Knit Geek?

I haven't posted in a week -- perhaps it's because it's lonely out here in blog land, perhaps because I've been busy having visitors, running around gaining consensus for fundraising, and maybe it's because I've been too busy finishing the second sock!!!

Check it OUT! A PAIR of socks!



Not only that, it's a pair of socks that FIT. It's a pair of socks custom designed with the wearer's individual feet in mind, socks for large women's feet. Thank goodness there was enough yarn. There was some serious math involved.

After the first sock was finished, I weighed it on my kitchen scale, which I think is accurate to +- 4 grams. I knew that the weight on the ball band was 4 ounces. I knew that was about 120 grams. The first sock weighed 58 grams. The remaining yarn weighed 62 grams. I breathed an early sigh of relief, figuring that I would be okay, especially when my brilliant husband asked if I had factored in that the sock I just knitted may be heavier that the yarn used to knit it because it might have absorbed moisture from my hands. BRILLIANT! I was so impressed. Still am.

Lo and behold, I had enough yarn to finish the second sock, and I wore them all evening. Mind you, it was a very sunny day, and we have south and west facing windows. Mind you, the air conditioning is not on. Imagine how warm the apartment was. Imagine my nice toasty feet. I was putting the kids to bed, tucking them in, and I kept asking them, "Aren't you too hot for all those covers?" It was a while later before I realized the socks were doing a slap-bang job of keeping me extra warm.

So, if the math and the discussion on the effect of moisture on the weight of the item wasn't geeky enough, I actually sent a picture of my socks as an attachment to an e-mail on a totally different subject to a group of people who don't really know about my knitting fanatacism. Before I sent it, they probably thought I was an almost normal expat mom, and now I've proven that I'm a secret nutcase -- who in their right mind would knit a pair of wool socks in the early summer in Tokyo? Who would knit a pair of socks at all?

I'm going to go knit a clock vest next. Provided that I can find the right needles. (They don't sell Addi Turbos in Tokyo, at least not officialy. I've heard tell of one renegade shop owner who sells them from her personal stash in secret under the counter. We are talking coded password secret spy stuff here. Very exciting.)