Guilty knitting

All knitting is productive in some way, so there is no reason for any of it to produce guilt.

But these socks are managing just fine.

There are two reasons for that.  Let's open door number one.

This colour combo doesn't actually match anything I have.  Even this one scarf I wanted to take on holiday - some of the colours are right, but the greens (in person, trust me) are SO wrong.  Probably I will wear the two together anyway because there is an appreciable distance between my neck and my ankles, but given that the current sock priority is Socks That Match Scarves, this particular pair were supposed to be pretty low on the knit list.

Door number two is all about the purple.  The friend for whom I knit the purple neckwarmer at Christmas loves purple SO MUCH.

When we go Urban Hiking together - this is a much better way to look at 'shopping', by the way, implying as it does that there is exercise and time in the great outdoors going on, which is true if your destinations are not all connected within a mall - she will stop for anything that is purple.  In fact, she wears purple almost exclusively, and let me tell you, it is quite amazing to me how many things one can buy in this colour (that are not already-handknit socks.) 

Also: she takes my shoe size, which means she takes my sock size, and given how much we Urban Hike together and how well I know that handknit socks are better for hiking than anything you can buy I should totally be knitting her a pair of socks.

Did you notice?  Not just one, but two shades of purple.  Plus a blue that would totally go with jeans.

so. much. guilt.

Because you know I am not going to knit these socks and give them away, even to her.  Unlike Certain Readers (you know who you are) I just can't bring myself to give away a pair of Vespers.  I mean, Lannie has a pair from not quite four years ago, and doesn't that take care of my obligation for Vesper-related generosity?  No?

I don't really think so either.  So here is how I can live with myself:

1/ I am 99% sure my friend the Purple Monster would rather have a pair of socks that are just purple.

2/ She would probably much more love a nice pair of purple socks from Biscotte, whose gorgeous semisolid Felix yarn - in Lavendar, maybe? - is available all the time and not as a limited edition thing.

3/ Felix is a super fun yarn to knit with - so soft, and so lustrous.

There.  Pretty convincing, right?  Except I still feel guilty, which has led to superfast knitting even in improbable situations (dark movie theatres, by feel) and results that can't help but look like A Sign.

Yes.  After managing to get through all of the gusset decreases perfectly in the dark, I added a random stitch and put in a good 90+minutes of perfect movie knitting with it in place.  GAH.

and might I add, rip, rip, rip.

This looks better, doesn't it:

And this looks better still!

Okay: time to get back to our knitting - I wanna finish these babies and put them out of my mind.  Have a great weekend, and I'll see you Monday.