A couple FOs & Getting Back to Socks

Well, there is no picture of the first one (DUH) which was an afghan for my niece's bridal shower. I knit it in 15 days (all 25,000+ stitches of it!) in weather that was often in the 90s. Then I forgot to get a picture of it before I wrapped it up and presented it on Saturday. But I know where it's going to live and I'll get a picture of it in action next time I go to Jen and Donnie's house.

My sister was in town for just over a week, and we managed to hit 8 yarn stores. She got goodies at 6 out of the 8. Me? I controlled myself and didn't buy a darned thing, even when we visited Threadbear. Even though I had a gift certificate! I just can't imagine bringing another skein of yarn into this house right now. I'm sure you can understand that.
But when we were at Heritage, I got a bag of cotton terry cloth loops, already looped together and wound into big balls, and over the course of a couple of days I made this rug.

It is SO cushy and soft underfoot. I am hoping I have enough loops to do a couple more for the new trailer, but those I will dye a darker color or else they'll be trashed in no time. It wasn't the easiest knit (I could barely fit the 17 stitches on my size 35 needles) but I am happy with the results.

So now I'm going to go from one extreme to the other. From size 35 needles down to size 2. I am picking up my socks that I started during spring break and I am going to finish them! I put them aside months ago because I was planning on doing an afterthought heel on them, and I hadn't tried that method before.I was so nervous to continue.... I was afraid I was going to put the waste yarn in the wrong place. I read and researched the correct placement, and got several different answers. So I pondered it some more. Then I asked sock guru Lynn H. for her advice. I trust her, and she's got so much sock experience, so I am going to take the plunge and do afterthought heels. I'll let you know how it goes!