I started sock number 2 and I took great care to cast-on at the end of a dark aqua stripe so that the stripes would line up well. The third cast on was the charm.

I continued to knit from the top down and got to the heel. That seemed like a good time to hold the socks up next to each other and admire my stripe alignment…..RAT ON A STICK! They weren’t aligned. Somehow, the stripes were off enough to make me crazy and not enough off to look intentional or cute. I was in a state of severe irritation. Surely, the cheap sock yarn was a huge mistake! What could they be thinking to make yarn that was off in such a way!

oh.

wait.

sigh.

I wound the first skein on the sock winder and then decided it was more trouble than it was worth so I didn’t wind the second skein.
Looks like I could not have been more wrong. I am hugely bothered by this. My crocheting/knitting friends assure me that no one other than me will notice and I should get over it; the socks are hand-knit.
I’m already strategizing my options:
A. rip it out – TH hard vetoed this idea.
B. make two more socks – one to match each of these.
C. get over it. As a matter of personal growth, I’m in the process of trying to go this route. We shall see.

I have a yellow lab and it recently came to light that I seem to be harboring colonies of yellow jackets also. Luckily, these live outside the house…..or they did until TH was informed of their existence.

I went to Jersey Boys recently with two friends from work. It was a great show and I recommend going to see it if you can.

You should be warned that the intermission is quite a ways into the show. Just about the time you are wondering if there is going to be an intermission, it will be intermission.

Speaking of intermission….
I was sitting quietly knitting on a sock when the mother behind me realized she had a voicemail message from their babysitter circa 7:20pm. It was 9:20pm.
She returned the call:
“Hi, I’m so sorry, I just saw that you called, I had my phone off for the show.”
…..which began at 8pm.
The babysitter indicated that when she was unable to reach the mother, she called back and had a lengthy conversation with CallNotes in order to scare the errant child who evidently had been throwing things and otherwise terrorizing her.
Evidently, the fake conversation worked since the mother was complimentary, “that’s a good technique….” and continued to say “We’ll understand if you don’t want to sit for us again, and we’ll let you go with our blessing.”
Well, I should think so, your kid was THROWING things at her. could have put her eye out!
This conversation just kept getting more interesting and I just kept knitting. At about this point, I notice that my friend next to me is not really doing anything other than watching me knit, so I kind of looked at her and raised my eyebrows and she mumbled something about how interesting it was to watch or some nonsense. I was content, so I continued to eavesdrop and knit.
The father was chiming in, “tell her there’s beer in the fridge”…and a moment later “and liquor in the cabinet if she needs something harder.”
Now, I’m not sure how old the actual babysitter was, but in my head, they were telling the 15 year old babysitter to get loaded now that the demon toddler had passed out. So, as the entire section is wondering if they’re contributing to the deliquency of a minor, the conversation wraps up.

I don’t have children, so I think her phone should have been on until at least 8pm…..but what I do have is a good imagination, so I think that if/when I ever have kids, I’m going to think of this story when I am tempted to turn my phone off as I cross the edge of my driveway.

Oh, and the friend that was enraptured with my sock knitting……she was just trying not to look totally obvious while she craned her neck to eavesdrop.