Sock saga

I am a bad crafter lately, or maybe an absent crafter. Am officially running out of hours in the day. My spinning has progressed to half the Dark Matter.



I have started the second half on a new bobbin and hopefully one day it will be finished and plied. The weather is turning distinctly chilly which means the knitting yen is returning (I tend not to knit much in Australia over summer as it's hot...also because this summer I learned to spin instead). But before I can make anything for myself I have to finish a pair of socks for my Dad and a shawl for someone else. Dad's socks are one of those projects that just won't grow, dammit, even though I don't mind the pattern. The yarn is one that's nicer once it's washed, so a bit scratchy to knit plus men's feet are loooooooooonnnnnnggggg, I keep managing to have needle disasters (aka slipping out of the wool or dropping stitches randomly which I don't usually do), last night I failed the heel in the pattern completely and am now substituting a different heel and really, the thought of the second one waiting to be knitted is not that appealing. But we shall persevere! Hopefully my horrible suspicion that I may run out of the main yarn will turn out to be wrong....

But I am calling them the Devil socks in my head...see they even refuse to photograph nicely.



There are also discussions being had with the new cat over knitting etiquette. She's pretty good with the spinning wheel, she watches it and occasionally tries to tap the yarn (especially if one stops and has a dangly bit) but mostly leaves it alone. But the knitting apparently is all Dangly! Wiggly! String! Mine! so we have extreme knitting with bonus random doses of cat pouncing at the moment. I'm hoping she'll lose interest eventually, the other two never really thought it that fascinating...Tabasco mostly minded that I didn't always let him sit in my lap while knitting. Anyone else got a project that just won't die?