White Socks and Soy Sauce

I had a near disaster. I rarely make white socks, but I'm hand knitting a pair from what I think is an old Trekking XXL colorway. The ball band is missing. The wool is white with tiny lengths of red, blue, green and yellow, just long enough to make one stitch using US 1 needles. I've been making these socks since last summer. They were to be my beach project, but I didn't spend much time on the beach. They became my portable project for the fall. I remember making quite a bit of headway on sock number one at Stitches East during the long fashion show and banquet last November.

A week ago I picked it up again and finished the first sock and started the mate. This week I've been making the leg. Yesterday I worked on them during some wait time at the auto repair. I threw my zipped plastic project bag into a supermarket plastic bag along with some mail when I returned home. I went into the kitchen threw the whole thing on the counter and rummaged in the fridge for leftover Chinese food to have for lunch.

While the chicken lo mein heated in the microwave I got comfortable and immediately forgot the bag on the counter. I ate lunch, complete with a packet and a half of soy sauce. Can you see where I'm going with this? Are you wondering what I did with the rest of that soy sauce packet I used only half of?

As usual there was a plastic bag used for trash and garbage on the counter near the sink. I threw the soy sauce packets in it. Later my husband cleaned up the kitchen, collected the trash and recyclables, got it all consolidated into appropriate containers and placed at the curb for pick up in the morning.

Later, when I decided a nice, fast inch or two of mindless stockinette in the round would be relaxing, I couldn't find the bag I put my knitting and the mail in. I searched high and low. I recalled my actions upon entering the house earlier. I had visions of the bag with my knitting in it ending up on the kitchen counter. Then I had visions of my knitting resting in the trash and garbage in a container at the curb for collection! My husband went out to do the dirty work of checking the garbage. Sure enough it was there.

I knew I was in trouble when he brought it in sans plastic store bag. Sure enough the mail, the completed white sock, the partial second sock and the attached ball of yarn were saturated here and there with soy sauce. The completed sock and the ball of yarn had attracted the most of that dark, dark, brown liquid. It was awful, ruined, I was sure.

Resourcefulness kicked in. I took the sodden sock mess to the laundry room and ran cold water over the biggest stain while I looked around for a possible stain remover. Oxy Clean, would that work? I looked back at the sock in my hand under the stream of water. The soy sauce was gone! It was a miracle!! In the second I looked away all the soy sauce rinsed right out!!! Either the wool had some kind of protective finish or soy sauce isn't the vicious stuff I thought it was. I was able to get every trace out of all the wool without even wetting the whole pieces or the whole ball of yarn. Disaster diverted.

As for the mail, it was junk anyway.

Bona Fide Knitter