Why Yes I DO Still Knit!

I thought I would show some of the knitting I've been working on lately. I had planned on updating my Ravelry account today with these projects, but our firewall now blocks Ravelry and says it is an "entertainment, dating" site. Oy! (Guess I'll do the updating later tonight!)

Anyway, first up is the green blanket for a friend, knit with Caron Simply Soft yarn. Loving it!

Then a sock that I am beyond thrilled with. I have another sock that needs a mate and was next on the rotation, but then I remembered this Candy Corn Yarn that I had gotten from Girl On the Rocks last year and decided I had better get it done quick while it's still candy corn season! This is the insanely popular Monkey Sock pattern with a twist - I used a picot edge for the first time and am knitting the purls, ala January One. I had a hard time getting gauge with this pattern/yarn and I'm sure it's a result of my death grip tight knitting. Tried it first on size 1 needles and ADORED the way the yarn striped as it looked exactly like candy corn! Unfortunately, no way was gauge obtained. Ditton on the 1.5's. Finally got it with size 2's, but now the yarn pools quite a bit. That's ok though, I'm still in love!

And do you see the metal dpn's I'm using? These are the PERFECT needles for me for this project. Death grip knitting plus ssk's and K2Tog's equals a disaster waiting to happen on bamboo needles!