Houston, we have a problem

Actually, a couple of problems.

First, I really need to stop with the sock kits. I'm up to 18 now, plus a kit for some fingerless mitts. Actually, maybe 3 of those. I still have enough yarn left from the mitts I made for Angie for Christmas to make another pair, and I really liked them. And there should be enough of the Road to China yarn I got a couple of weeks ago for two pairs of something.

I went to Jeanne's trunk show at Soft N Sassy today. I had seen her post last week about her new Olympics-inspired colorways, and I've been obsessing about Five Rings since then. I was going see if I could meet Jeanne to pick up a hank of it (because I hate spending good yarn money on shipping), then I saw she was having a trunk show.

Which brings us to the latest four sock kits:



The top right kit is the Five Rings yarn with Jeanne's basic sock pattern. While I was there, I saw the sample sock for the kit on the top left. It was absolutely gorgeous, laying there in the sunlight, begging me to go home and re-create it. I didn't want to disappoint it, so that yarn ended up in my hand.

The pattern designer, Dawn, was there, too. She made me feel less self-conscious about my sock yarn stash (it's *way* less than her 200). They pointed me to the pattern on the bottom left, which is a free download on Ravelry (you can buy the Sinuosity pattern here). The yarn for that kit was in the stash, and I thought the cotton yarn in that muted colorway would work well for a patern call Summer Lovin'. The last kit is one I found in the stash while I was looking for the cotton yarn. I bought it (as a kit) when I was in Orlando last year.

If you want to buy some of Jeanne's yarn for yourself, her Etsy shop is here. If you're an OSU fan, the London colorway would be a good choice, btw.

Problem number two is this:



I'm making progress on the mermaid sock, but I'm starting to get very nervous about running out of yarn. Naturally, I only have 2 balls in that color, and it seems to be a seasonal colorway, because it's not on KnitPicks website right now. If I can get to the toe, I guess I could do that in a different color. The balls on the side are my options. Opinions? If I can't get to the toe, I guess I'll start emailing random people on Ravelry who have it in their stash and see if anyone's willing to part with it. Maybe I'll get lucky and find someone who has the same dye lot, too.

This is no longer a problem, thankfully. The view out my side door yesterday morning:



Note that you can see grass in the neighbor's yard, but there's a ~2 foot drift/ridge in the middle of my driveway. Thank goodness for the snow blower man!

I've made a little progress on the shawl, too.



I got those beads to go on the points on edge. I'm not 100% sure I like them, since I had something more blue/turquoise in mind. These will do if I can't find anything else,though. And maybe they'll grow on me between now and the time I actually need them. Which will surely be a while.

Thursday was Dear Jane night, and I did this:


J-ll, Twin Sisters

I updated my totals on the right. I'm only 4 blocks away from the Diamond Achievement level, so I'm kind of anxious to get those 4 blocks done. Not anxious enough for me to actually have done any work on Dear Jane this weekend, of course. I do have about half a dozen blocks re-prepped for hand work, though.

In addition to all that, I'm considering doing the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics. I haven't completely decided on my project yet. If I get the first Mermaid sock done, I might make my project the second sock. It would give me some incentive to get it done. I admit I'm feeling a touch of second sock syndrome on these. I'm not sure why. It's either that A) it looks a little wide to me (even though it seems to fit) B) the worry about running out of yarn is starting to paralyze me (which is stupid) or C) I have 18 shiny new sock kits calling out to me. My money's on C). If I don't get sock #1 done, my project will be a pair of fingerless mitts. Probably Fetching in that Road to China yarn. Of course, that will put me that much farther behind on the socks.

Max was my helper when I was digging through and counting my sock kits today.


"You don't really want put those kits back in here, do you, Mama?"