Socks and Stuff

So how do you handles stress?  I knit.  Not just anything, either.  I knit socks.  The more stressed I get the more socks I knit.  How stressed am I?

Stress Socks

Those are the current socks in process.  My "real job" has been very stressful lately.  We have some tight deadlines on the projects we are working on right now.  We've all been working long hours and late nights. Socks are great because I have knit them for so long that they are pretty much brainless knitting for me.  They're also nice because they're small and can be taken almost anywhere. 

I just finished the pair on the right.  They're for my friend Dawn at Loops.  Dawn's birthday was last month.  Her husband left that day on a business trip to China, and a family member became ill and was hospitalized.  It turned out to be yucky birthday, so I decided that Dawn needed to have another birthday this month, so I made her a birthday present. 

Dawn Socks

I used Regia Bamboo and one of the 5 stitch patterns from More Sensational Knitted Socks.  It was a good stress relief for me, and hopefully a good second birthday for Dawn. 

I had a horrible experience night before last.  I went to a concert in downtown Tulsa.  The Bands were Puddle of Mud, Breaking Benjamin, and 3 Days Grace.  It was outdoors.  I get up to the gate and the security lady asks to see inside my bag.  No problem.  Standard procedure for a concert.  What comes next is a little different, though. I hear, "Oh, you can't bring knitting needles in here. Those could be used as a weapon!"  What?  I pointed out that they were allowed on airplanes.  She replied with, "Well, you must not have brought them to any big rock shows like this."  No not at all.  Just the Def Leppard and Journey concert last fall.  Not a big show.  Not at all.  Billy Joel last month wasn't a big show, either.  Not at all.  Just 50,000 people or so.  Not big.