Turned the heel and did the gussets on the first Missoni sock. And you know, as I was working on it, I thought, "The Manolo, he would have something to say about the color combination in this."

I'm still kind of disappointed - it looked so FUN in the skein but is just kind of a mess knit up. I keep going, hoping it will resolve itself into something less ugly, but I just don't know. I guess this was kind of an Emperor's New Clothes sort of thing: "Oh, look, a famous European designer is designing sock yarn. Won't that be cool!" Um, no.

I may toss these in the Dulaan box when they're done. It's ok to send something that's warm even if it's ugly, isn't it?

I also gave in and ordered some more yarn from KnitPicks. Did you know they have a couple new sock yarns out? You can't get to them by doing a "search" for fingering weight yarns (guess they're not linked there yet) but if you look at "all the yarns," there they are. There's a cotton/wool blend (named after various dances - I bought "Tap" and "Swing") and also one called "Happy Memories" or summat like.

I also ordered the laceweight alpaca in the "Tidepool" color because it's exactly the color I want for the Needlebeetle "Dragonflies and Water Lilies" stole. I don't usually do patterns in the same (or similar) color to what the designer chose, but in this case I can't really "see" it working as well in any other color.

I also ordered the handpainted laceweight in the Autumn Leaves color, to someday be a Wool Peddler's Shawl (from Folk Shawls).

Finally, I just have to vent/rant a little:

I am so sick of people who are demanding.
I am so sick of people who are never grateful for anything that's done for them.
I am about to GO OFF ON the next person who says something like "Oh, I don't like that..." or "Why didn't you...." when they haven't lifted a FINGER to do anything and you've done it all.

There should be a fable, kind of like the Little Red Hen (where she did all the work and when her moochy friends show up, wanting a piece of the bread she made, she refuses them, because after all, she did grow the grain all by herself, grind the grain all by herself, mix the bread all by herself, make the fire in the big old unreliable wood-burning oven all by herself, knead the bread all by herself, and spend the whole day in the kitchen all by herself). But this one would involve an animal that is always doing things for other animals, and the others can only sit by and say what isn't exactly perfect about what the first animal did, or how they really like sandwiches better than soup, or some such thing, until the first animal that has been working its paws to the bone, says "Okay, fine. If you know how better to do it, then do it yourself." and that animal takes off its apron, stalks out the door, and walks home, and all the other animals sit there and starve because they are all too lazy to lift a finger to do for themselves, and they irretrievably pissed off the animal that was helping them.

I don't know. I'm kind of envisioning the first animal as a fox or a marten, something like that, and all the others as an assortment of woodland animals - rabbits and skunks and squirrels (they'd be very good at criticizing, the squirrels). Maybe there needs to be a book called something like "Aesop for Our Times" and have parables like this one, or the story of the Rabbit that Had To Defend His Job from Being Downsized, or the story of What Happened to the Squirrel who Overindulged her Children.