How I Am Tonight

As is often the case, when I don't feel well, Carlos is there to lend me comfort and aid. When I had cramps yesterday, he sat right on my lap, instead of next to me as he more usually does. Furry hot-water-bottle replacement.
He stretched out sideways so that he had to prop his paws up, but he didn't seem to mind. What a good boy.

Mind you, when I get a headache, I can't get him to drape himself over the back of my neck, but perhaps that will come in time. Yes, I got another migraine starting yesterday afternoon, damn the hormones. It had actually been a few weeks without a bad one, but this was bad enough that I had to ditch my plans for last night (which weren't exciting, but even networking would be preferable to pain) when I realized, freshly showered and half dressed, that I wasn't up to going out. Phooey.

It was better this morning, then slightly worse, then enough better that I was able to watch the Bruins (they won this afternoon over the Islanders, 6-3, yay), and go on to my evening plans, seeing Salmon Fishing in the Yemen with friends (and it was good, too). Right now my head doesn't hurt, but my neck is stiff and sore down into my shoulder blade, which I strongly hope is just the pain moving out, not the headache crawling back upstream.

I'm happy to report that my new slippers arrived safely yesterday. Can you guess which are the new ones and which the old?
I'll give you a hint: the dark bits inside the old ones are where the lining is completely worn away.
The new ones are, by size, slightly larger than the old, but there's so much cush in the cushion, they feel slightly smaller! It's amazing, the difference. I bounce a little as I walk.

I've been knitting, something to be revealed later, but full of wooly love. See?
X and O. Hugs and kisses. Made with sticks and string. Knitting is a miracle of its own, I think.

In Brief and In Pictures

I have a little bit of a headache tonight, roughly half of which is period-related and half is the Bruins losing in the shootout, so I'll be brief and picturesque tonight.

Let me tell you why you're wrong.

First of all, that is not what that word means.
Second, you woke me, and that's always wrong.

This is as close as I could get without spooking her out of the relaxed position. I really want to rub that belly, but she'd never let me get close enough.

Easter means Cadbury Mini Eggs. Perfect timing for the chocolate-requiring time of month!

Yeah, that's all. Good night!

Knitting, knitting, knitting

JLK note: This post contains baby item spoilers. Feel free to look, but if you want surprises, skip today!

In the end, I did wind sock yarn last night, as I came to the sudden realization that if I didn't, I would have no small knitting project to carry in my purse. No, this must not be! I got the next yarn from the on-deck circle, which is Sock Dream from the Periwinkle Sheep, I got it at Rhinebeck with Grandma's birthday money, and it is 80% merino, 10% nylon, and 10% cashmere. Mmmm! It feels so nice. This is my first time knitting with cashmere. So far, I like it!


The quick knit I alluded to yesterday was (is) a baby hat, using some of the leftover yarn from the baby surprise jacket. I still have to weave the ends in, but the knitting was done before bedtime.

Speaking of the baby surprise jacket, I went into Boston on Monday to get buttons at the wonderful Windsor Button shop, and the man at the counter was so helpful in finding just what I wanted. Here, pre-seaming and attaching:
He wasn't even phased when I started by saying I wanted four buttons, and then looked at the sweater and realized it was five. (You'd think I'd remember how many buttonholes I made, but apparently you'd be wrong.)

Ta-da! All done!

I'm quite happy with it. Unemployment has many sides, and not all are pleasant, but the increased knitting time certainly suits me.

As does getting enough sleep every night, instead of just on weekends. I'm rather afraid I'm getting used to it...

Of Socks and Socks

I finished the latest socks yesterday, two months after I started them (though I did plenty of other knitting over that period of time).

Yarn: my best beloved, Socks That Rock Lightweight.
Pattern: Claire (though I called them Do The Twist), by the same designer as my much-loved Skyp. The verdict? I liked this pattern just as much if not more.

And any time you start with 140 grams of yarn and have 5 left over, you're allowed to pat yourself on the back, even if you did have to frog and re-do to get to it.

I have to wind the yarn for the next socks and get them started, but in the meantime I did a little work on the Wingspan, and started something new (show you tomorrow).

In non-handmade sock news, I followed my friend's suggestion about getting walking socks to prevent blisters, and took myself to REI. Both amused and impressed by the vastness and specificity of their selection, I managed to refrain from getting hiking, trekking, or mountaineering socks.


Let's be real. Walking is more my style.
See that? "Protects against blisters" in bold, all caps. They must mean it!

