In Which the Pirate Parenthetically Plans for Travel.

I have a conundrum:

I have a sock in progress (the Stripy Striped Kureyon Sock, sock) that I really, really don’t like working on. The yarn annoys me, and I can only work with it for so long before my hands hurt. And I have a sock in progress (the Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey sock) that doesn’t travel particularly well; the yarnball collapses and tangles.

I am going to New York for Thanksgiving weekend and I want to bring a sock with me, because I know there will be times that I will really, really want to knit (see: visiting Pirate-Husband’s mother on Saturday afternoon).

I do love starting new projects. (A lot!) But I also know that I have three baby sweaters and a colourwork hat to knit in my very near future, and so if I start a sock it will be a long time before it’s done, because I’ll have to put it aside to finish the deadline stuff. On the other hand, it could be the new Traveling Sock.

So, dear readers, what do I do? (I am wishy-washy.) Do I take the Stripy Sock, which hurts my hands but which will be fantabulous when it’s finally done? Do I bring the Wibbly-Wobbly sock, which I enjoy working on but the yarn tangles up? Or do I start something new, knowing that I won’t be finishing it any time soon?

And if I start something new, what should it be? The next few (plain-ish) socks in my queue are No-Purl, Unholey Monkeys, the Riverbed master pattern from Cat Bordhi’s book of crazy sockitectures, Wendy Johnson’s Toe-Up, Gusset Heel pattern, a stockinette sock for Pirate-Husband in tiger-stripes… or my own next sock design. (All of those links go to Ravelry pattern pages.) I want something I won’t have to think about while I work on it, so I can keep up a conversation without referring to a pattern in my lap.