Baaa-d Company

See what I did up there?  I'm so clever.

I had a sock crisis this week that I am still trying to resolve.  It involved my being daring enough to try something new for the legs, and then paying heavily for my temerity.  So much for my plan to knit one pair of socks each month of this year.  Do you realize how discouraging it is that it is only January, and I am already falling behind?

This will be me, only w/out the elaborate headdress.

To make matters worse, I'm falling prey to all sorts of insidious peer influences lately.  Due to my dependence on knitting as the only way to stave off my feelings of existentialist angst (and the nagging suspicion that I should be doing some housework instead), I've been hanging out with others of my ilk who insist on luring me into other time-consuming hobbies/obsessions.  Just yesterday evening at Knit Night, for example, one woman practically FORCED a drop spindle into my hands and instructed me in the fine art of spinning thread from wool.  I had barely gotten the hang of this when another woman tried to sell me her "extra" table loom.  Man, she's like a weaving pimp.  And we won't even talk about the offers to attend weekend retreats devoted to any number of fiber arts.

Oooh, but look, there's one in Chicago this August!  Take a gander at the classes offered - Mobius Mysteries Untangled, Seams Made Simple, Sweater "Boot Camp" - who could resist?  Looks like I will have to, though, as this particular extravaganza would set me back $400 plus hotel and travel.  I don't understand how knitters, who tend to spend all their spare cash on every enticing skein of merino that comes along, manage to afford these retreats.  Oh, yes, they have jobs and all that...and I guess they don't waste all their money on evicting bats from their houses...but still, upwards of $700 for 3 days of knitting?

Hmmm, I wonder if the kids really need to eat this summer...