Held hostage by a baby bootie

I realize that it's been a whole week since I posted. I have no excuse, but a lot of catching up to do. Part of it may be due to the knitting "clusture" in which I find myself. I have too many projects on the needles and in queue. Here's the short list in order of critical need:
1. Baby booties for my cousin's shower (next Saturday in Pennsylvania). I'll wait until they are finished to post a picture. More motivation to complete before Friday.
2. Family sock challenge - Blue/Black. Sock #1 is finished - pic below. (You know...second sock syndrome.)
3. Family sock challenge - Doug's Aran Alpaca. Ready to start heel.
4. Felted bag for One Skein Secret Pal - on row 7.
5. Lace socks for me - Still working on cuff.
6. Driftwood Shawl - More about that below.
7. I'm taking a felted clog class at Knit n Knibble starting on July 10.

I'm not even sure where to begin. First of all, the baby bootie took over because my grandmother crocheted a teeny-weeny Martha Stewart poncho for my cousin's new baby, then assigned me the task of making the matching baby booties. My cousin knows about the poncho and informed Gram that a baby could get lost, or worse, strangled, in a Martha Stewart poncho. So, Gram made a matching blanket. Way more practical. BTW - Gram has officially crocheted about 24 Martha Stewart ponchos. All female relatives in every direction have received one. Anyway, Gram sent me to Michael's for Bernat Baby Pink. I procrastinated. Big surprise. I'm almost done with the first bootie.

Knit n Knibble, my LYS, held a 2-year birthday celebration yesterday. I finally broke down and purchased a yarn swift and winder. Wooo-hoooo, I'm so excited. My son and I spent yesterday afternoon winding yarn, and getting the tangles out of a particularly stubborn skein. (But, that's another story.) While I was at KnK, I bought some pretty purple Cascade 220 and blue mohair for my Secret Pals. Most of the two hours I spent there was trying to decide what to get for them. It's so hard to pick yarn for someone else. I truly hope they like it.
I have been yearning to knit something with cashmere. I found the Driftwood Victorian Shoulder Shawl by BadCat Designs. It takes just one skein of Jade Sapphire 2-ply cashmere. That didn't feel like such a huge investment for a first lace shawl. I had to put the booties down for a while to get started on the pattern. The yarn is a beautiful sage green, but the pic doesn't do it justice.
And, last but certainly not least, another sock for the family sock challenge. I finished this on vacation. I managed to start the cuff of the second sock before the baby booties took over.

I'll try to post more this week. :-)