The Tao of Socks

I have lived in many homes, cities and states in my life. As a child, the place I had the most memories in is this humble home in Hammond, IN, that my parents rented from the time I was 8 until I was 13. That was by far a record as I can recall having lived in 9 different places up to that point. That record was not broken until I bought my first home at the age of 21.

This is the place where my love of socks was born. Clearly, this home was important for many reasons. I know I've mentioned we were poor, but occasionally during these years, when I would go to the grocery store with my mom, she would let me choose a new pair of socks from the rack of dollar socks that was near the registers. I would labor over this decision. I would be nearly giddy with the choices. I would take home this prize and I would wear them pretty much nonstop all weekend. You cannot imagine the joy a simple pair of socks gave me.

As a result, I grew up to have a bit of a sock obsession. It was a well documented joke in my family. When I was in my early 20's and had to have surgery on my toes, my mom made me a bouquet of socks in a vase and brought them to me at the hospital. Of course I loved it! My girls have been gifting me with socks for as long as they have been buying me gifts. I still get that little thrill with a fresh pair.

 When I think of where my deep gratitude comes from, I am often led back to those moments, standing in front of that spinning rack of socks. It may sound silly, but imagine a little girl with so little, that a pair of dollar socks made her deeply happy. I know most people could not imagine that. I know my own girls could not. And while often my heart breaks for that little girl, I also can't help but be thankful because I can't imagine that I would be the person I am today without those experiences. Bitterness cannot grow where gratitude lives.

It seems it was a natural transition for me to become a sock knitter. When we look back on our lives, it's easy to see how all the moments before, bring us to where we are now. And I love where I am now, so I have to love what brought me here.

Sock knitting is meditative for me. I love wearing them of course, and I love choosing the yarn combinations and patterns and will often obsess over these choices as I used to obsess over those sock choices as a little girl, but more than anything, I love making stitch after tiny stitch, round and round in a circle, sometimes with no other thought than what my needles are doing, sometimes with silent prayers, memories of the past or dreams of what's to come, until suddenly I look down and I have this little object that gives me joy and which will hopefully make the person they might be gifted to just as happy as they make me.

For the past several months knitting socks has been a special kind of therapy for me, shifting my focus to something positive, giving me something I could control, healing my spirit. Hand knitted socks, aren't just socks to me. They are love filled hugs for your feet and when I give a pair to someone, I am giving them a bit of myself knit into every imperfect stitch.
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