I did also get some light hiking socks, since they felt similarly cushioned, and I wanted some shorter than the walking ones.

And I tried a pair of REI-brand walking socks.
Because they felt cushy, and are made from recycled plastic bottles. How do they do that?
These things are not cheap, but I saw a woman at the register whose bill was over $700, so there's that. I wonder what she was buying? All I saw was a shoe box. Maybe they were bringing a canoe around to her car.

Now, I'm off to knit and watch the Bruins. Take care of yourselves!

Living Before Blogging

Busy day, busy evening, finished socks, tired now, bedtime, more tomorrow!

If you'd like more than that now, watch this extreme cuteness. Good night!

The Span of My Wing II

You may recall the first Wingspan scarf I made from its Carlos-assisted photo shoot. I mentioned recently that I started another, and I wanted to show how it's going. I'm on the fifth triangle by now, but after three I took pictures, which give a pretty good idea.

It's heavier yarn, so it will be bigger than the first I made. A casual comparison showed it to be about a hand-span deeper, or longer. When I have a finished object, I'll be sure to photograph them together so you can see.

It's hard to see here, but I am using two different yarns (the Noro from Savers and the Iona from the crawl haul). The colors are amazingly alike! I guess that makes this shade of blue officially "my color".
In person, and in certain light, it's easier to see (and feel) the difference. Though both are aran weight according to Ravelry, the Iona is a more consistent thickness, while the Noro is more thick-and-thin. Other than that, they're pretty similar to work with. I'm looking forward to seeing how they each wash and block.

I did have a slight problem with the needle I'm using, which is a new one and a new brand to me. Knitter's Pride needles are reasonably priced and quite pretty. When I started knitting this, I was pleased with the smoothness of the needle and the pointiness of the tips. However, my yarn started to catch in one spot on the needle, and when I pushed the stitches aside I could see there was a snag spot. I wanted to finish the row before I looked at what I could do to fix it, but before the row ended, the repeated snags actually pulled a chip off the needle. Surprise!

You can see the size of the chip, and the location of the matching dip now on the needle.
All's well that ends well, however. I went over the spot with a nail file and then buffed it to smooth it out, and it's perfectly fine: perceptible, but smooth. As long as I don't have any more problems, I won't complain. (And if I do, I'll return the needle for replacement.) And away we knit!

When Being a Clutterbug Pays Off

Point number one: While I'm not a hoarder, I'm certainly a keeper, in the sense of wanting to keep things that might be useful or I might need later. I do fight this tendency, as one does not have unlimited storage space. Tactics with which I have had moderate success:

• I try to convince myself that unless something has sentimental value, or would be enormously difficult or expensive to replace, I don't need to always keep it.
  
• I create defined spaces that are for keeping certain things, so that I know where to put them and where to look for them and if I already have some. So if I find a good rubber band, it belongs in the little drawer with the tin foil and plastic wrap. If I go to put one in there and there are six already there, out it goes.
  

Point number two: Bargain-hunting tendencies to the contrary notwithstanding, when I find a thing that embodies the perfection of its use, I'm willing to pay more to have it, because it will satisfy me in a way that mere saving does not. Though sometimes one leads to the other, as when I bought slippers years ago at Building 19 because they were cheap, then loved the design so much that replacing them with other cheap slippers of different design was unsatisfying. I wore other slippers for some time, finding them unsatisfactory, and in recent months have gone back to the old ones, worn as they are. (I couldn't stand to throw them out, even when I bought others.)

The problem was that I didn't know what brand the good slippers were, so I couldn't replace them even at a higher price. I tried to find similar ones online, but the most likely suspects (Lands End, LL Bean, Eddie Bauer) didn't have the right ones. Frustrating.

Then we come to today. I had one of my rare urges to clear up clutter, so I started dealing with the desk/clutter space--the one in the kitchen, not the one in the office with the computer. Some of the items on the kitchen desk are valid (a bin of gloves and scarves, a little CD player, stamps and envelopes), but over time things get put there and things get put on top of them and, well, it was a precarious mess. But I started working on it, recycling much paper, and do you know what I found?

A page ripped from a catalog I don't remember getting, a company I barely recognize the name of, that was sent to my old address so it's from 2006 or earlier--a page with the exact slipper I wanted.

High enough to be warm, but not so high that I can't step into them without sitting or using my hands to pull them on. Solid sole, so I can take the trash out without fearing damp. Soft warm lining!

I went to the website, and they still make it (the price went up, of course).

