Oh, thank heaven for pointier needles...

I can now just about do a p5tog, although it's still tricky. The stitch pattern is starting to look lovely (I've only just worked out that it's on the reverse side) but I've still got a lot to do before I get onto the stockinette portion. I started with a sleeve, so that I could check the gauge on the lace pattern as well and not be too annoyed if I ended up having to frog. It's fabulous. I wish I could afford to splurge on the alpaca silk the pattern calls for, but hey, credit crunch, yarn diet, yada yada yada... It'll still be fabulous.
Now, about that yarn diet... Um.... I may have had a slight nibble today. I'm back on the food diet, so maybe I just had to rebel somehow. I also needed to make up for this sad occurrence: Is there any sorrier sight than a huge gaping hole in a well-loved handknit sock? The tragedy is that these are only a few months old, and they are (were!) my current favourites, as they're so bright and zingy that they always make me smile the minute they touch my feet. So I needed cheering up. That's my excuse.

I had to go to Get Knitted to get the pointy needles, and this gorgeous thing followed me home. It's Manos del Uruguay silk bled: 70/30 merino/silk. It may become a cowl or a hat, but at the moment is just being stroked and cuddled. Yum. Well, I needed some new socks, didn't I? Malabrigo sock 100% merino. I'm not saying that I won't fix the beloved kermit socks, but I haven't decided yet whether to try and darn or whether to frog back to the hole and re-knit. I hate darning and darned patches so I'll probably have to frog. Damn.
The hole is kind of making me reluctant to finish these though: purple self-striping BFL sock, same as the Kermit in another colour. It's a hell of a lot of work if they're going to be very delicate socks. On the other hand I do love the feel of them... maybe I just need a little distance.