Grad school is in full swing. If you know me you know that school means I spend many hours in my homework hole stressing over formulas, essays, and deadlines. You also know that I knit so the stress in my life doesn’t overwhelm me. In other words, I knit so I don’t kill people! I don’t just knit anything, I knit really, really simple things. Enter socks. Socks are very simple and satisfying. I also knit dishcloths because they take less than an hour to complete and sometimes I need to just finish all the things!
I know some of you will ask what pattern I use for socks. I don’t really use one pattern, I combine a few patterns and different techniques to make my go to stress reliever socks. My over all pattern is based on Orange Knits Rose City Rollers. I like to knit toe up though so first, I start with a Turkish Cast On, I increase for a toe, knit until I have the length of my footthen add an afterthought heel where it should go. I am not at all careful, I don’t measure really, and I don’t care if my socks match. Life is too short to worry about such things. I know all you serious sock knitters are cringing…but I don’t care. Socks are stuffed into shoes and most people don’t look at feet that closely. And if they do look and judge my hand knit socks, I probably don’t want to be their friend anyway!
On a side note, I magic loop and use size 2 ChiaoGoo Needles I knit the middle size of the rose city rollers pattern, and I am a size 9 shoe. Also, I will knit anywhere…even at a brew pub or park. Please don’t ask me what yarn this is…I’ve had it for years, I didn’t buy it, and I can’t even begin to tell you what it is. If you want some great sock yarn head to my favorite yarn shop, Cozy, and pick out whatever speaks to your heart.
OK…so back to school, I am taking a full class schedule of 500 level classes. I love, love, love learning. As much as I complain about being busy and stressed, I really do love learning about the economy and how things work. It is fascinating to me to learn about how and why things are the way they are in the business world. I like the black and white of number crunching and the integration of faith and ethics into a money driven economy. The way faith is integrated in the most unlikely of subjects is incredibly enjoyable to me. Yes, I am a number crunching, economy studying, bible nerd and I don’t even care.
Mandy Sloan, MBA 