Socks for Remembrance

It all started with a podcast. Episode 36 of the TwinSet Design podcast. I love this podcast. TwinSet Ellen and TwinSet Jan make me laugh. And possibly snort liquids out of my nose. And make me want to own an alpaca. Can you just imagine what the development association would say!!

But I digress.

SO, I was listening along to the podcast and not paying totally close attention to TwinSet Jan telling about the new pair of socks that she had cast on with some Wisdom Yarn’s Saki Bamboo, that is until she mentioned the colorway.

Cedar Lake.

WHAAAAAAAAAAA?

Did she just say that the colorway of that yarn was called Cedar Lake? Wisdom Yarn, I haven’t ever heard of Wisdom yarn. Can I get it at my YLS (local yarn store)? I NEED this yarn. I need it because of this place…..

The Cottage. Place of happy times. Which happens to have this view if you turn around…..

And that, my bloggy friends, is Cedar Lake.

Mother of all that is holy and good and all the saints in heaven I needed to get my hands on some of that yarn. I knew that the time was fast approaching when The Cottage would no longer be a place where we would lay around and eat and then play in the water and then go to the Dollar store to by more useless plastic items and then go and get ice cream at Tastee Top…..every single day.

I knew that I needed some of that yarn because I knew that Parental Unit Mimi needed a pair of socks in just that colorway as a sort of parting gift. I didn’t even know what the colorway looked like. Was it self-striping? Was it hand dyed? It didn’t matter, I needed some. And so I got on the old internetz and found Wisdom Yarns, which is actually sold by Universal Yarn. There it was, a self-striping yarn in shades of green and blue and beige and altogether lovely. So I quick as lightening ordered two skeins. Cuz, if I was going to make a pair of socks for the Meemster I was also going to make a pair for me.

Always looking for any excuse to start another pair of socks!

Lickety split there was a lovely and squishy package full of two skeins of yarn. Sweetness! I took it downstairs and introduced it to the stash where it sat for a day or so, which was all I could really stand before I got out the trusty ball winder and started to wind up the skein of yarn for Mimi’s pair of socks. I wanted to get them started because I wanted to have them finished before I went out to The Cottage for the last time. I am a fairly fast sock knitter (2 weeks tops for a basic pair) and there wasn’t all that much time.

Winding, winding, winding…..knot. And when I say “knot” I mean a knot that was tied at the factory to join one section of yarn to another. I don’t stress out about a knot in a skein of yarn. I just cut it out and re-tie the yarn with my “never comes out no matter what you do to it” knot and continue to wind. No problems….until I come to the second knot in the skein.

OK, I can live with this. Cut out the knot, re-tie, move on……

Until I got to the third knot…..

And the forth knot…..

And the fifth knot, which was also the last knot. Not good. Not good at all my friends. In my world I can live with two knots in a skein of yarn. But five knots is not in any way shape or form acceptable in a skein of yarn that cost as much as this did. Heck it isn’t really acceptable in a skein of yarn that you buy for $4 at Hobby Lobby. I took a moment to finish winding up that skein and set it aside so that I could get the old blood pressure under control. I had a second skein of yarn that could be used for the Meemster’s socks but that still left me without a skein for myself. A skein with five knots in it is not a skein of yarn that should be used for socks. You are going to feel those knots eventually, no matter how close you cut the knot.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

So, after I calmed down a bit I went and made a cup of coffee and then went back to the computer and sent off an email to Universal Yarns. I wasn’t nasty. I wasn’t screaming IN ALL CAPTIALS. It was a fairly good Don Amsler type of email. My father had the capability of writing an email that was both soothing and blistering at the same time. Amazing. So, I channeled my inner Don and sent off my email, fully expecting that I might hear back from them at some point but not really expecting anything. I was venting. But nice venting.

I hadn’t even had time to get up from my computer to do something else when, DING!, I had a reply back from Yonca from Universal Yarn’s customer service department. She was SO sorry that this had happened. They would be sending me a replacement skein ASAP, no questions asked. She just needed the lot number so that they could make sure I got a skein of yarn from the same lot so that the colors would match.

Yowza! I love good customer service.

And then it got even nicer as I heard from Jackie, who was Yonca’s supervisor AND the Customer Service team leader Kathy. All so apologetic. All so helpful. And…

DING!

Two days later I had a replacement skein of yarn AND a lovely note.

Universal Yarns and therefore Wisdom Yarns you have a customer for LIFE! For LIFE I tell ya. And we KNOW how much sock yarn I buy over the course of any given year. Well, maybe you don’t know…and perhaps I am not actually going to tell you because it really is an embarrassing sort of addiction. I might have enough sock yarn, right now, to knit……..36 pairs of socks.

Don’t tell anyone, OK?

But when it is time to order some more sock yarn I am ordering from Universal. That should be sometime next week I am thinking…..or sooner.

Here are the Meemster’s socks. They came out PERFECT in every respect, including the total matching of the stripes. I love it when I accomplish that.

And here are my socks, in progress on my last day at The Cottage. They are just a bit different, having an afterthought heel in a contrasting color. My gosh do I love afterthought heels. I love them more than short row heels, which is saying something because I never thought I would love a heel technique more than short row.

Where were we? I feel like I am suddenly off topic.

And finished, as of yesterday, are my Cottage Remembrance socks. They have been washed and are now blocking. And every time I wear them from now on I will be flooded with all the good memories of a wonderful place.

And I am already half way through the coordinating pair of socks with the body of the sock done in the blue yarn and the heels and toes done in the Wisdom Yarn.

I love socks.