Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Sock & Bar

I mailed out my application to take the state bar exam on Thursday. The application nearly was an exam in itself: 28 pages of questions intended to ensure that I am fit to be a New Jersey Lawyer. Hm.

I reacted to this "accomplishment"--I am giving myself far too much credit for this, after all, I only filed the application--by retreating into handicrafts. Specifically: socks.

Socks seem to be the New Big Knitting Thing. So many knitters are making socks. Sock yarn is everywhere. And it looks so cool. Every knitting blog I read on the Internet talks about socks. So I guess it was only a matter of time before I knuckled under to the knitting peer pressure and tried my hand at some socks, too. Hey: I've just signed myself up to take a 2-day-long test. What I need now (before I start studying) is to learn a completely irrelevant new skill. I know that makes no sense. But it's how I feel.

This is what I have found out so far. Knitting socks is really the process of wrapping woolen thread around toothpicks, but doing it in such a way that you end up with a rather cool shape. I've even learned a few new skills: the provisional cast-on technique, and using short-row shaping (correctly) to sculpt toes and heels.

So, there must be some way to translate this into my professional future, right? I can sit for hours at a time, rotating five little sticks in my hands to create this carefully shaped item. This says something about my patience, my perserverance, my ability to ignore bodily discomfort, and my willingness to allow my children to raise themselves while I figure out just what the heel turn will look like when it's done (oh, so that's what they mean).

I'll do fine on that bar exam. I have several hours into this sock already--probably more than the whole bar exam will take. The tiny yarn and needles are making my fingers nimble, so writing those essays will be a piece of cake. The only fly in my ointment is that I will have to put down these socks in order to study. And then there is always the actual lawyering that will come after that.

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