Holy Bleeding Monkeys, Batman!!!

A pair of socks in 10 days......damn that was fast! I knit up a pair of no-purl Monkey socks using STR lightweight in Tlingit. I love the pattern and I love the yarn so I couldn't keep my hands off of them. I finished the socks yesterday, and this morning I got them photographed. After I was happy with the pictures I got, it was time to put the Monkey's in a bath. I knew some dye would rinse out in the water, as it had been bleeding on my hands while knitting (I love this yarn so much that I SOOOOO did NOT care).
I was surprised, though, by the color that the water turned. I was expecting a muddy grey because of the amount of black in the yarn, What I got was a really pretty shade of pink. The pic was taken when the socks had been soaking for about 10 minutes, but the water didn't get any darker/more dye than this.
The socks are still drying, but they still look as good as they did before the bath.

Do you know how hard it is to take a decent picture of the back of your own head?

I knit a snood. I've always liked the way they looked in movies, and I've wanted one since I started going to Ren Fest 10 or so years ago. So, when I saw this pattern, I had to knit one.
The pattern is Snood Deux by Twisted Stitches. I'll need to use a few bobby pins to keep it in place when I wear it, but I still LOVE it :) I had it on earlier today, and I tried several times to get an okay pic of it (hence today's post title), but I failed my in quest, miserably so. Oh well, when I get someone willing, I'll have them take a picture of it on for me. The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn, but I didn't have any in my stash that was a color I wanted to use for a snood, so I combined 2 strands of lace weight for the substitute. I used leftovers of Jaggerspun Zephyr in Charcoal, and Knitpicks Shadow in Vineyard Heather.

I finally got off my ass.....

and I finished my Phineas socks! Well, depending on how you look at it you might as well say I got on my ass to finish them because I knit sitting down....LOL
This morning I sat down and finally knit the toe of sock #2 for Phineas. These socks were really easy, good, mindless knitting. They would have been a really quick knit if I hadn't gotten sidetracked with other wip's and a little thing called life...lol! The pattern is written to knit these socks toe up and magic loop. When I started these I wasn't in the mood for that particular sock construction method, so I knit these cuff down on DPN's instead.

The yarn I used is Knitpicks Essential sock yarn in the color African Violet. Ever since KP re-did the Essential line (a long, long, time ago), I've been loving this sock yarn. The old Essential was really rough and splitty, but the current essential is a million times softer, and isn't nearly as splitty (I haven't had any splitting problems, but have read that a few others in blogland have).

Right now, I'm trying to get as many of my WIP's off the needles as possible, because I don't want them distracting me in a few weeks. I'm going to be participating in something I'm really excited about. Cookie A is coming out with a new pattern, and told readers of her blog that she was looking for test knitters. I volunteered, and was one of the 24 that were picked! If you're wondering about the sock we'll be test knitting, go to Cookie's blog, and it's the purple sock pictured in her April 1st post. When we get started, I'll post progress pics on here (don't worry, Cookie said we could post about it on our blogs, I'm not breaking any rules).

I love baby knitting

I love to knit baby things. They go so quickly :) I've started knitting some little things for my Cousin, Shelly. She's pregnant with her second baby. I've been itching for another baby to knit for and she and her DH were more than happy to oblige....LOL! Shelly mentioned to me the other day that she wanted something handmade with love for her baby (and she went on talking about maybe making a quilt for the baby), and I started grinning. I've already started. well, at that point I just had some yarn bought for a baby sweater and had Serenity (ravelry link) picked out to knit for the baby. Anyway, this past Saturday, I was sitting around with the kids and I wanted a small project to work on because I'm kind of sick of looking at all of my other WIP's. So I looked through my stash for inspiration. I saw my skein of Lime & Violet Sasquatch Superwash in Buster Keaton sitting on top. I thought it would look great as a baby bootie & hat set. So, I wound the yarn into a ball, and cast on for Saartje's booties and a few hours later I had this:

hehehehehe....aren't they cute? I'm still trying to decide on a hat pattern though. I need something gender neutral because they aren't going to be finding out the sex of the baby. (pattern suggestions, anyone???)