How Many Socks Is Too Many?

I've been so caught up in my garden lately that I haven't shown my knitting. I am really holding on to my resolve to keep knitting through my stash and finishing the projects I've started. I have only two big projects that I am working on right now and they will probably take me through the entire month of July. This blob is the first. The Diamonds and Pearls shawl from the Spring 2010 Knitters magazine. This was a lace class I took at Have Ewe Any Wool? my LYS. It started June 12th and ended on the 10th of July. I am now on the last repeat before the last 6 rows and the bindoff. Of course it is over 500 stitches per row now, so it moves along mighty slowly.
Customers who came into the shop as we were knitting all asked the question "How long is that going to take you?" as if the speed at which a project is completed is all that matters. All of us remarked that it took as long as it took. We were knitting something beautiful and there was no hurrying the process. I love to knit, I don't like deadlines when I knit, I am taking my time with this because it is a complex piece that challenges me, and I hope it will be an heirloom piece when I'm done. That all takes time. Does this make me a process knitter? I'm never sure.

Because I have to concentrate when I'm working on this shawl, I have another large but easy item to work on when I am watching TV or just too tired to knit on anything else. This is the garter stitch Diagonal Comfort Blanket that is meant to be a baby blanket. I am using the 9 skeins of Cotton Ease I purchased when I had the crazy idea I was actually going to knit market bags. What was I thinking. I divided the yarn in half, am knitting until I reach the halfway point of my yarn and then decreasing. I have about half the blue skein to go, then half a cream skein before the decreasing begins. I have no idea how big this will be, as it is scrunched on the needles and hard to measure. Hopefully it will be a good afghan size. I think I will measure it when I get to the halfway spot.

As I was straightening up today, I had a free moment and decided to count the number of skeins of sock yarn I have. It totals (gulp) 40 pairs of socks!!! The reason I did this was because I was going to order 3 of the new Felici colors from Knit Picks and wanted to check that I didn't have any that were similar. I have never had 40 pairs of socks at one time in my whole life. Maybe not in my whole lifetime. It does seem a bit excessive. But they are all so beautiful and I love the colors and the thought of all the beautiful patterns I can make.

So how many socks is too many?