Christmas socks for DH

Recipient: DH
Designer: Anna Hobbs
Pattern: Amazing Feets
Source: CanadianLiving.com
Completed: December 15, 2005
Colours: "Marine" (dark blue) and burgundy
Yarn: Phentex Merit, light worsted weight
Completed status: Given Christmas, 2005
Pictures:

2005-Dec-26

These were a big success. He was super-happy as he pulled the socks out of the gift bag, and then...

"Heyyyyy!!!" he said, as it dawned on him that I had been deceiving him about the socks lo these many months.

I pointed and yelled, "Ha!" Triumphantly.

Today we went through a few more details of how I had deceived him without ever actually lying. For instance, when I said that I was going to work on socks one day and then made an offhand remark about how I really want to make some socks for myself. I told him it wasn't my fault if he chose to assume that this meant the socks I was going to knit would be for me. Then he accused me of deliberately trying to mislead him.

"Well, yeah," I replied. :)

Then he said I was good enough at this to be Aes Sedai (yes, we're both geeks) and I thanked him. I think he went away muttering. :)

He's definitely happy about the socks. About the fact that I still have never finished anything for myself...not so happy. Which is why he's letting me get away with starting up the self-patterning socks for myself without too much complaint about all my other knitting deadlines.

2005-Dec-15

DONE! I worked on these in the cab ride home last night, and again this morning, and again at lunch today, and they are completely finished. (Pictures forthcoming.)

Now I just have to hide them from DH. I don't know how much he suspects...I originally told him that the socks were for me, but I've been working on them a lot lately and I'm wondering if he's confused about why I'm working on something for me when there's still Christmas and due-any-second baby knitting to be done.

But I have some good non-lies worked out in case he asks me where they went. "Non-lies" = statements that are technically true but which are constructed in such a way as to completely mislead the person you tell them to, so that you can safeguard whatever surprise you are trying to spring on them. So, for example, if he asks me where the socks went, I will say, "They're hiding. I can't work on them anymore. I have to finish the Christmas knitting." Now, I know that the real truth of these statements breaks down as follows:

• They're hiding = They're hiding from my DH because they are his Christmas present
• I can't work on them anymore = They're done
• I have to finish the Christmas knitting = I have to finish the Christmas knitting (a totally true statement unrelated to the previous two statements - used as a red herring to throw DH off the scent)

But I shall say them in such a way which will make him think that they actually mean:

• They're hiding = I've hidden them from myself so that I will not be tempted by them
• I can't work on them anymore = I have bigger knitting priorities right now
• I have to finish the Christmas knitting = This is the bigger knitting priority, and is the reason why I have had to hide the socks from myself

You see how it goes? Non-lies...for those who wish to keep good surprises secret from loved ones. Obviously, a powerful tool that should only be used for good, and never for evil (for example, covering up an adulterous affair is a Very Bad And Totally Unacceptable use of the non-lie).

2005-Dec-13

I cast on for sock #2 yesterday morning and knit through my commute. The good news is that I got two inches more done on the sock than I expected to, and now I'm finished the heel and working on the foot!


The bad news is that this happened because of a spectacularly awful delay on the subway. Feh.

2005-Oct-16

I am a sneaky wife. :) Yesterday in plain sight of DH I started the first sock and worked on it brazenly in front of him the whole day and night, and I finished it this morning.

I thought having a different colour at the heel and toe would be nifty. (The real reason, of course, is that I was worried I'd run out of blue yarn.)

The burgundy heel and toe also helped me keep up the ruse that the socks are for me. I told DH that the burgundy will help me tell the socks apart from his blue ones, since otherwise how will we know which are his and which are mine since the two pairs will be so close in size? (Much innocent blinking followed up this statement.) DH has no idea that the socks are for him. In fact, he was simply dee-lighted to see me finish the first sock because he thinks I'm that much closer to finishing the first thing I've ever knitted for myself. Muahahahaha.

The only drawback to this is that he can never see me finishing the second sock, because after that he'll wonder why he never sees me wearing them. So at a certain point I'm going to have to 'go underground' with this knitting.

I did have to do some frogging around the heel of the first sock, though. This is not (and I want to stress not) because I screwed up turning the heel. No. I had to emphasize that point a few times to DH, who told me not to feel bad about screwing up the heel because he understood heels were tricky things. I did not screw up the heel. What happened the first time I had to frog was that I'd realised I'd lost track of my decreases after turning the heel and had messed up too badly to fudge them going forward. (I had lost track of the decreases because I was distracted watching the tournament.) And the second time I had to frog was because I realised I had knitted too long with the burgundy and should have changed back to the blue much earlier. But I did not screw up the turning of the heel itself. (Did not.)