More like a calling than a job

This morning I asked Megan, on her way out the door to continue a summer job search, if she’d take a minute and model the finished May socks for me.

Pattern: Froot Loops, Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Sierra.

She consented, because she’s a good girl (and wasn’t in a hurry) and sat on the front steps, putting her feet this way and that, taking my directions and making a few suggestions of her own…

When we were done, Meg asked if she could see the pictures, and flipped through them one by one, essentially admiring her own feet.
At the end of the roll, Meg tapped one particularly good shot with her finger and said "Really – I could be a sock model for a job."

I stood there looking at her, and then I realized here’s this kid, and she thinks that she could totally get a job modeling socks, and that maybe, knitblogging has really created some weird attitudes in my children.

118 thoughts on “More like a calling than a job

  1. And why not, may I ask? Today’s kids need that kind of thinking to make it as employed adults, of one sort or another. Good luck to her and her cute feet.

  2. Oh, but isn’t it wonderful that you’ve raised them to think in such creative ways! And even better, a job modeling socks could lead to greater things—I know of someone who was a “hand” model, and he made pretty darn good money!

  3. But isn’t that what you did? “Really – I could write knitting humor for a job.” And look what happened…

  4. When you’re raised “outside the box”, you learn to think “outside the box”.
    What a wonderful present to the world.

  5. What a great attitude! Can you imagine what a different world we would live in if that optimistic and entrepreneurial spirit was more prevalent in our adult population??? Keep up the great work Stephanie – words like those are why we become moms.

  6. Beautiful socks… And why not someone has to model socks! She just needs to find out where they do all the photo shoots for all these kniting books… That’s where you come in MOM it called networking….. Have fun.

  7. Considering all of the other things she could model I would encourage the sock idea.
    You are already done with the May socks? I’m working away on the SKA CookieA Mystery socks. But my excuse is that we only get so much of the pattern each week. At least that my story and I’m sticking to it.

  8. Our local newspaper just did an article on how tough it is for kids to find summer employment; because those jobs are being taken by people who have mortgages and families.
    So good luck to her! I can’t imagine having spent my teenage years without a summer job.

  9. Well not sock modeling but there actually are foot models. Don’t know if they have them in Toronto but they do in Chicago & NYC. Someone wanted me to be a foot model years ago. (There are also hand models – my mother did a wee bit of it during WWII.) For foot models, they generally want someone with a size 6 foot & lovely slim legs. Can’t hurt to call a modeling agency! I’ve heard about the paucity of summer jobs for teens.

  10. I’m picturing her in a really ditsy voice saying “Um–I’m a model” and it is totally cracking me up.

  11. OK, I am wholly ashamed now. 🙂 I’ve been working on my US:9 Froot Loop socks since June 2009, and you cranked yours out in just under two weeks.
    They really look good in that yarn, though.

  12. There are professional foot models, just like there are professional hand models. I’d think she’d have to be in New York, though, not Toronto, and I imagine the job openings are limited.
    Great socks. I have that pattern, so I’m halfway there, right?

  13. Being a sock model would be better than being an underwear model. 😉
    I totally agree that thinking outside the box is a wholly underrated skill today! Having a daughter that can think creatively is an awesome thing!
    It gives me hope that in the end, MY blogging will actually be a good thing for my kids! 🙂

  14. No wonder she is admirering her own feer with those snazzy socks on them . Hey kids get jobs doing stranger things than modeling feet so go for it Meagan what have you got to lose? SOMEONE models socks for the patterns –right ? Good luck

  15. Or maybe she was hinting that a fiver wouldn’t go amiss as she headed out the door after modeling? 🙂
    There really should be sock models though. They’re very important articles of clothing, and so often they just get brushed over while someone drools over the shoes that cover them up. A tragedy, really.

  16. If not socks, there’s shoes. If her feet look that darling in socks, she’d be awesome in shoes! Trust me, in my previous life a I spent a lot of time looking for nice feet to model shoes. May not what you want her to aspire to but for a summer…….

