Unfortunate beginnings, and sock ideas

It's been less than a day, you say. How can things possibly have gone wrong?

Remember those Jaywalkers from yesterday? In a fit of frustration, after noticing a particularly stupid error ten rows back, I frogged them. Attempts to use crochet hooks to fix things several rows back almost always end in disaster for me. Trust me. It was better this way. I wasn't a big fan of the lack of stretchiness in the pattern anyway.

In the end, I successfully resisted the temptation to cast on for another sock immediately, bringing my WIP count down by one, but there's still the problem of that ball of yarn that's still in my stash, and now probably has all kind of bad knitterly mojo all over it.

Now, to be perfectly honest, it is not entirely my fault that I didn't cast on for another pair immediately. No, the fault lies with Dave, whose awesome Basketcase socks are designed to be knit with DK weight yarn. I wasn't entirely confident in my pattern-revising skills (or in my pattern-following skills, for that matter), so I put the yarn back in the drawer. I was, however, inspired to think about some patterns I want to knit.

Episode I: Socks

They warned me, when I started knitting socks, that they were addictive. They were right. I love socks because they're so portable, so easy to shove into a bookbag and take to class. I also love them because the muggles and fledgling knitters sitting around watching me knit always think they're so impressive. Inevitably, I'm stopped by someone who's stunned by my knitterly prowess- new knitters wearing fun fur scarves, 80-year-old men who want to know how you shape a heel, ignorant crocheters who tremble at the thought of wielding five needles at once. I feel terribly smart when I'm knitting socks.

The problem, though, is that they've gotten a little monotonous. I used to be fascinated by the different colors that came out in self-striping and variegated yarns, but apparently I've wised up a little. I've done DPNs and I've done Magic Loop. I've thrown cables down the side. I've done about everything I can think of to make the standard sock recipe more interesting, but in the end, it's still ribbing-flap-gusset-foot-toe, with the brief excitement of turning the heel in the middle. (If I could knit heels by themselves, I would be a happy knitter.)

So here's a list of new things- techniques and patterns- I want to try for socks. Hopefully it will make me more eager to work through my sock yarn collection. (And maybe some of the other stuff- worsted weight socks, anyone?)

• Basketcase socks
  
• 2-at-once socks (flap heel variation)
  
• Arrrgyles (or Arcrgyle-inspired variation)
  
• Lacy socks of some kind
  
• Baby socks (to eliminate the sock-yarn leftovers)

I'm also keeping a weather eye out for alternate uses for sock yarn leftovers, like knitting stuffed animals (or stuffing stuffed animals, which would take less time, I would think).