Dull brain and sock choices

Well, it's official ... academia is hazardous to your health!! I've spent most of the past week, tweaking and shaping the literature review for my dissertation. And the end result?? I do have words on paper but the most striking outcome is that my brain has taken on a blancmange-like state!! And its seriously interfered with the finer things of life ... like knitting!!

I have been attempting to select the pattern for next month's offering in the sock-a-month challenge. I'm torn just now between Flickering Flames socks, pattern by Black Dog Designs (http://designsbyblackdog.blogspot.com/2006/09/flickering-flames-socks-yarn-my-own.html) and Purple Iris socks, by Judy Sumner (pattern available at http://www.getknitted.com/acatalog/LLPatterns.html). At the minute, I am swaying more towards the Flickering Flames ... this would involve my first attempt at a picot edging. Given that all my knitting projects will be small :( until the dissertation is a painful past memory, then I'd like to try new techniques with socks in the meantime. Aha! Decision reached ... Flickering Flames it is!!