Sock Appreciation

This is my nephew, Hoss, with my sweet father.

I have never met anyone that appreciates knitted socks more than my father. He gets that they are beautiful, comfortable, and the perfect fit that makes your entire day brighter. He has worsted weight blue socks for cold mornings, thin stripes to match his suits, solid camel-hair socks, blue funky stripes (shown above) and a little bit of everything in between.

There's nothing better than having someone really, truly appreciate your hard work. Sometimes you put a lot of time, sweat, and money into a project and you have that feeling that they're lying through their teeth when they say, "Oh.. wow... er...that's great..." The thing is, he's the greatest dad ever and is always there for me and taught me a lot about how to appreciate the finer things in life. I appreciate my dad so much, and am tickled that he appreciates my socks.

Now there is a new generation of sock-appreciators in the family. When Hoss opened his birthday present, he could care less about his ultramerino green and blue striped socks. To be honest with you, I was worried. But it all changed Wednesday. I called mom and heard Hoss in the background shouting, "Emmmmm!" and mom informed me that he had been touching his feet all morning saying my name. Not only does he love his socks, he understands that his Auntie Em made them just for him. He loves to watch me knit. When he comes to the yarn store he runs straight to the silk and cashmere and pets them - he doesn't throw hanks of yarn across the room or drool on them like most kids - I've taught him well. He doesn't like acrylic, and actually gets that wool comes from sheep and alpacas are very soft. I'm so proud!!!!!

When Hoss showed off his socks, Dad took him upstairs to pick out some of Auntie Em's socks for him to wear, and mom grabbed some of hers to put on. Poor Buddha Bear was left out, but he's getting some soon. He can wear big brother's hand-me-downs until then.

Not only do I have the most wonderful and supportive family on the planet, they really do love my socks and I couldn't be more proud of them!