You soxy thing

Wow. Inspiration to write is about 0.003 percent. Which is a bummer, especially considering that writing is what I do to make money. And yes, translating (especially novels) is writing, in case you were wondering if you missed anything. A couple of months ago, my erstwhile hairdresser asked me if a translator is required to re-write the whole text from A to Z in the target language. He thought I just pressed a button on my computer and the computer did all the work and I was just there to oversee things, or something. I was a bit miffed, actually. Translating is hard work. You know. If you have inspiration. Which I don’t.
Obviously.
Okay.
Next subject.

In my last, stitchy pics you were promised and stitchy pics you shall get. And a knitty one, too :o)
Remember Isabella Johnston? Well, Isabella the Red Cow Sampler is finished and framed and photographed in a most unflattering way, but this was the best I could do:

Whoopee! When I got this back from the framer’s, I spent a good half hour drooling over her. While I was standing there in a pool of saliva, two thoughts crossed my mind. The first was that I will only ever be truly happy when every inch of wall space in my house is filled with samplers like these, and the second thought was that I !%$^?*?&#!!@:o(( forgot to finish the leaf of the rose in the right hand corner! Thankfully, I happen to think that this adds all the more charm to the piece, so I don’t worry about it. Much.

After admiring Isabella for a while and after wiping the floor, I picked up Needleprint’s Sarah Harris and spent some time with her.

But you know what? My knitting keeps calling. I’ve never had it so bad before, and all because, eventually, all this knitting will hopefully lead to me having an enormous stash of hand-knitted socks. That’s my motive for doing any craft at all: I want the finished product and in order to get my greedy hands on it, I have to make it myself (or spend cartloads of money on other people’s work, but me being a humble translator, and an uninspired one at that, that’s not going to happen). And so I am very happy and proud to present my very first sock-to-be:

Whether you’re a beginner or and advancer; whether you’re senile, or inebriated or intoxicated or otherwise feeble in the head, there is absolutely NO excuse for this sock yarn, unless you’re knitting socks with a view to giving them to someone you really dislike. This yarn is hideous. My theory is that once I’ve managed two socks in this yarn, any other pair of socks will be a doddle to knit (note my optimism here. I’m still thinking I can finish this sock – which of course still needs a heel flap, a heel turn, a foot and a little pouchy thing to encase five toes). If I succeed, I fully intend to wear them with pride (inside my home where, thankfully, no-one requires me to be sexy. And for those of you wondering if knitted socks can be sexy at all, I would suggest you take a look at these babies:

Designed by one Cookie A. of Knitty.com fame. I think these are très sexy, in a Jane Austen-y, Brontësquely sort of way. I don’t know what that says about me, but there you go.)

Well, I know it will be hard for you to get through the next couple of days, wondering if I will manage to finish this sock, or, failing that, my translation. I will be back as soon as I have anything newsworthy to share!

Yours soxily,
Annemarie.