Still Torn

I'm still torn over which white to use with my handspun. I've even gone as far as knitting up a bit of a cuff in each white. On top is Tosh Sock in Filtered Light and on bottom is Koigu in 0000. I'm worried the Filtered Light is too orange. Of course the flip side is that the Koigu might be too plain. Anyone have an opinion now that there are swatches to compare with the handspun?

I'd love to get going on this sock. Decisions, decisions. Until then, the only thing on my needles is Onopordum, which is terrible car knitting. I suppose this pattern isn't great care knitting either, but the idea is to knit the leg in one go, which would make the rest of the sock great car knitting.

Meanwhile I managed to weave in all the ends and block my Drogue. It's a beast of a shawl. I had to fold it in half to block it because I didn't have enough blocking boards.

Just to give some perspective as to how long it is, here is Scooter helping out. 

Which White Is Right

Much knitting has been occurring as of late. Drogue is practically knitting itself. I was making the Captain size, but have come to realize that I will run out of the main color a few rows short of the edging, so I will probably do the Boatswain edging instead.

Onopordum is making great strides too. Although like every other sock I have ever knitted, I had a rip a little out. I'm doing the color work portions on US size 1 needles and the plain bits on US size 0 needles. Guess who forgot to switch to the smaller needles when knitting the heel.

I'm looking into what my next project will be and honestly, I still desire color work socks. I've decided on Sheep May Safely Graze with my handspun Enchanted. The question is, which white do I go with? On the left side is plain white Koigu, which has a slightly cooler tone. On the right is a skein of Tosh Sock in the Filtered Light color way that is a warmer cream with speckles. Since I don't have enough handspun, I'm planning to do the cuff, her, and toe out of the white.

Is Filtered Light too busy for the already busy handspun? Or is the plain white too plain for such large areas of knitting. And before someone suggests to use both, I'd rather use one or the other. Opinions would be greatly appreciated.

The Mojo Returneth

And the winner is... Onopordum. I agonized over the color possibilities. I knew that I wanted my thistles to have purple flowers and light green leaves. But what to put around it all?

Searching every website imaginable to find a skein of Anzula Squishy in a grey that would match the black I had was a Sisyphean task. Things were too brown or too dark to have good contrast. I eventually determined that I wanted Onyx in Squishy. I also wanted to cast on immediately. So I did what I should have done to begin with: I dug into my stash. And I emerged with Baah! La Jolla in Grape Vine, Anzula Squishy in both Boysenberry and Spruce, and some leftover, now discontinued Miss Babs Windsor Sock in Vergris.

I'm pretty sure I love it. There is good contrast. The thistles look just the way I want. But I keep wondering if the dark green is a good choice. Does it have too much contrast? Or do I just need to knit more?

Of course it is completely unreasonable to have only 1 thing on the needles, especially a rather complicated color work sock. (I've just recently completed my Seadragonus socks and my Skews. Pictures to blogged in a bit.) So I cast on a second thing! This is the beginning of Drogue by Tygerknits. 

I knew that my knitting mojo had waned for quite some time, but I didn't realize how much until I started Drogue. I've regained that knitting compulsion. That feeling where you spend parts of your day dreaming about sitting down and knitting a specific pattern. That is Drogue for me.