Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Shrove Tuesday, Sock Tuesday

I love this Tuesday. First there were Paczki, then there were socks, then there were pancakes. The sock things hasn't made it into the liturgical calendar yet, but it definitely should.


Knitting Help Sockintine Swap Socks
from my Sock Pal Andrea
pattern: RPM
yarn: Gypsy Girl Creations hand-dyed fingering weight, in Painted Desert
verdict: my feet are in love!

Ode to My Socks
by Pablo Neruda (translation by Stephen Mitchell)

Maru Mori brought me
a pair
of socks
which she knitted with her own
sheepherder hands,
two socks as soft
as rabbits.
I slipped my feet
into them
as if they were
two
cases
knitted
with threads of
twilight
and the pelt of sheep.

Outrageous socks,
my feet became
two fish
made of wool,
two long sharks
of ultramarine blue
crossed
by one golden hair,
two gigantic blackbirds,
two cannons:
my feet
were honored in this way
by
these
heavenly
socks.
They were
so beautiful
that for the first time
my feet seemed to me
unacceptable
like two decrepit
firemen, firemen
unworthy
of that embroidered
fire,
of those luminous
socks.

Nevertheless,
I resisted
the sharp temptation
to save them
as schoolboys
keep
fireflies,
as scholars
collect
sacred documents,
I resisted
the wild impulse
to put them
in a golden
cage
and each day give them
birdseed
and chunks of pink melon.
Like explorers
in the jungle
who hand over the rare
green deer
to the roasting spit
and eat it
with remorse,
I stretched out
my feet
and pulled on
the
magnificent
socks
and
then my shoes.

And the moral of my ode
is this:
beauty is twice
beauty
and what is good is doubly
good
when it's a matter of two
woolen socks
in winter.




Ah, that Neruda. He got the sock thing, didn't he?

Oh, and my sock pal (the one I knit for) got the socks I made for her, too. She likes them! Happy Sock Tuesday, everyone!


5 comments:

schrodinger said...

Those socks are stunning!! What beautiful colours and a perfect pattern, I can't wait to hear more details. So glad that your sock pal liked her socks too, I didn't doubt that she would :)

Unknown said...

love the colors!!!! those are some fun socks, go andrea! great poem too! and hey, i heard you come up on Cast-On, I was totally tickled!

Knitting Bandit said...

Way cool socks!!! They kinda look like RPM's.

Meredith said...

Pretty socks! And I love the poem. :)

Rachel said...

Hooray for successful sock swapping and happy feet!

I love that poem -- Neruda is one of the only poets whom I, a total poetry non-enthusiast, really enjoy.