First Monkeys

I know they're the first because I absolutely love the pattern.

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. from Knitty
Yarn: One of Gail's first attempts at striping sock yarn, gifted months ago (color fairly true in the photo above)
Needle: Inox 40" circular #1 (2.5mm), magic loop style
Mods: Didn't purl in the lace pattern (as a combination knitter, I can be averse to purling in the round); slip-stitch heel; and I'm sure there are other differences, because I admit to ignoring the pattern after I had memorized the lace pattern (after 2 repeats on the first sock). In the future, I would not do the twisted rib -- it's a little tight going over my foot. Maybe a regular 1x1 rib, or a 3x1 even. We'll see.

Like I said, I really love this pattern. Perhaps in future I will even make some with the intended purl stitches, but I do like the gentle texture obtained by leaving them out.
These socks are destined likely as a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law. A similar fate awaits most of the socks I will knit from our stash of wool sock yarns over the next few months. I suspect we will have little need for wool socks in Tucson, at least until we start realizing that it does get cold there in the winter (they tell us this usually takes 3 years).

Next up on the needles:

Red Sox! I've wanted to make myself a pair for a while, and I finally just bought the yarn. Trust me, the color in this photo is just all wrong. That really is red and white.

I'm kinda making the pattern up as I go along, but it's pretty basic. The yarn is Cascade Fixation; I cast on 60 stitches, knit 10 rows of corrugated ribbing (as my niece, I apparently love the Red Sox more than I hate corrugated ribbing), then a 4x2 rib for the leg and foot (Fixation and stockinette, not the best of friends); toe will be white, as will the afterthought heel. I have already done all of the corrugated ribbing and have the start of the second sock waiting on stitch holders -- it is a trick to keep the hatred of the ribbing from causing second sock syndrome.

And one more project that I hope to have done before we leave. I/we need to turn a whole lot of this:

"pies", each containing something a little less than a full ball of each of four different colors of Plymouth Encore -- into this:

usable balls of yarn.

What? Well, the pies are from back when WEBS used to sample yarns featured in their catalogs. This is one of the methods used to make than sampling a little easier. Why? M and I do a lot of charity knitting (what a former co-worker used to refer to in a tone usually reserved for those drowning kittens as "knitting things for poor children"). The separated colors are destined to be scarves, hats, mittens, etc. Okay, except perhaps for one of the greys, which is likely to become one of these.