Big Pink Thing and I were not having so much fun last night. Big Pink Thing refused to make progress, and I began to knit with contempt.

It seemed to me that though I had knitted all day, Big Pink Thing was not any bigger. I knit and nothing happened. The ball of yarn was no smaller, the end of it was not even dawning on the horizon. Big Pink Thing was resisting my charms. We needed a change of venue.

I rammed Big Pink Thing into a bag and headed to the pub for a pint.

In the background is our friend Jeremy Down and his accompanists for the evening, Don Kerr and Jim Bish. (There are too many links for Jim. I can’t pick one.) I sat. I knit. I drank beer. I knit. I listened to music. I saw some other knitters (they shall not reveal the true nature of The Big Pink Thing, although they can tell you it is big.) I knit and knit and I stopped worrying about whether or not I would make the deadline. I ordered another pint. (There’s a fine line here. I’m aiming for just enough beer to take the edge off of The Big Pinkness, but not so much that I make mistakes and incur more Big Pinkness. Skill and Practice my friends, that’s how you do it.) I listened to more music. I knit. I got Jeremy to hold the sock…

It cracks me up that he did it. Jer doesn’t follow the blog and I know for a fact that he was just holding the sock because he’s a bit of a scenester and totally didn’t want to look like he didn’t know about the sock in case the sock thing was cool and huge.

He didn’t ask me anything about it. Check him out trying to figure out how to manage the sock and hold onto his cool.

I didn’t even try to explain that what’s cool about the sock is that the sock isn’t cool. It’s just an ordinary sock out in the world having a good time. You can try all you want and the sock just isn’t going to let you be a scenester.

The only way to be cool with the sock is to give up. Be one with the sock. Think not of your coolness but only of the presence of the wool.

Jer’s a great guy, a longtime friend, a fine human and a talented musician, but he might be reaching for the sock scene….you know?

Little does he know that in his search for ultimate scenester cool, that I have just released his inner dork and whapped it up all over the internet. (That’ll learn him not to pay attention to the sock. If dude is going to have a couple of pints and fall for a sock trick, there’s just nothing I can do to help him. It’s just too easy…ya know?)

In any event, Big Pink and I spent a whole lot of time sitting in the pub together while Jer and Don and Jim made music and Joe ran around doing sound guy things and at the end of the whole night….

Well. Okay. It looks about the same – but trust me. It’s bigger.

24 hours to go.