On My Needles

I finally finished those socks!  Somehow the second one always seems to drag...  They're washed and added to the stock at the farm.

The next project I decided to make a quick one, so I did a quick toddler-sized hat out of a beautiful cornflower blue worsted that we dyed over the summer.  It was the last remaining bit of that yarn - we did 4  of the 4 oz skeins (about 1 lb) in the color, and three went the following weekend at a craft fair in Hamilton, MA.  The last skein hung around (as single skeins of a color seem wont to do) until a client chose it for some women's mittens in December.  And the last bit?  Well, now its this:

Sorry that Teddy Bear (my model) is so dark!  For some reason, he didn't look that way and I only had time to snap a single pic.  No pattern on this one, just worked with toddler head measurements and made it up as I went.

I've already cast on and done the top of a Little Sister's Dress.  I did one for my niece when one of my sisters-in-law was pregnant in a lavender cotton, and now my other sister-in-law is pregnant and everyone seems to think it will be a girl.  Given that I've caught the boy-baby bug, I have to indulge my love for the cuteness of little girl clothing somehow...!  If her child doesn't turn out to be a girl, I guess I'll have a ready-made gift for someone else down the road.  Plus it is burning some of my stash - the top is a maroon wool mix and the bottom, a pale pink something of similar weight (label has been lost, unfortunately).  I'll post some pictures when it begins to look more identifiable, as right now it is just a smoosh of color on my needles.

On My Needles

I started a pair of holiday-ish socks before the Winter Craft Fair that we do, and I'm finally getting around to finishing them!  For me, there's nothing like picking up an old project - I come at it with all new energy and it always feels like I'm speeding along compared to how fast I was going before.  Ah, satisfaction! 

These are done in our natural worsted, and the pattern is a mutt - the top is raglan-style, just adapted from sweater patterns; the body is a bobble design from a sock book that my mother-in-law gave me last year; the heel is a standard short-row heel; the foot is the bobbles pattern without the bobbles (if that makes sense!); and the toe is a standard star toe.  They're a women's size 7-9.  I like how they feel like a Christmas stocking, without all the Christmas colors...  Anyway, the first one, pictured below, is done, and the second is to about the mid-foot (knit top-down).