Black Socks and a sudden urge to knit a pillow

Hidely-ho, pagarinos! After deciding on about three separate occasions to just plow through and get it done, I have finished the Dipper Socks Project.



the heel, which I love:



and, a weirdly smaller long shot:



These were started all the way back in July. Dang.

The second pair of finished black socks was started in November or December, and were slated for completion by 12-25.



Whoops, that didn't happen. It's okay, Husband says, if you get them done by January 25th, I can wear them for my first class. That would be cool.



Whoops, how about if I get them done by Valentine's Day instead? Because that, apparently, I can do.

So what have I been doing, with a second shawl, colorwork mittens, a blanket, and yet another pair of socks on teeny tiny needles? Working on a sweater for the Knitting Olympics, of course!

I finally frogged Wicked, and after several days of considering sweater possibilities, I decided to go with the tea leaves cardigan from Madeline Tosh. It's a nice, sedate sweater and I'm doing it in Screaming Turquoise, so I'm not sure exactly what tone the final product will strike, but I'm really liking it so far. I'll post pictures when it's further along - right now I'm wrestling with one of the ruched sections, which doesn't really want to fit on my circ because it's a few inches shorter than what the pattern calls for. It's looking bunchy and radioactively beautiful. Once I separate the sleeves, it may be more recognizable as a sweater.

In other news, I seem to have lost the little hand socks I made out of STR Pirate's Booty, which is very unfortunate, because my hands have been just freezing, and none of my other fingerless mitts are conducive to knitting in. I've been considering making replacements with my skein of Falcon's Eye, because I've noticed that the black shoes I wear my handknit socks with tend to make the lighter colors look grungy after a while. So the decision about what rib-ish pattern to use for those has been tumbling around my head, too.

And finally, I've been saving my yarn scraps (and fabric scraps) for forever, planning to use them as pillow stuffing. Short lengths of yarn seem like great stuffing material, because they're so warm and sproingy. My little rubbermaid containers are really starting to overflow, so a pillow project is starting to form itself in my head. Any suggestions for patterns (knit or crochet) that are really comfortable to really use as pillows, rather than just as decoration?