  17. My mother used to be a foot model. I am not sure what it actually entailed, but she was proud of it, and certainly, both of her offspring have feet worthy of being hidden, rather than seen. Go figure. I would not show you my feet (without socks) for any money, without a legal disclaimer and a promise from you not to laugh. Tina calls my shape “egyptian” I think, and how exotic is that? But there is this thing on the end called a big toe. I have not seen its like anywhere but on my brother’s feet.
    Nevertheless, sock blogging versus sock modeling. I wonder which, in today’s day in age, would bring home (any/more) bacon were it not for the actual exercise of knitting, feeling, absorbing fumes, digging in stashes, conceptualizing, designing, etc. ad nauseum.
    Your daughter should be encouraged. She thinks out of the box and is closely aligned with my mother.

  18. Hey, call up XRX or Interweave. With the number of sock books they publish, they must have an opening for a foot model with feet that actually fit the socks knit for them.

  19. Well, why not? A college roommate modeled rings at jewellry trade shows, and another did voice-overs for local commercials. Just need to figure out where the jobs are adverted and go from there. . . and thinking outside the box is always a good thing.

  20. Too funny! I think there might be some unusual additudes in my house as well, my 21 month old son thinks of his handknit and crocheted blankets as his only “real” blankets…

  21. It’s great to have a willing and able sock model at home with you!
    After modeling socks for me for several years, my daughter has developed a series of standard “sock poses” for our photo shoots! Now I can get a series of nice shots off in just a few minutes.
    It saddens me to think that she will be moving out someday ( as most children do ) and I would have to make sock modeling appointments with her!

  22. Okay. I can see that your daughter may already have a beginning in a career. Just think how wonderful it would be to model such beautiful socks and maybe, just maybe be given some of them as a bonus!
    By the way, love the socks. They are so pretty.

  23. I am currently in photography school and have often thought about opening a studio dedicated to photographing knitter’s projects. Maybe Meg and I can set up shop together. 🙂

  24. Go to Now Norma Knits and read about her son-in-law who is a hand model. Not so strange, after all.

  25. Did you know that you and Anne at Knitspot are knitting very similar socks in almost an identical colorway on the same day? Curiouser and curiouser.
    And we do create weird attitudes in our children, which is a good thing. Asked to play with her little brother recently, my 6-year-old replied, “I’m drop spindling here, do you mind!” Priceless.

  26. I love the socks (the model is great too)! I tried that pattern and it just didn’t work with my yarn but I haven’t given up on it yet.

  27. They are some really terrific pictures! She should go for it, even if it just ends up as an interesting job she tells people when she hits her 40s/50s.

  28. I just had to say how impressed I am that it is May 14th and you are done with May socks!

  29. If she finds a job like that, can you ask her to let me know if they need a back-up sock model? Because my sock-modeling skills are awesome too. She and I could be a sock-modeling team or something. We could have our own reality show about our adventures in sock modeling! Why not? It would be more awesome than the Bachelorette, you know it.

  30. Well, I personally thought the first picture was exceptionally good and why not? Someone has to have the job. You go girl!

  31. Watch out: she might present you with a contract one of these days. It’s not as if you couldn’t keep her busy enough with your sock output!

  32. Thank goodness for your link to the yarn on Loopy Ewe which reminded me I had to pay for my May club shipment!

  33. Those socks are beautiful…will have to make!
    A little off topic, but still involving socks. Last night on the Marriage Ref (don’t know if you get in Canada) there was a couple, the guy takes his tube socks and labels every one…pair 1 L or R, etc…believes that a tube sock becomes L or R after wearing. His wife was having a well deserved fit because she was the sorter of these socks. The decision was that he was on to something, but he gets to sort. But, I can’t even imaging…tube socks having a left or right?

  34. Meg has a great attitude. And those socks really do look like Froot Loops! They are the rare happy conjunction of multicolored yarn with textured stitch pattern, in which color and pattern cooperate rather than fight each other to a standstill. Good going, Stephanie.

  35. krisb at 3:52 – Cheap cotton tube socks will take a shape and keep it even after washing, and after a few wearings the sole of the foot is noticeably, um, different. But I agree, he gets to sort them.

  36. that is hilarious! well if there ARE any paying jobs modeling knitted socks, at least she’s got experience and a portfolio! I think it’s great to expose your kids to different ways of earning a living and to be creative and entrepreneurial.

  37. What, you mean sock modeling is an unrealistic dream?! Dangit. At least I have my dream of beer bottle tooting to fall back on.

  38. That yarn is such a perfect match for the pattern — perfect froot loop colors!
    And, by the way, I’m totally going to start looking for sock modeling gigs. Tell Meg that she’s going to have some competition from a 20 year old in Kansas.

