Largely Unrepeatable: Dropouts Never Prosper (Unless They Do)

I spent Thursday of this week feeling a bit green around the gills. Since there's been a horrific flu going around, I called in sick to work and stayed in all day (by Saturday I concluded it was allergies - daily Claritin, here I come). I did, however, manage to jaunt up to Purlescence for some lace weight in order to start the third round of Sock Madness 2. The premise of the sock is pretty neat, with 2 strands of laceweight held together to create color striping. Omly's are an excellent example. For myself, I picked up some Panda Silk in pink and purple as a tribute to my first 10-speed bike. And to my wardrobe from the same era. Let's face it, if I could have, I would have painted my room and dyed my hair pink and purple when I was 10. But I digress.

Lovely aren't they? But wait, there's more!

The laceweight sock pattern came out, and man, I was ready. For the first hour, I was into it. Then I realized that the "laceweight" I picked wasn't actually making a sock that would fit anyone I know. Two strands of Panda Silk held together do not fingering weight make. And I wasn't having any fun, because the last socks from SM2 weren't socks I would wear either. And then, in a final deathknell for my career as a Tennessean, I realized that I could and would wear a pair of pink socks and a pair of purple socks if I ripped out my too-large monstrosity. So there you have it: I dropped out.

As soon as I finished re-winding the skeins, the weight came off my shoulders. Somehow it's easier to voluntarily drop out than to be beaten by someone else, so I'm fine with it. Next year for Sock Madness I'll either be A) recently graduated or B)only taking a few classes, so I'm sayin' it now, SM3 people: you've been warned!

This left me with only 3 projects on the needles, however. Two are sock projects and one is the Tangled Yoke Cardi, which is in time out until I get brave enough to connect the sleeves to the body. And the 2 sock projects are... well, let's face it: boring K2P2 socks. I've got a few spinning projects here and there, but I've caught Startitis and I'm not sure where it's going to take me. There are a few candidates, though. I told my friend Kate about the wedding shawl I'm planning, and it was the first time I've seen her pout about not wanting to get married. I caved and offered to make her a shawl since she is moving to Prague within the next year. We both knit, but I am the avid knitter (instead of the recreational knitter she is), so she requested a red shawl for cool Prague summer evenings. On Thursday, I found the perfect not-too-purple, not-too-orange red yarn that won't aggravate her sensitive skin:

Fiddlesticks Knitting Zephyr Laceweight, 4oz in Cinnabar

This yarn will grow up to be a Juno Regina shawl, but I haven't started it yet. Mainly because I was busy finishing the massive cabling project for the Posset yarn I got from Colourmart. And behold, the project, she is done!

2000 yds, 100% cashmere laceweight

Purple disc for scale; it's the size of a quarter.

It's as soft as a kitten and a lovely grey-purple color that I just love. The cabling makes it a very visual yarn; I think it'll show stitch definition really well. Y'know, if you care about those things. Which apparently I do. I didn't spin this yarn but I did re-spin and cable it, so I'm going to award myself 1/2 mileage for a total of 1000 yards finished. Hopefully I'll find a pattern for it tomorrow and get to start actually knitting with it; I feel like I deserve to after the oatmeal-brain-mush project it's been so far!

And lastly, today I finished spinning the PRS singles to go with the Quietude singles from spring break. I'm letting the fresh singles sit overnight (like a good little spinner) and I'll try to ply them up tomorrow. Getting things done is such a relief; dropping out was, in this case, the best thing to do. Here's a shot of the bobbin I finished tonight back when it was only half finished:

It'll be so pretty! I'm excited.
Millefiore SW Merino from Pigeonroof Studios

And lastly, I must say I agree that the anthropomorphized cat pictures can get a little... eye-roll-y. But Crazy Sarah put a caption on this photo that made me spit tea on my keyboard this morning, so I'm going to share anyway.