Men who knit...

Although crafting is not at all synonymous with knitting and crocheting it is something that has really impacted my life and I would urge you to give it a whirl. I began crocheting when I was about 6 years old. My mother, a single mom, worked a 3rd job at home as a medical transcriptionist and to keep me busy and out of her hair she took an afternoon to teach me crocheting. Within a few weeks our living room was filled with miles of chains and swatches of single, double and treble crochet. I began making hats and scarves around 8 or 9 years old. Around this time the name-calling started and I was dubbed a fag at school, when in reality I was just an over stylish twerp with the first spike hairdo in the school. Alas, I dated a girl and dropped the hook for a few years. It wasn’t until I was 20 years old and in art school that I took up the practice again. I took a refresher course at Strawberry Tree in Denver and started teaching.
Around that time I started knitting. I took lessons from a crazy lady…’nough said. I fell madly in love with the art and practice of knitting. I have taught now 9 years. I usually don’t make garments; usually I only make things that are conversation pieces.

(Men making socks on sock machines! Old school fabulous!)

I started making this sock a few nights ago. It is made out of Malabrigo sock yarn. The pink is “Light of Love” and the purple color is a hand-dyed color that I came up with last week when I began experimenting with RIT, Coolaide, and Jacquard acid dyes. I am really excited about these-over-the-top-socks for this spring. I thought that they would be really cool to make because they are so loud and one of those things that will go great with a pair of black slacks, as a little surprise-surprise.
The pattern comes from a cool book called Knitting Marvelous Mittens, Ethnic Designs from Russia by Charlene Schurch.

Keep your eyes peeled for the finished pair as soon as I get them done.