A Mitten to the Rescue

If you've been crafting for a while, you've probably been where I am now - stuck.  My knitting came to a dead stop because of something so trivial, I hate to even bring it up.  However, since I brought it up, I may as well fill you in.

While putting my books in piles on the floor of the craft room, I came across a binder full of printed patterns  (I've had them since the 80s) that I planned to knit.  The one pattern I chose to start with were the Jewel Socks. The pattern is written for top-down, but when I read ahead, I came to these dreaded words 'break the yarn'.  Why would I want to break the yarn?  The pattern also calls for the use of several colors which means a lot of weaving in of ends which I. ain't. doing. Sorry, not sorry.

I tried the top down method, even broke the yarn, got frustrated by the heel construction and ripped the sock back.  I don't like to get 'aggie' (which means aggravated in the local vernacular) over something I know how to do and do regularly.

What ended up happening is that I knit the socks with Cascade Heritage sock in navy and some leftover yarn from a Gale's Art single sock blank in the Extreme 80 colorway, knit it toe up with an afterthought heel, and got this:

I adore this sock!  I used most of the sock blank on the one sock before I realized there was no way to squeeze a second sock out of it.  (Note to self: next time I use scraps to knit a sock, take the yarn out of the project bag to see how much got used).  My heart broke!  Here's a close up of the one lovely sock:

At a loss for what to do, I went to Instagram and asked knitters for advice and counsel, and the general consensus was to make a second sock with different yarn and learn love the difference.  So I found some leftover Expression Fiber Arts yarn in the Unicorn colorway and made the second sock:

Oy!  I am not happy.  Worse yet, I am frozen, can't go forward, can't go back.  I don't want this pair of socks, probably won't wear them and I don't know if I want to knit this pattern again because I don't want to be disappointed again.  What to do, what to do?!

I needed a moment, a palate cleanser and time to have a good think.   Is it in me to rock these socks?  Ummmm ... time to take a break.

So I found some skeins of Palette yarn from Knit Picks:

I have lots of it, 50 balls or more (likely more), and because it felts whether washed by hand or machine, it can only be something that doesn't go in a shoe.  What I found was the Mitten Garland Advent Calendar and decided that I had brain space to work on at least one mitten:

Yes, it's fair isle and fiddly;  I didn't even bother to capture the yarn in some cases, but its cute and it put some distance between me and those socks.  When it was done, a light bulb went on and I found this yarn in my stash:

Another ball of leftover Cascade Heritage sock yarn in black and Black Trillium Fibers in the Jack Dempsey colorway.

Now all I have to do is figure out where to put the other socks while I knit the socks that I will wear.

Thank you, mitten!