Why So Familiar, Tika?

I am a consummate Starter of Projects. I get all wound up about an Idea, gather Supplies, and dive into the Sea of Possibilities.

You know how in the Carribean Sea there's an island-sized floating mass of garbage? My Sea of Possibilities has one of those called the Island of Discarded Beginnings. It's full of half-completed paintings, beaded bracelets, sewing projects, photography series, and Grand Organizational Lists. There might be a few relationships or good intentions out there too, but we won't talk about those.

Anyway, this last weekend THB and I went up to visit my mom and hang out. I took the [redacted] thinking that I could complete a large chunk of it while waiting for my Stepdad to finish his turns in Settlers of Catan. Then on Saturday night while watching the first Harry Potter on VHS*, I ran out of yarn. Or to be more precise, I ran out of the yarn I had brought with me; there's plenty of yarn for the [redacted] at home. Since Mom and I had just spent the afternoon photographing her stash for Ravelry** I now have a pretty good idea of what her stash looks like, and because we share a terror of being without Something to Occupy the Hands, she happily loaned me 2 balls of KP Risata and a set of needles.


I really like this yarn so far, and it's gotten pretty decent reviews from Mom and on Ravelry. Combine the reviews with the reasonable price point [~$10/pair (non-knitters will be horrified, knitters will be relatively impressed. Such is the knitter's life)], a desire for more solid-colored socks, and my sudden realization that I absolutely do NOT have enough pairs of handmade socks (especially if I'm going to move to the PNW where I will need to wear socks more than half of the year), and I was ready to order a few dozen balls of this yarn the moment my student aid check comes in the door.

I've been playing with an idea for peasant heel socks. In the past when I've used a peasant heel, my socks have stretched too tightly over my instep and made my feet fall asleep. So in this pair of socks, I added a tiny heel flap to give ease over the instep, then inserted the scrap yarn for the peasant heel to be added later. And that brings me to the Familiar portion of today's blog post. Here was my thought process:

1. Risata comes in a bunch of colors!
2. Peasant heel socks lend themselves neatly to contrasting heels-and-toes, don't they?
3. In fact, 3 balls of a main color and one of the contrasting color would give me two matching pairs of socks; maybe even three!
4. I shall have a veritable DRAWER full of socks with contrasting heels and toes, both of which can be replaced at very little trouble!
5. I am so clever!
6. I can't believe I have never thought of this before!!
7. wait a minute...

Yep. I have definitely had this idea before, but with Lorna's Laces. And it's definitely a good one, but in the last few months I have become something of a tightwad and I can't shake the idea that I should at least dig into the LL stash and ::cough:: try the concept ::cough:: before I invest in a whole 'nother stash of sock yarn with the same goal. I know, right?

So I put aside the Risata Socks, dug through the Monster Stash (I need a better filing system than "that looks like sock yarn..."), pulled out 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces, and wound them up:

"Chocolate" for the H/T, "South Shore" for the body

I'll be casting on in a few minutes and then I'll let you know how it goes. Lorna's Laces is one of my favorite sock yarns despite the fact that I only have one pair of socks made out of it. They are without question my favorite socks that I've made, and I've gotten more compliments on them than on anything else I've knitted for my feet. Having more socks made out of yarn that is a) already in my stash, b) one of my favorites, and c) possibly the culmination of several months of thought about sock design makes me feel virtuous and happy. Also Stitches West 2010 is coming up, but we won't talk about that either...

Time to dive in again!

Darcy knows by now to duck and cover in times of Great Crafting Creativity.

*We had to remember to be kind, rewind at the end. Much hilarity ensued. Also, the Harry Potter kids were SO young! It made me feel SO old!

**Aren't I a good daughter?!?