Socks, scarves and bread!

I know I'm knitting socks obsessively at present, I have 8 at various stages of production, I claim it is because I can only happily do certain bits on the bus! These are my latest 2, Opal carnival and the rainforest tiger colourway - I decided I had several balls of each so I can make a plain and a patterned pair if I decide that patterns will work. I can see the carnival colourway but the more I look at it the more convinced I become that it won't readily 'take' a pattern. It will also have to be matched with it's mate, it'll be my first try at making identical rather than fraternal twins.
The tiger is a bit 'un orange' for me to see as a tiger, but i do think it can take a stitch pattern of some sort, so I'll give it some thought while I knit my way through the plain pair.

This arrived today, it's a poor picture, but how many artistic pictures can you take of a cone of deep pink aran 100% wool? I've a vague plan in my head to make cabled scarves this winter, but rather than just turn out the Irish Walking Scarf in multiple versions I'd like to do each scarf with a different pattern, much more interesting for me and may mean my head doesn't explode. I have a couple of source books for aran stitches so I'm going to trawl through them and see how inspired I get!

On the subject of the bread machine - I bought it about 7 years ago, I've never been able to track it's manufacturer and actually buried it in a cupboard for nearly all of the last 7 years. I've decided to give it 6 months, if I'm still making bread with it I'll invest in a fancier one with a timer and stuff, it mostly works OK so I'm not too fussed about being able to use it to perfection. Tonight I made sundried tomato and parmesan bread using a mix and it is truly wonderful!