  39. I don’t know what’s wrong with sock modeling. My mom used to know a lady who was a hand model. You remember all those old dish soap commercials back when people used to actually wash dishes by hand and they wanted you to believe it was good for your hands? Most of those hands were hers. She wore plastic gloves to wash dishes so as not to ruin her hands. I think she did nylon stocking commercials when she was younger, but then she had kids and her legs weren’t as good.
    Love the socks 🙂

  40. Great idea! Hope it works! I’ve heard of hand models, so why not foot modeling. Ooh, the pedicures would be mandatory!!

  41. But really, she could! When I saw the first shot, I thought: “Damn, look at the perfect toe point! That kid should model.” So, Steph, you ought to start helping her put together a strong portfolio by moving onto the new pair of socks!
    The current pair, however, are simply divine. I heart the pattern, and I heart the yarn. Hard.

  42. In this economy, we’re all looking for new, unusual and legal ways to make money! Everything’s worth exploring.

  43. “I’d hate to know what sock modeling for a knit blog would pay.
    Posted by: Candice Hope at May 14, 2010 1:34 PM”
    So far it’s been room and board plus some fleeting fame on the web. Now, if all the sock knitters and bloggers all lived in the same neighborhood, that would make her a great summer job.

  44. Hee hee. Very funny. I wish to be similarly blessed some day with my sons thinking something equally knit-warped. I’m working on it.

  45. Fabulous socks! Just yummy. And I think Megan could absolutely model socks. I bet all the winter photo shoots are happening in the summer too! 🙂

  46. I would like to take this moment to say that I have recently become completely addicted to sock knitting and it is ALL YOUR FAULT.
    As my condition worsens, I may need to hire Megan to do some sock modeling as I will be up to here with them shortly and my kids still have little bitty feet. 🙂

  47. Hmm, don’t suppose it’s pure coincidence that those beautiful socks just HAPPEN to fit those beautiful feet perfectly? 😉

  48. Go Meg!! You never know until you try. If you find a job modeling socks then you learned something and you have a job; If you don’t get a job modeling socks, then you learned something and it may lead to gainful employment. Best of luck in your summer employment!

  49. Great idea! And also tell her that mittens are big as well. Perhaps she could double up and be a mitten/glove model. I mean seriously, there are hand models for nail polish…why not??

  50. So Mom, help her print up some business cards and pass them out at all the LYS as a model for knitwear photo sessions. It would be a great way to earn some spare cash while she is looking for that full-time summer job. Also, she could take the modeling back with her to college…some cash…not too many hours…why not.

  51. There are people earning a living as hand models. And as foot models. Why not sock models?

  52. The more we encourage our kids to believe that the world is wider than what’s on television, the better. They should “question authority”, as the buttons said in the 80s. Why be in step with the rest of the world, if stepping in another direction will open new doors?
    My kid acknowledges that he thinks I’m weird, but who goes morris dancing with me on Thursdays, and got out there at dawn on May Day? You guessed it – my son.

  53. Megan, I’m wishing you all the luck in the world finding a good and interesting summer job!
    Sock modeling would be pretty neat if it pays well. Somehow, I think you’d probably do better if you didn’t limit yourself to just socks — maybe include shoes, gloves, hats, mittens, scarves, or whatever suits you best.
    Although a lot of the “big deal” models work out of New York, London, Paris, or Chicago, just about every major city needs models for local store ads and the like.
    So, who knows? With some hard work and ingenuity, you may just become the Tyra Banks or Kate Moss of sock models!

  54. Congratulations. You’ve raised a kid who believes anything is possible. Good job.
    Seriously, I once had a roommate who was a ring model. Well, technically a hand model, as she modeled bracelets and nail polish and such also. Not the highest pay in the world, but it was handsome enough pocket money for a student job.

  55. Well why not? Was there a niche called “knitting humorist and creator of extraordinary knit events” when you started in your current career?
    I consider you and Will Shortz to be Exhibits A and B in the category: Followed their bliss and turned it into a career that didn’t even exist until they did it. (Will Shortz is en enigmatologist. He created the major. He creates puzzles for a living.)
    See, kids? If you love it, and just keep doing it, the money will follow. (Maybe not a lot of money, but enough to stay afloat.)

