A pair of not-so-attractive socks

I cast these socks on back in February and they became my 'upstairs' project.

The yarn's some of my handspun, from a 'bump' of a merino/bamboo blend that I bought from World of Wool.  There was nothing wrong with the fibre - it was nice to spin, but I should have thought more about how I was spinning it.  The colours have merged into a bit of a 'meurgh' heathery yarn with bits of bottle green and bright pink here and there.  That's why the yarn's become socks.

A close-up of the colours

These socks should, really have been a disaster.  The yarn's a sport-weight and I thought I'd cast on using my 2.75mm circular.  I was more than halfway up the foot of the first sock when I thought that the fabric I was knitting was looking a bit, erm, 'substantial' and so I had a closer look at the needle and saw printed on the tip 2.25mm.  Oops.  At least it explained the firm-ish fabric!  I tried them on, thinking that they'd feel too stiff and I'd have to rip back and start again, but they actually felt really comfortable and soft.  So, I carried on and today I finished them off.  Knitting sport-weight yarn on 2.25mm needles did mean that my hands began to ache after a while, which is probably why it's taken me six months to knit them (that and only doing a few rows every now and then in bed, or while waiting for DD2 to finish playing in the bath).

This does mean that I don't have any socks on my needles at all.  I can't remember the last time that happened.  I also have nothing on my spinning wheel either, so I might have a delve into my fibre stash and choose something to spin.

I also want to get on and make something from these:

There are 42 five-inch squares in this pack and I'm going to make them into a patchwork, quilted pad-type thing to go on my coffee table and protect the table from my laptop.  I think I'm going to get DD2 to help me decide which square will go where :)