socks reborn

I almost never leave a yarn store without buying something (which goes back to my employee days, watching customers come in, carefully examine and palpate all the merchandise, and then depart empty-handed; oddly depressing for us stash addicts) and if all else fails, it is often a ball or two of sock yarn that jumps into my bag. This allows me never to be without a pair of socks on the needles for whiling away time in long grocery lines, at red lights, etc. As a result I have more pairs of handmade socks than I will ever need:

Of course, I have also given away at least ten pairs. If someone admires the ones in process, that person tends to be the next recipient.

So my drawer of sock-yarn remnants is full to overflowing, and though I had no earthly idea how I would ever use them, I refused to throw them away. Enter Evan, home for the summer and looking for something to knit. He downloaded a pattern for a tie (I think it was the Knit Picks Bias Knit Tie) and chose the remains of this project…

…the only pair I’ve ever knitted that I find truly ugly. They are so borderline unwearable that I actually sent them to camp with Margo, risking loss of one or both. But they said “necktie” to Evan. Here is the finished product:

And here is the “real f***ing” knitter (and future stash addict) himself:

This is how he was dressed to fly back to Portland last week. Maybe I should have given him the parental socks.

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