I found a coupon code online for free shipping plus ten percent off.

Do you hear that? That's the angels singing.

A few further notes:

• Yes, I have cleaned off that desk in the last five years. But not, apparently, the file folder that page was in.
  
• I'm not using this as a reason to not throw things out going forward. But it's certainly a nice reward for the cleaning today. I think I've gotten slightly better, even in the last 5 years, at both not keeping things, and recognizing and obtaining things that are important to me, so the same situation is unlikely to come up anyway. And I do like things tidy ... though you'd certainly never guess that by looking around here.

Hmmm. I think I've lost track of my own argument here. Here, look at the cat instead!

Smiley boy.

P.S. This is my 1500th post. Doesn't that sound like a lot?

The Perfect Solution

So I was reading earlier today that the University of North Dakota's hockey team can't use its nickname during the NCAA tournament, because the NCAA finds "Fighting Sioux" to be politically incorrect. On the other hand, the state of North Dakota has a law that the team must have that nickname, so it seems they can't just change it. (They were actually changing it last year, apparently, but who knows what happened there.) Thus the team is being identified by school, and not the nickname, during the tournament, which to me draws more attention to the whole thing than if the NCAA had just left it alone.

BUT! If you're asking why I'm bringing up a convoluted college hockey issue that I don't even fully understand, it's to share this: someone on one of the Puck Daddy Yahoo boards commented, "I hope they come out with 'Fighting Sue' across the front of the jerseys." YES! Perfect!

(By the way, if you clicked on that last link and found yourself squinting sideways at the top photo, trying to figure out which end was up on the SWAT member dropping the puck, there's a much clearer photo here. You're welcome.)

Will I Make It?

Spoiler: I'm talking about hockey. I know, the title could refer to many other things: Will I make it through unemployment to a new job? Will I make it through the day when these fantastic summer temperatures fade away? Will I make it to the toe of the sock any time soon, or completely derail on the second Wingspan?

But no, I'm talking about hockey. Specifically, tonight's Bruins game, which starts--starts!--at 10:30. These West Coast road trips! Bruins games are generally done by ten (home games start at 7, road games in this time zone sometimes at 7:30), not just getting ready to go.

Complicating the situation is that, first, I was up a bit late last night (went to a friend's stitch and bitch, had a great time, got to hold her four-and-a-half-month-old grandson, it was great), then had to get up this morning to go to an unemployment thing* at the career center, so I'm not starting as well rested as I would like.
*The kind of thing one sometimes has to attend in order to keep getting unemployment.

Aside: It was depressing. The first meeting I had to go to wasn't so bad, but this one didn't strike me as well (and it's the same woman, so it isn't that). I got there early but she was late; she was wearing a chunky bracelet that jangled every time she gestured, which was near-constant; to stress the idea of being organized (and keeping track of where you send resumes, when, to who, when to follow up, and responses received), she mentioned that if you send out 80 resumes in two months, it's hard to remember the details. Eighty resumes?! How many proofreader/editor positions does she think are out there? Not that many, trust me, nothing close. But if she thinks that's a reasonable amount.... jeez. I walked out feeling like I'm never going to get a job.

End aside. Remember, I was talking about hockey! Perhaps I was grumpy because I'm out of the habit of being tired. What do you think: will I make it through the game? It would finish around one, which is later than I usually stay up, but I have done it before ... I just don't know.

Or, if you don't care to theorize on that, what other topics could that title refer to?

Books I Didn't Buy

Which is your favorite title?

Updates, All Sorts

Health Update: I am feeling a lot better than I have been recently. I still have some extra congestion, and since this started two weeks ago, perhaps it really is allergies and not a cold, but whatever the reason, I'm not coughing much, and only needing cough drops when my throat gets dry.

Walking Update: Like when I go for a walk, which I did yesterday and again today. I always tuck a tissue in my pocket when I go for a walk, but these days I need cough drops, too. Also, my feet are very unhappy tonight, sore and almost blistery on the balls of my feet. What kind of super-smooth socks do I need for walking in? Distances of two or three miles shouldn't leave me hobbling. I've tried a couple of different sock types, not just my hand-knits, but it's not working. Maybe I should ask in a sporting goods store.

Weather Update: I don't regret it even so, for we are having ridiculously good weather here these days, and one simply must get out in it! As in, around 80 yesterday and today, and forecast for more of the same tomorrow and Thursday. I love it! Now, it's dropping after that, as you can see by the 10-day forecast:
But no one in their right mind* could complain about this nice weather in March.
*By which I mean, of a like mind to me. I know there are people who find this too warm, or unnatural, or something. I don't care, they're crazy, I love it!

