Cathy

you find yourself asking 'how do I represent Lan Wangji in the form of a sock?' and then when you determine that your skein of sock yarn is not the right color for Lan Wangji anyways, you realize that 'navy blue and sparkly' is kind of perfect for Zhao Yunlan and start working out how to knit a motif that will come across as a lollipop... and then at the same time you come up with a perfect way to do one for Heipaoshi and also mild-mannered professor Shen Wei and snake shifter Zhu Hong...

...I guess what I'm saying is 'watch this space for a SID-related sock collection, just keep in mind that I'm a slow knitter who has never designed a sock before. :)'

(also have not gotten inspired for Da Qing, Lao Chu or Xiao Guo yet, and I only have vague thoughts for Lin Jing... but I'm sure my brain will barf something up.)

(Yunlan is waffle stitch - practical, comfortable, warm and squishy - with "lollipop" cable panels interspersed. Heipaoshi is black yarn, mostly traveling stitches but with a lace panel down the front that tapers off to a 'lollipop' on the top of the foot. Shen Wei is navy blue and white ribbed stripes, with some of the white stripes wrapped with the navy blue, assuming I can knit that. :) Zhu Hong - red, cables spiral up the leg. Lin Jing needs sparkly yarn and possibly something steampunky as far as a motif goes. If I publish patterns, which I may or may not, they are going to have to incorporate design elements for calf shaping, because my calves are definitely not cylinders.)

I do regularly boggle at the number of traditionally feminine crafts that involve pointy things, and often repeated stabbing motions. (Needle felting. If you're really stabby, the craft you want is needle felting.)

I didn't feel like needle felting, though. So the other night when the alternative was throwing all the dishes to the ground and smashing them, I cast on a project that's been in my Rav queue since 2013 (Nikol Lohr's "Jane Eyre" shawl, from Literary Knits, which has two other shawls I would love to make (*), assuming I ever become the kind of person to wear shawls; OTOH I am the kind of person who likes to knit shawls so maybe what I need is a shawl-wearing friend...) with some yarn that's been in my stash for even longer than that (Madelinetosh 80/10/10 MCN Worsted, colorway 'Ink' - think the darkest possible jeans with the teeniest bit of distress).

This pattern does hit the perfect "shawl to wear when one traipses about the moors" spot that is kind of my platonic ideal of knitwear. My next project might be to find a moor to traipse about - I have friends in Yorkshire and Scotland? I think there are moors there? - and knit more things to wear while traipsing (aran or Fair Isle sweater? knee-high socks?) while arranging to go there.

I've made about half the gauge swatch and I seem to be... close? we'll have to see what happens to the swatch after I finish and wash it. Also I hopefully have more yarn than I need but I don't always trust.

(*) I mean look at that first shawl, "Emma" - it's literary nerdery and science nerdery and a cool shawl construction? but red is the wrong color for it; it needs to be either the color of Scheele's Green, or the blue-violet color of arsenic in a flame test...