  56. Actually foot modeling is probably a job as I recall knowing a guy whose wife was a hand model. So how good do her feet look naked 😉

  57. There’s a lot of excitement about Sock Summit the Second. We’re trying to get a group together to take the Empire Builder train from Chicago to Portland. It’s a two night trip so plenty of time to knit. If any of your readers are interested, there is a thread on Ravelry under Sock Summit 2011.

  58. Yeah, why not? Socks need models, too! I agree with the others above – she could be on to something big!
    Wonderful socks, lovely color, beautiful feet!

  59. re pig interviewer in twitter: please remember that 98% of Americans know that Canadian does NOT equal American. I wonder if he/she knows that American dollars spend in Alaska and Hawaii?!

  60. Let her socks! It isn’t, I don’t think, a ing job where her diet, and therefore weight would be a terrible concern, she would like it, and, when she’s older (and knitting in her rocker with great grand kids) she can tell everyone, she used to be a . The prefect job, and, you get half credit, because you raised her to think that way! But, do understand when she requests a reasonable fee for each sock ing session you ask of her. I charge my mom when I bathe her dogs, because, it’s my job, she’s not my employer.

  61. If Norma’s daughter’s boyfriend Ryan can be a hand model, why can’t Megan be a sock model? (She does have cute feet!)

  62. My girl declared she would never, ever work inside. She is 28 and gainfully employed in the great outdoors, Just got back from four months in South America. So who knows?

  63. Sounds to me like you’ve created a child who can think outside of the box. Congrats on that. And this should help with the job thing in the long run and hopefully in the short too. Sending best wish toward finding a good summer job.

  64. I really like those socks! Meg really did a good job, putting in all that hard work making them look good… 😉

  65. My daughter likes to think of herself as a Hand Model. She has modeled some of my fingerless gloves. In one case (the slouchy handwarmers) I put them on her while she was still in bed one Saturday morning and then posed her hands and took the pictures. A Hand Model that doesn’t even have to wake up to do her job. What a life! Not a lot of money in it though 🙂

  66. And not so long ago someone thought that she might be able to make a living writing knitting humor…you never know!

  67. When I was a kid, I thought I could be a hand model… you know, the kind that shows off rings and things in magazines? I knew my body was Germanic and squarish but figured my hands were quite attractive. Until someone pointed out that my hands were attached to my body and were, likewise, Germanic and squarish. I have since come to terms with my Germanic frame. I figure my ancestors must have had to deal with higher gravity than most. 😉

  68. I suppose it’s better than a model for lingerie or swimsuits. Personally, I always wanted to be a boot model – because that meant closed toes – and I might be able to keep the really good boots I modelled. Haha

  69. My brother worked on an alpaca farm one summer… everybody said he was an alpaca wrestler. Lol. What a job. I would have had to struggle to not make off with the fleece…
    A sock model would be a freaking awesome job!

  70. Why not? All those models get their start somewhere!?!? This is probably a silly question but… what kind of shoes do you wear with all your wonderful sockies? I made a couple pair but they look a little silly with my tennies 🙂

  71. You might be right about creating weird attitudes, but as I look around me sometimes and see all the weirdness and how much money people are making with it, I wouldn’t totally discount her idea.

  72. She already has something for her resume, being your sock model for . . . .how many years?
    Not even the middle of the month, and you are already finished with the sock of the month. Going to start June’s early? Or just work on something else?

  73. Well, sock model might be a little specific, but there certainly are foot models. And I’m sure those foot models model socks, too, on occasion 🙂

  74. Um, if author of knitting humor can be a career path, why not sock model? She may take a little known niche to new heights! Like her momma!

  75. I once stood in a queue in a cafeteria and this perfectly ordinary looking man came up to me in the queue and asked me whether anyone ever told me that I had beautiful feet. I had on LACE UP SHOES! Needless to say that my cousin and his wife, who were both with me, nearly died laughing!

  76. Hi Stephanie and Megan – I’m putting together a book of sock patterns (plus other items) knit with Blackthorn needles. I’ll definitely pay Megan to model socks for the book. Just let her know 🙂

  77. Just don’t let her get caught up with one of those seedy “foot-modeling agencies” who are just trying to get her barefoot. Skeevy creeps.

  78. And now everytime I see a sock pattern I think of your daughter. 🙂

Comments are closed.