Coffee Update: A couple of days ago, I thought my morning coffee tasted a bit funny. I was trying a new flavor, so the next morning I tried the old kind, and something was still off. I looked at the ingredient list of the cocoa I just bought. It's the same kind I've been using, plain old Swiss Miss, but [danger, danger!] it's New & Improved! And do you know what it has now? Sucralose. I swear I can taste that in anything, and not in a good way. Ugh. Waste of money, and of cocoa unless I can find someone who wants it. Yuck. I bought more cocoa today, store brand, checked the ingredient list carefully first. We'll see how that tastes. So complicated, isn't it?

Knitting Update: I managed to go ten days from finishing the Wingspan scarf with only my socks to knit on. In a strange corollary, I've made terrific progress on the socks. Go figure! The first one is done, the second past the heel and moving along the foot. Tonight, though, the lure of all this fabulous new yarn was too much for me. I've just cast on another Wingspan, this one to be larger due to using a heavier yarn. Two yarns, in fact, as I'm planning to alternate triangles of the Noro Cash Iroha and the Colinette Iona that have made a home with me recently. We shall see if the reality works as well as it does in my head.

Cat Update: Carlos continues to be super-cute. He has enjoyed having more open windows the last few days, since apparently things smell different out of the others than his usual window. Or something.

It's a cat thing. You wouldn't understand.

Here I Am! A hockey note, and knitter stuff

Through two periods tonight, the Maple Leafs had seven shots, and the Bruins had seven goals*. Excuse me while I snigger happily at the return of the team I so enjoyed watching a few months back. Long may they reign.
*The final score was 8-0, ahhhh. And Timmy had to make all of 13 saves for the shutout.

Meanwhile, I promised pictures of my purchases from the Yarn Crawl on Saturday, and here I am to oblige!

First up, the project bag from A Loom With a View:

It's bigger at one end than the other, a construction that happily reminds me of the Tardis (which is famously bigger on the inside than the outside).
Here it displays the next purchase, a skein of Ella Rae Lace Merino in enchanting colors and of exquisite softness, such that it surprises me to see only wool on the label, not cashmere or silk. Mmmm.

Then the deeply discounted Iona, in all its lovely blueness.
I am dying to cast this on ... but I'm making such good progress on the sock without distraction, I will hold off as long as I can.

There was one more yarn to come home with me, though not a purchase. When the line at Coveted Yarn got long, they passed out apologetic yarn. They certainly know how to keep knitters happy! This is a fun and funky yarn, and the pattern to make a market bag with it.


Not something I'd have bought, probably, but looks like it will be fun to play with!

And that's that, assuming that pictures of a circular knitting needle and cable needles don't make your skirt fly up. A good little haul!

Eight yarn stores in one day

Eight yarn stores in one day! It's madness! Madness, I tell you!

Or, it's the North Shore Yarn Crawl, an event I enjoyed last year and the year before. There are actually twelve stores involved, but even eight is pushing it in one day. As I said to a woman at one store, all I want is unlimited time, money, and storage space; is that so much to ask?

I went with two knitting friends, and we did all agree, at the end of the day, that it was a bit too much. Next year we hope to apply a little more focus. Of course, it isn't always all the same stores from year to year (and new stores are an extra temptation), but in the three years I've gone, the change has not been great. Hopefully, we will be able to be strong and restrained. (I believe I had the same hope after last year; perhaps this time it will sink in.)

The Eight, in the order visited:

• A Loom With a View, in Newburyport. My first visit to this store, and I'll be honest, it's the farthest away and thus unlikely to be a frequent destination for me. That said, it was a very nice store, the people were very pleasant, and I would be happy to go again if I were in the neighborhood. I bought a nice project bag there (photos of all purchases to come).
• Loom'N Shuttle in Ipswich. Hit this one last year; it's the one that's half yarn and half fabric (and mysteriously, no sign of a loom). Perfectly nice, but nothing I feel the need to re-visit next year.
• Village Stitchery in Topsfield. I quite like this one, which we also visited last year (aide-mémoire: it's the one in the corner of the strip mall). I wouldn't feel deprived to miss it next year, but I have nothing against going again. My purchase there was a lovely, soft, blue-green skein of Ella Rae Lace Merino. Socks? Maybe. Another Wingspan, perhaps? Maybe.
• Cranberry Fiber Arts in South Hamilton. To quote myself, "I quite like this one, which we also visited last year... I wouldn't feel deprived to miss it next year, but I have nothing against going again." (Aide-mémoire: it's the one with rooms and rooms linked together.) I bought a set of three cable needles.
  
