Hey Monkey!

Well, here it is. My first FO of 2007!


Pattern: Monkey from Knitty.
Yarn: Yarn Pirate in Punkin Head.

Omg omg omg. I love these socks. I love this yarn. I love this pattern. My toes are warm and pretty! And if y'all are thinking about Yarn Pirate yarn, you should go for it because it's great to work with. I need to weigh my leftover yarn and the socks to find out exactly how much I used, but I think these socks took only half the skein. I'm trying to decide if I want arm warmers or some other lovely matching accessory. Of course, by the time I finish the arm warmers it will surely be too hot for them. Yesterday morning it was in the 80s, but a front came through and dropped it to the high 30s. It's supposed to stay cold and wet for the rest of the week.

Here's a blurry closeup. Sorry, I suck at these kinds of pictures.


Now I know you all want more pictures of Venezia, but I really have nothing of interest to show you. I finished the second sleeve Wednesday night, and it looks just the same as the first sleeve (but slightly better).

On Thursday and Friday I spent some time playing yarn shop employee while my LYSO was out of town. (lots of fun!) I was in the shop for six hours on Thursday. I cast on 252 stitches and knit the first row and about 40 stitches of the second. There are few things more time consuming and tedious than knitting into a backwards loop cast on with blunt size 1 needles for 252 stitches (especially when you keep having to get up to "work"). I was afraid it would never end.

For anybody wondering, no the pattern does not say to use backwards loop. It says to use the invisible provisional cast on, which I hate and have never mastered. But this cast on gets folded up inside the hem and no one but me (and you guys, now that I've let it slip) will ever know that I cheated.

I've knit almost half of the hem now--later rows go much, much faster. I can't wait to switch to the size 2s and get crackin on the body. Maybe we'll have one of these crazy cold fronts in April or May and I'll actually get to wear it before next January.

Oh! In other exciting news, I signed up for a knittyboard sock exchange. My partner Jr. Mints and I will knit socks for each other and include a skein of sock yarn to swap. I'm so excited! But our socks are going to be kept secret from each other, so until the socks are safely in her hands I can't show you any pictures or reveal any details. Sorry!