing in socks?  Doesn’t she know it’s a proverbial towel?

Yes.  I know.  But in my case it’s a sock.  As you may remember, I was planning to hand make all of this year’s Christmas gifts.  Mostly I meant knit something fun and functional for everyone on the short list and then scour Pinterest for other DIY ideas (which could kill days if I wanted it to).  I was planning to make socks for my parents because I know they’d appreciate and actually use those as opposed to other knit goods.

I have always had this weird superman vs. kryptonite relationship with socks (yes, I’m superman and socks are kryptonite in this analogy… just go with it).  I can knit scarves, sweaters, hats, gloves, and all sorts of random baby accessories but socks have always alluded me.  Something about the heel turn or maybe the gussets keeps me from trying time and again.  But I’m doing this whole 30 in 30 thing and facing all sorts of fears and short comings, right?  Socks shouldn’t be that difficult.

So while I was back in the States, I stopped at my favorite yarn store and picked up some sock yarn and an instructional how-to book.  I managed to cast on, rock out the toe section and gussets while we were on our flights back to Ankara.  And then — and I think this is where my big mistake was — I left the sock for a few days and goofed off getting everything back in order here at home.  When I went back to the sock to turn the heel, I lost all momentum and found the instructions completely unintelligible.  They might as well have had a fat little Swedish dude Pictionary style explaining it (yep, that was an open dig at Ikea).  I tried to do the heel turn three times before giving up and frogging the whole thing.  Then I tried it from the top down.  Same issue.

So I am now throwing in the proverbial sock.  I give up.  I’m not strong enough to fight the sock.  You win.  This round.  Dun dun dun.  (That was dramatic mood music where I’d raise only one eyebrow at a time… if I could.)  So for now I return to gifts I know I can knit for other people.  Perhaps we’ll revisit the sock issue in a few weeks…

Intelligent and Witty Lady: 0; Sock: 1