• After lunch (mmmm), we visited the Mother Ship: Coveted Yarn in Gloucester. This was my favorite LYS two years ago, on my first Crawl, and it remains so. I love it, if it was closer I'd be there all the time, and it's probably a good thing that I'm this far away! They keep expanding: last year they'd added another room, this year there was yet another, and they are planning more into the space next door. Soon it will rival Webs for space! They have great sales for the Crawl, the people are great, and I will be going next year and every year. The Winner! My purchase there, other than a long circular needle, was 3 skeins of a Welsh yarn, Iona from Colinette, which was lovely soft, lovely blue, and an extra-lovely 45% off. I got three skeins because that was what they had. Ahhhh.
• Pity the yarn shop that follows that stop! Actually, two, since The Knit Stitch and Creative Yarns are just down the street from each other, in Beverly. The former opened after last year's crawl, while the latter had just opened in time for it. Both are nice, but probably won't make the cut next year.
• Finally, we made a quick stop at Another Yarn, a new shop in Winchester. It's very nice, big, and promising. I like that they have a huge table for groups or classes, and other seating ... but there's a lot of empty space in the middle that I assume will have something more at some point. (They've only been open a few months, so I'm not throwing stones, just saying.) It's close enough that I can check on them before next year's crawl (and see the store when I'm not wiped out at the end of a long day).
  

Whew! No wonder I came home weary and a little headachy.

The Other Four:

• Two of the closest stores, Butterfly Yarns in Wakefield and Sit 'n Knit in Melrose, we bypassed through having been to before. They are both nice stores, not huge but decent selections, nice people ... you just have to draw the line somewhere.
• Yarns in the Farms, in Beverly Farms. I saw this one in 2010, we hit it at a busy time, it's not big, and I got a little claustrophobic. Nothing personal, YitF!
• Seed Stitch in Salem. We just ran out of time. Next year for sure! If not before. I remember liking it in 2010, and would like to see it again.
  

So! The Bruins pulled out a shoot-out win this afternoon (deo gratias), I'm tired (not so much news, is it?), my head hurts a bit (ditto), and I'm going to get some dinner. Happy Saint Patty's, and happy Saturday night!

Hockey, Brief Health Gross-Out, Then Yarn

Sometimes you read something that's so bad, it's truly funny.

The local sportsradio station WEEI has a blog for the Bruins, called the Big Bad Blog after the Bruins' nickname of the 70s (they were referred to as the Big Bad Bruins in those days). After each game, they post about it, summing things up under the headings WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE BRUINS and WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE BRUINS. As you can imagine, these days there's been far more wrong than right, and after last night's game, they got straight to the point, listing several wrongs before getting to the heart of it:

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE BRUINS

– The months of November and December.

Exactly! Ow, but funny just the same.

*****
I am so, so congested. And while I know that when these things become (ahem) "productive" that's a good thing, in the "better out than in" sense, it is so amazingly disgusting, I can hardly express. And that's all I'll say about that, except that I was thinking today of fashioning a belt of some sort that would have a box of tissues on one side and a trash bag on the other, so I would have the needed supplies at hand at all times.

*****
I have another yarn-bargain to report. Like last time, it was at Savers, and can I say that I've never before found good yarn at Savers? When I've looked, there's either been nothing, or nothing but basic crap. But I found alpaca last time, and this time? Well.

Four pretty skeins. This picture is a little lighter than they look in person, but it's a very nice blue, and you know how I am about blue.


They were individually bagged, and at $2.99 each, not the super-deal that I got last time, two skeins for only 99¢. But I saw this label peeking out:
Noro, if you're not aware, is a Japanese company renowned for their wonderful colors. I haven't worked with Noro before, since I find their wools very scratchy. In this case, though, I saw from the other side of the label that this type, a discontinued line called Cash Irona, might be different.
Can you read that? It's 30% wool, 10% nylon, 40% silk, and 20% cashmere.

Whoa.

This photo is probably the best for color. I just wish you could touch it. Not scratchy in the least.

So, what shall I do with 400 yards of aran-weight yarn? That's just shy of bulky. Any ideas?

Wow. Just, Wow.

