I have big feet, I like to think they ground me, I am a big person, to have had small feet would would have been an anachronism, tall women have big feet - fact.
When I first arrived in Sydney, I found myself leaving shoe shops shaking with anger and frustration, a typical encounter thus:
me: do you have this is a 10 or 10.5
teeny weeny bimbette sales girl: hee hee hee...no...do you want to try a 9?
me: no, thank you. (yes of course I want to squeeze my hoof into a size 9, pay you 200 bucks, hobble home and chuck them in my wardrobe never to see the light of day again, except to serve as a reminder that I have criminally huge feet and should have plastic surgery to reduce them to a size more acceptable to bimbette sales assistants...take a look at Naomi Campbell lovey...bet her feet aren't a six 6)
The worst was in Broadway where the sales assistant told me that they "actually" don't make shoes in my size ( was it my imagination or did she tack "freak" onto the end of that sentence?)
I have one pair of expensive italian leather shoes, they are ballet flats, they actually fit, they do not cause blisters or bunions, I can walk, hell, I can run in them if I have to. That I have them at all is due to the perserverance of a delightful saleswoman who made it her mission to make sure that this Cinderella had shoes for a ball, however, despite this one wonderful experience, I made a decision...for the sake of my self-esteem I no longer visit boutique shoe shops.
Of my 12 pairs of good/work/going out shoes, 6 pairs are made by Dr Marten, size 9 fits me snugly, size 10 is positive toe heaven if worn with socks or tights, they are big and clompy (there is no point pretending I have petite tootsies) and I feel safe and strong, knowing that I can kick an assailant in the arse, or run if I have to, have you ever seen a woman run for the bus in high heels, legs flailing, hands flapping like helicopter rotorblades? reminds me of when my kids played dress ups...except my kids were pre-schoolers, and these are grown women.
My Dr Marten's shoes make me happy, Dr Marten accepts my feet, he doesn't make me feel ugly, deformed or wrong. Colorado also make good casual shoes, and Camper even have high-ish heels for us "well earthed" gals.
Speaking of which, and getting to the point, I visited my favourite shoe dealer, and had to buy these:
yummy, chunky, higher than average Docs, and comfy.
And although I doubt that I will ever wear this combination together again...here we have the Opal Petticoat socks, finished, with my new shoes. (note re Opal Pettiocat socks, these are my vanilla sock recipe, but knitted at the same time on 2 sets of dpns, as mentioned previously, anyway, this is a new sock record for me, they took me 6 days! 6 days of not feeling like I was knitting socks any more than usual, I will try 2 socks on 2 circs next, but if it isn't me, I will continue knitting them this way)
roll on winter!
