Remember the other week when the sock and The Boy and I all trooped off to the railroad bridge?  The unfortunate incident?  The dreadful dark, sticky goo all over the sole of my pale, delicate sock?

Yes, yes it was rather traumatic.  The good news is that, with a bit of careful work, things are somewhat salvaged.  Here’s where we stand now.

The transition was made with the help of several thorough soakings in goo gone, an awful lot of blotting with paper towels, and some judicious scraping with fingernails.  It’s certainly not perfect, but it is a whole lot better.  The remaining spots are just spots, not sticky.  The socks are completely wearable and will be making their way into the rotation as soon as the weather cools off.

Oh, and if any of you ever need to do this, I found that drenching the stain in goo gone and letting it sit for an hour, then blotting with paper towels was the way to go.  The tar came off on the paper towels.  Repeat until it’s gone or until it’s not coming up on the towel anymore.  I soaked, waited, and blotted three times.  Then you need to wash the sock.  The goo gone is super greasy, and you’ll need a lot more soap (and possibly even a stronger soap) than you normally use.  I ended up using shampoo because my usual wool wash wasn’t taking the greasy feeling out.  The last step will likely be to wash the residue out of your sink (or wherever you were working).  It sort of gets everywhere, and you don’t want to leave it where pets can get to it.