If you missed it, I did blog this morning after missing yesterday, but here's a quickie. I ask you, have you ever wondered what the Imperial Death March/Star Wars music would sound like on the bagpipes? Played by a person in a Darth Vader mask? Riding a unicycle?

If you say yes, I call you a liar, but I like you anyway. Watch:


Words fail me. In the best way.

The Health Details Get a Little Gross; Then Yarn!

(Yes, I do have to talk about the gross stuff. Feel free to skip below the line of stars for safe yarn talk.)

Sorry to have missed posting yesterday. Most of my thoughts revolved around how bloody sick I am of this throat/coughing thing. Then I got a bit of a headache in the afternoon, which fortunately subsided enough to allow me to go out and meet some knitters in the evening, but then got bad again after I got home (what's up with that?). I got to sleep, but was awake around 2AM with the throat/cough, headache, and upset stomach making me truly miserable, particularly since every coughing fit triggered intense head pain. This morning, medication has tamed it at least temporarily, though I'm carrying a tissue with me and the cats are being treated to a regular chorus of cough-cough-hack-spit, "gross-gross-gross!" from me. Unbelievably disgusting.

You're welcome.

***************
Back in January, I posted about some mystery yarn, and I don't think I ever updated. Remember this?

I took it in to stitch and bitch, where two of my fellow knitters were of the opinion that it might be Manos, which is a reputable brand I'd heard of but never worked with. "Interesting!", I thought, then promptly put the yarn aside and forgot all about it.

Until I was in a yarn store last week (where, in an amazing feat of willpower, I did not buy anything), and saw this:
Looks startlingly similar! Enough that I put it on my Ravelry stash page thusly.

And, mother? That would mean that the retail value of what you brought is about $65. Quite a deal!

Knitting Fantasy Land

The Bruins are sucking tonight; after the first period, the radio guys were agreeing that it was a new low.

I'm still coughing; I went to the movies and instead of popcorn, I had cough drops.

So! Let's talk about knitting and pretend the other things aren't happening! Here we go:

Welcome To Knitting Fantasy Land!

There are two items to discuss in KFL this week: the Wingspan scarf, and the sock-in-progress.

I haven't washed-and-blocked the scarf yet, but the knitting is finished. It took just over a week, and I enjoyed it immensely: nice simple pattern, fun result. In the end, I didn't have quite enough yarn for the final rows (as I would have had if I'd stopped after eight triangles instead of nine), but I like how it looks anyway. I laid it out for a photo shoot, and look, I had help!

Hmm, what's this?

Okay, I'm ready!

Blocking what?

What could be cuter than me?

I did manage to get one feline-free shot. You can see on the left how much yarn remained.

A year ago, I was using this yarn to make socks, and the first one was too small, so I sadly ripped it out. (I also tried a shawl pattern that immediately got put aside.) Before I ripped, though, I was much puzzled at how dark the sock seemed to be coming out. If you go back to the skein, you can see that it had quite a bit of yellow:
but in the sock, not so much.
I found this very puzzling. Now, I am validated. If you look at the Wingspan, you see that one end has a fair bit of yellow:
And the other doesn't! The inside of the skein is markedly different. Ah-ha! I was not imagining things. How comforting.

Where did the thing go? I wasn't done playing with it.

Now the sock. This is the one I asked for opinions on last week. It was done to here, but I was running low on yarn. (This photo also shows why really dark jeans are not a good idea around my house, in case you were wondering why I tend to choose the lighter washes.)

I thought Leslie's idea of finishing the toe with other sock yarn was an excellent one, and knit on for a bit, but then I had second thoughts (or, by this time, ninth thoughts) and on Saturday evening I paused again. I contemplated ... and while I was looking things over, I saw the peril of sock yarn with really good stitch definition.
See that?

It's not the lighter stitch that's the problem, it's that the line breaks just below it. That should be a straight line, but it shimmies. I seem to have messed up my decreases on the beach. It's not a deal-breaker in itself--my feeling about perfection in socks is that they're just going to end up on my feet anyway--but in this case, where I was already thinking of frogging, it tipped the balance.

So, back past the heel and removed ten rows (two pattern repeats) from the leg for some extra yarn.

And by Sunday afternoon, I was back past the heel.

I have since finished the decreases (I think they look better this time, but to be honest I haven't examined it too closely), and am close to back where I was when I frogged. It's amazing how quickly it goes when I'm not working on something else! I am strenuously resisting the urge to cast on another Wingspan, though I very much want to. Different colors! Longer rows? Heavier yarn? The possibilities are endless! Who wants one for Christmas?