At loose ends

Often, I find that after a big, focused push on a knitting project, once it's all done, I'm kind of at a loss to know what to do next.

Such was definitely the case after my Knitting Olympics/Ravelymics success. I woke up the next morning and went: "Ummm...hm. What the hell is there to knit now?"

(Notice how easily I ignore all the WIPs currently taking up embarrassing amounts of space in my home, or the design projects it would behoove me to make some progress on. Sometimes the choice of knitting projects is purely emotional, dammit.)

Fortunately, just as I was about to hit critical knitting depression, a co-worker had a baby. PERFECT! I got to work knitting some really cute little socks out of some Patons Kroy I'd bought for the purpose of prototyping sock patterns, in the colour "silverfox". (Neutral, but very nice.) I really like them. The pattern could use a bit of tweaking (I've already cast on for the second pair, to which I will apply the tweak I have in mind), but I'm quite happy with it.

Unfortunately, as cute as these socks are, I can't show them to you. :( As I'm hoping to publish them, they have to remain secret for the time being. However, said co-worker was very touched to receive them, and apparently they fit his newborn baby perfectly. Success!

However, this week I was seriously sidetracked when the Spring/Summer issue of Knitty came out. Have you seen it? I'm going to do a little review of the patterns I liked best, but the one that grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, shook me like a rag doll and screamed "MAKE ME! MAKE LOTS OF ME!" was Duck. This is a pattern for baby slippers/socks which look like duck feet. I think they are hilariously wonderful and cannot begin to describe how much I love them. The stash is unfortunately rather low on yellow or orange sock-weight yarn, so I had to use some leftover red instead, which still looks good:

Don't know who they're going to be for, and don't really care. Also, my almost-seven-year-old-daughter has asked for a pair for herself. It doesn't come in child size, but I did a bunch of math last night and figured out that using the same instructions with a gauge of about 19.5 stitches per 4" will get me the results I need. (Her foot is 7 3/8" long.) If you want to make Duck bigger, maybe that'll help you.

Quack.