Of shoes--and ships--and yarn for socks

What is it about sock yarn? The greater number of them are so vibrant and colorful, it seems a little strange to me.
That is skein of Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn, in Deep Seaflower. Dream in Color carries some of the most beautiful colorways I have ever to behold, that I almost cannot believe that some people actually have the audacity to hide that beautiful thing in a pair of shoes. It deserves to be knit into something that everyone can SEE. Of course, I'm not one to wear multi-colored socks myself, so maybe that's where that comes from. I'm not really prone to wearing anything like this either:My latest WIP, Rainy Day Socks in Knit Pick's Swish SK, in Skyborne. This one's almost done, and I'm actually looking forward to the second one. Usually I dread having to do the second sock. That's most likely because it's DK weight sock, so it's a lot faster to knit than a regular fingering weight sock. That's a first to me, along with the whole magic loop thing. I find that I like the magic loop much more than dpns. I'll figure out why eventually. It's also the first time I've done a picot edge like that, and I think I've fallen in love with the effect. It's not for me, I'm not sure who will get these when I'm done. I have a few people in mind, but I'm not sure they're the sort to get any use out of them either.

Come to think of it, I've rarely knit anything that I've kept for myself. Which explains, with all the knitting that I do, why I only actually possess a few pieces here and there. The odd scarf, a stray hat. I only have one pair of socks knocking around, and that's only because I haven't given them to anyone yet. I'll get around to it.

Maybe this is just a phase. A strange quirk that I'll get over once I get it out of my system. A nice, simple, bare black sock. Take a breath, move on. Speaking of moving on...
I finished the Rangoli Hat. It is really much too small. Seriously. Alex (my roommate) was barely able to squeeze his head into it. If I knit another one, and I most likely will, I will be sure to knit it in a much larger gauge. It's the kind of rare thing I'd like to keep for myself. My hatred for cables is still present, but these aren't the gaudy overbearing cables that I actually hate. These are the more subtle kind, the kind I find I actually enjoy. The world needs more cables like that.