Which is your favourite cigarette brand, doctor?

Hey kids!  I've been overwhelmed by knitting in the last few days, and not in the way that you probably think.  I've been thinking of all of the yarn I have sitting in my stash, and thinking of ways to use it, and being completed stuck on what to do next, even though I have at least 5 potential projects I could latch on to.  Potential projects include a shawl with my Viola Fibres lace weight in "Wild Rose", either a hat or fingerless mitts or small shawlette with my Viola Fibres fingering weight in "Bruised Plum", dishcloths out of plain-jane crochet cotton for G-ma's birthday in July, a french press cozy for Fuzzyhead (to keep is coffee toasty on WoW raiding nights), a camera case for Fuzzyhead's new camera, and a tablet cozy for me.  I don't know what to do first, I don't love any of the patterns I'm finding, and I'm strapped for cash right now, so paying for a pattern is out of the question.  I originally had both of the Viola yarns listed above pegged for specific projects, but I need to buy both of those patterns and simply can't afford it right now.  I don't really love any of the other patterns I'm coming across, so I'm tempted to leave it for a bit until I can. 

All of the other ho-hum potential projects don't catch my interest yet - they would be fine side projects to have alongside something more challenging, but I don't know what to do with that.  I want to work on everything and nothing at the same time, argh.

In the meantime, this is what I cast-on on Friday night over the long weekend, and this was my progress update picture a few hours ago:

This the the Laurel sock pattern from Wendy D. Johnson's Toe-Up Socks for Every Body (one of my favourites).  The yarn is The Black Lamb merino/nylon sock yarn, which came from my Woodstock Fleece Festival purchases in the fall.  The colour is called "Olive Drab" and it's a pretty close match for the colour used in the book.  It's a very cool green, with flecks of blue and an overall grey-ish tone to it, and the leaf-ish pattern works really nicely with the yarn. 

These socks will be for me, and I'm hoping I have enough yarn for the pair.  Unlike the last socks I made for Poppa (the Java socks from my last post), I weighed out the yarn and split it into two balls so I know exactly how much I have to work with for each sock.  The ball is a solid 104 grams, but according to the label, only has 350 yards.  It doesn't seem overly thick yarn to me, so I'm surprised at how little is supposedly there.  I've turned the heel on the first sock and things are looking OK for the leg (I weighed what was left of the ball and had about 30 grams to play with still).  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have to settle for a short leg.

I also finished more yoga socks.  I'm down to my last ball of yoga-sock yarn, which is the other half of the very bright yellow yarn that Catherine gave me.  I'll probably start up another pair of yoga socks to keep on the go, although these pink pretties took 3 months to finish because I just wasn't motivated.  If people start buying them up in droves from the yoga studio, I'll think about caring more.

 Posie pattern running up the front of the sock

I made a little pair of something for me too recently, with the last scraps of the original yoga sock yarn, the green ones I made to match my yoga mat.  These are the Ballet School Dropout Sockettes, which were finished over a couple days last month.  

They're fairly loose on me by themselves, but when pair with my French Press slippers, they are a perfect liner:

I don't know about you, reader, but my feet sweat more than I would like, and felted slippers (or any slippers for that matter) without socks is a nightmare.  Thinking about wearing shoes without socks makes my skin crawl for the same reason.  Also, don't judge if your feet don't sweat, you're just not human and we can't all be as awesome as you.  In conclusion, I'm really loving these as a dainty liner for my slippers - my foot topsies are still exposed to get the most out of the ballet flat style shoes, and I can wash the sockettes without any trouble.  The designer originally made the socks for her ballet flat shoes, but when I tried these on with my flats, they made my feet to squished.  I'll stick with using them with my slippers, and I think they would make a fab gift for the gal-pals in your life.

And now a blast from the past - remember when I learned to spin?  Refresh your memory here, here, and here.

When we last left our hero, she was working on her final project from Kit's spinning class, where she was supposed to do something with all those sample skeins she spun.  Quick recap, she didn't do anything with them.  For two years. 

I turned the red and red-orange into balls, but the rest were waiting for a long time to be touched again, until my restless knitting mood took over and turned them all into balls in a week:

 These little pretties are stuffed with old plastic shopping bags (what's up 3 R's, re-use anyone?), and for now, they are back in the box where I had them for the last two years.  I will be turning them into a sheep wreath, as inspired by Not So Sleepy Sheep.  Each ball will get a little sheep face, and little sheep ears, and four little sheep feet, and I'll firmly attached them all to a wreath base of some kind.  Until I get my second wind on this project, they'll be in the box. 

Also, it's Easter weekend, did Break and Enter Rabbit visit your house last night?

G'night all!

Onward,

vrock