Socks are good

Especially in meetings. On Tuesday night, I cast on for the Embossed Leaves socks from IK's Favorite Socks book. I have been lusting after these socks for a while, and had even bought yarn specifically for them. Don't ask me why these socks just called out to me to be made in a peach color, but they did.
This is Nature's Palette fingering weight in terra cotta. I got it at The Loopy Ewe.

Socks are perfect meeting knitting in so many ways. They are small, and the pattern for these socks, at least, isn't very difficult to follow, so I've got it on a very small piece of paper that I look at once a row, and I'm good to go. The one problem is all those needles. And even that is usually not too big a problem; I make a point of sitting next to some understanding person and of keeping my elbows in. I also try to sit on the aisle, which usually means one less person to bother. Not this time, though. This time, the president of the university gave her report standing in that aisle. And as she spoke, she kept backing down the aisle towards me, until finally, she was standing right by me, with her toochus at eye level. Now, you tell me what you'd do if you were sitting, purple-clad presidential toochus in the face, holding four shiny pointy knitting needles in your hands. Be honest, we're all friends here. You'd probably do what I did.

No, not that. I controlled myself. I told the little devil who sits on my shoulder that discretion was the better part of valor, and just to be sure that she listened, I put my knitting down in my lap and put both of my hands over it. Hard. And I made sure that the friend sitting next to me was ready to move, should the small devil take over those hands. Because I'm pretty sure that the president would not buy The Devil Made Me Do It as an excuse for toochus stabbing.

After she sat down, and I'd breathed a sigh of relief that sanity and common sense had prevailed again in my world, I made some progress. Last night I made more progress. I am loving these socks.
I love everything about them. I love the pattern, and I love the pattern in this color. I love the yarn -- it's just the right weight and softness, and it's not splitty. I'm dying to wear them.

I'm actually further along than you can see here, as I went to my book club meeting today (we read The Yacoubian Building, which I liked more after discussing) and knitted the heel flap and turned the heel. I'm heading into the gusset, people, and after that it's smooth sailing.

I'll leave you with a story. Younger Daughter has her first loose tooth and this is, as you might imagine, a major topic of discussion in our world right now (this is made a more central topic by the fact that I find loose teeth to be a bit, well, squidgy. They give me the cold gruesomes, to be honest -- especially when little kids get them to sit there in their mouths at strange angles. Eeugh. The girls enjoy the rare opportunity to gross me out, as almost nothing else works.). So, driving in the car the other day, YD asks me, "Mama, why do people think that a fairy comes and takes their teeth during the night?" A pause, and then with a touch of disdain, "Because you know there's no such thing as fairies." Said I, "Well, where do you think the teeth go, then?" Instant reply, "The elves take them." Oh. Right. The elves.

You've got to watch out for those elves.