Stoopid Socks

I don't like knitting socks. I've started three pair and finished two. Thing is, I keep seeing sock patterns I want to make, because I like wearing fun socks. And there is something cool about showing a pair of socks and saying: "I made these."

But I hate, hate, hate, hate making them.

Oh, and I like skulls, especially skull and crossbones. It is not, as many people think, a pirate thing. It's an aging punk rocker thing.

So... what do I want? Skull and crossbones socks.

I started one pair (Toxic Socks from Knit Picks). They were black and white. The first attempt was too tight. The second attempt was too loose. The third attempt seemed okay. I made it all the way to the toe when I decided I didn't want to finish them. That was more than two years ago. The one sock is still on the needle. (Yes, needle. I use the magic loop method. I hate double-pointed needles.)

The second pair of socks I attempted to make.
I never finished them, I doubt I ever will.

After the black-and-white skull socks, I decided I was done with socks. I would look but not attempt to make. Socks aren't hard to make, just tedious. One sock was easy, but two? Just annoying. You finish one sock and then, dammit, you have to make the second.

And then I got a giftcard to Knit Picks for Christmas. And I found the pattern for Hot Crossbones Socks, and I was smitten. I liked the pattern better. I loved the red. Despite my feelings towards the first pair, I bought the kit.

That was more than a year and a half ago. And guess what? I finally finished the damn socks. I did like this pattern better. And, no, they weren't hard to make. They knit up quick, especially using the magic loop. The first sock went pretty fast and the second one was the same, but I got bored with them. I had other things I needed to finish first. I got busy. I just didn't feel like finishing the second sock. I knew if I just put my mind to it, I could finish the second sock in a few days. Did I? No.

Yesterday, I got a Knit Picks catalog in the mail and what was on the first page? The pattern for my red skull socks, and my first thought was, "Ooooh, I love those." My second thought was, "Oh, wait...." That is when I decided I was going to finish them this weekend. And I did. I stayed up until 2:30 in the morning weaving in the loose ends just because I wanted them finished.

They look pretty. And they are cool. There are all kinds of problems with them, mainly due to my issues with tension when knitting fair aisle. But look! THEY'RE DONE. Now I never want to see them again.

Done!

Because I still like socks and I found I love the magic loop, I bought a copy of Knitting Circles Around More Socks. Why? Because it covers the two-at-a-time method. And I'm a glutton for punishment. My biggest issue with socks, now that I know I don't need to use double-pointed needles, is finishing the second sock. But two at a time?! This make sense to me. I even bought some nifty yarn that was wound just to work with the two-at-a-time method. I want to start. I really want to start, but I think I need a break from socks.

Let the Wild Rumpus Begin

Maurice Sendak, dead a the age of 83.

Shit.

Where the Wild Things Are was my favorite book as a kid. Over the last few hours, many have been asking why Sendak's books resonated with kids. Simple. Sendak explained it himself: He refused to lie to children. Kids aren't stupid. They have a strangely acute bullshit director. Sendak knew that and told it like it was, but he did it in a way that kids understood.

My childhood copy.
I can still remember sitting with this book, fascinated by the illustrations. 

First thing I did when I got home from work was pull my childhood copy of Where the Wild Things Are off the shelf. It's a bit yellowed. There are some scribbles on the cover and inside the book. The back cover is damaged. It is well-loved.

Mr. Sendak. You influenced a generation. May you continue to influence more.

Rumpus in Peace, Mr. Sendak.

TeeVee Stuff

So, two unrelated television shows. For the four people who read this blog, I'm curious if you are watching these and if you are, what you think.

Girls (HBO).
Unless you live under a rock or don't care about TV or pop culture or whatever, you've heard about Lena Dunham's show Girls. I don't have HBO, but I watched the three episodes available online. Why get invested in a show that I can't see more of? Well, the talk and the buzz got to me. The conversation about Girls on, wait for it, NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is what really made me curious.

After three episodes, I can say that I like the show but dislike the characters. Well, I kind-of like them. I like then enough that I want to know what happens to them. Okay, I'm intrigued by them. Hannah's OBGYN expressed part of it: You couldn't pay me enough money to be 24 again. Because I agree. I remember being in my mid-20s and people telling me what a shitty age it was and I would get all defensive. I'd be all "I'm a grown-up and I know who I am, stop treating me like a child." And maybe some people saw me as entitled, but I don't think I believed the world owed me anything. (I'm sure there are plenty of people who would challenge that.) I was a Gen Xer. I think I was too cynical to be entitled.

Anyway, the attitude of entitlement that Hannah has is one of the big things I both like and dislike. Yes, Hannah is entitled, but I wonder if the character was written as a way to both satirize this and try to explain it. As Hannah tells her parents when they cut her off: She is trying to be the best person she can be. She is doing what everyone told her to do. She is trying to be who she is. She is trying to be the person that all the best schools told her she should be. She is special. She's going to be the voice--or at least one voice--of her generation.

How she figures out how to take care of herself is what intrigues me. But there is also part of me that thinks, "Been there, done that. Why do I want to watch a rich kid try to figure out how to take care of herself?" I guess because it's just plain entertaining.

After three episodes, I wish I had HBO because I would like to know how this show plays out... but I don't care enough to pay for HBO.

Finding Your Roots (PBS).
Is anyone else watching this? I love this show. So very much. Simple put, it follows the ancestry of famous people. it's similar in concept to Who Do You Think You Are on NBC. I've seen the one on NBC, but I prefer Finding Your Roots. Finding Your Roots is just as much about the history of our country as is it about the ancestry of famous people.

*edit: I had a different version of this post up earlier. I rewrote parts of it because I decided I sounded like an idiot. Maybe I still do.

#RIPMCA

I remember both loving and hating (You gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party). I got the tongue-in-cheek-ness of it, but I knew it would become a high school anthem. It did. But I also understood that it was a fuck authority anthem. I was okay with that.

I missed Paul's Boutique when it was released. But I found it later. Damn, it is a good album.

I remember the first time I saw Sabotage, and I loved every single thing about it.

I own very little that The Beastie Boys have done. They were on my someday-I'll-by-it list for as long as I can remember. That's gonna have to change.

When I saw that Adam Yauch died, I sat at my desk, mouth hanging open... shocked and sad. And I said, "Holy shit." It's not like I was a huge Beastie Boys fan or anything, but good lord I could appreciate so very much of what they did. They were a group that got better and better with age. As they grew up, I grew up.

All I can think of to say is, "They were The Beastie Boys." What else needs to be said?

But Yauch's death? I am in total shock. I'm not sure why. It's not like the world didn't know this was coming. Yauch had been diagnosed with cancer in 2009. But it just seems so wrong. Why? Simple. Yauch was one of the good guys.

*sigh*

Rest in Peace, MCA.

A letter to the guy who almost rear-ended me.

I get it, the world hates you. It's unfair.

The Prius in front of you, the one in the lane next to me, was slowing down for a red light. You veered around the Prius and hit the gas and then slammed on your brakes when you saw me, squealed your tires, and gave an over-dramatic show for those around you so they could see just how upset you were and how unfair it was that the cars in front of you stopped for a red light. Because it was obvious from your bad attitude and piece of shit mini-pickup truck that you were someone of great importance and had to be somewhere that very second.

When the light turned green, you sped up, jerked your shitty pickup truck into the left lane and hit the breaks. I kept going and went through the next green light. You got stuck behind the the two cars in the left lane waiting for pedestrians.

Yep, sucks to be you.

Oh, and you're a jackass.

--Me.