home stretch

So begins my last full week of classes as an undergrad.

HURRAY!!

This explains the sparsity of postage. I'm almost done with Sock #2. Oh well. I'm about to become a real grownup and have a 9-5 and no homework so I can play with yarn more.

Which is good, because I have a few skeins to play with but no clue what to do with them, exactly. I mean, holy crap, it's nothing like this lady's stash, being that I'm not yet a real grownup with an income or way to support a yarn habit (sigh). I find I feel guilty if I don't just buy per project. And this is such a small group of ball-age/cake-age that I feel like I should know what it's all destined to become.

First up, we have:

Gems Opal merino. 225 yds of sock destiny.

Color: Sandalwood. Okay.

And then there's its buddy,

who got a little messed up on the ball winder (it was the distracted yarn lady's fault, I swear). This is Gems Opal, too. Sage.

A little inverted stripey action, anyone?

And then there's the ever-lovely Schaefer Anne:

Mmmm. Let's see that again.

This is some hand-painted merino superwash/mohair/nylon and though I love love love my feet, I cannot bring myself to wear socks of this. Too beautiful. Must not be hidden by shoes of any sort. The greens *pop* and oh! how I wish they would in pictures. There are 560 yds here for me to play with, at 7-8 sts an inch. Hmm. Lacy something?

And then finally, the bane of my existence:


So labelled because like the absentminded dork I so frequently become, I neglected to ask the yarn lady to wind it for me. There are 665 yards in that sucker. I got home and absolutely could not WAIT to play with it. So, with the yarn store closed for the night, I ended up spending 2+ hours winding the whole damn thing into a ball myself.

Do you know how many knots you can get in an amateur-ly-wound heap of 665 yards of superfine alpaca?

Right. It's 100% natural, undyed alpaca from the Andes. It's, like, 6 sts an inch on 3's or something. It's fine. And alpaca has just enough of its own texture to not obey cables or any textural work too well.

665 yards. Hm. Enough for a substantial conundrum.

What's stopping me from diving headlong into these babies? Last week of classes... senior paper to end all senior papers.... So close, and yet--