Fifteen socks

In honor of the esteemed Socktober Fest, I present you with all of the socks I've knit to date, starting in August of 2005.

Clickable, if you wish to view a larger version. To find details on any of these knits, I've just updated the project list in the sidebar, so you'll find them all there.

Out of the 15 pairs, I've only knit 3 for myself. As it turns out, I must be a gift knitter. I've knit 3 for my mom, two for Sparky, one for Max, and then one for several others. No wonder why I always feel like I have socks on the needles!

Our household goods finally arrived yesterday. As we soon discovered, the packers in Georgia did a completely horrible job. Did you know that DVD's can also be called books? Yeah. Also, some very carefully packed scrapbooking stuff was DUMPED from a plastic bin I had put it in to a cardboard box. To say I'm pissed... Anyway, the Mr. is pretty much organizing the rest of all of it. I just take a box and say "OK, I'll put the books in the bookcase" or whatever. I also break down boxes and bag packing papers. It's a hard job, but someone has to do it. =)

Today I was at the German grocery store, and needed to get ground beef for meatballs. I was a little concerned, because it seemed that the only ground beef I could see was about 10 euro a kilo. That looked pretty expensive and I had limited funds. (Most stores only accept cash, and there are no ATMs that we can use except the one at Mr Fiberflash's work, so once he's home for the weekend, I'm stuck with whatever I have and have to make it stretch)

I had my little German survival guide with me, so while standing in line I looked up the words for "beef" and "meatball", then refreshed my memory on the phrase "I only speak a little bit of German". I was trying to read it unobtrusively, holding it down in the stroller so that I wouldn't look like a complete tourist. (I do really live here, so I have to fit in, somehow!)

When I finally reached the counter, I started out with the "only a little German" phrase, then started to make a stab at the meatball thing when the lady behind me in line said (in English!) "tell me, and I will translate". I wanted to hug her. There's almost no English speakers in this town -- actually a lot of people know at least a little, but they refuse to speak it until you've shopped at their place of business enough times to let them realize that you actually live there, are not going away, and are desperately trying to learn German. Anyway, this experience wasn't good for my quest to learn German, but it was very heart warming. Everyone could use a warm heart from time to time.