Why Did the Chicken...?

One of the things I will miss about living here in farm country is the occasional unexpected appearance of chickens in the road. Yes, chickens, wandering loose, will normally avoid the road (I don't know why -- Melissa?), but once in a while a single chicken or even a small flock -- as happened today on my way home -- will decide to roam across the road. When this happens, look out.

Anyhoo, I promised M's current projects.
Pattern: Maine and Arizona Knitted Dishcloths from Knitting Knonsense
Yarn: Peaches & Cream #4 Ecru
Needles: WEBS Hard Bamboo 9" #7

Sandra blogged about her New Jersey dishcloth, Stephanie's been collecting them on her tour, and I just HAD to see the patterns for myself. I printed the pattern for the AZ dishcloth thinking I would make one, M found found the pattern, and the rest is history. She has now made the one AZ and two Maines. There are more to come, as they will be holiday gifts. She has also gotten many of the holiday and animal and plant motifs.

This is M's first sock in progress (she's at the toe decreases as I write this). She has been saying for ages that she wishes she could knit socks, but she knows they're too hard. One day she was whining that she wanted a simple small portable project, so I handed her a 2.5mm circular needle and a ball of sock yarn (Regia Stretch Color #82) and instructed her to cast on 64 stitches. She is loving the sock, and she's now (finally!) convinced that sock knitting is not hard.

In fact, she's so enamored of socks that the only yarn we are taking with us on our upcoming cross-country road trip is sock yarn. Makes it easy -- we each only have to pack one needle, and the yarn can be tucked here and there in our luggage.

Smooch is done. Here she is blocking (I loved blocking board shots -- and I love my steamer):

and here is a very bad, very grainy, don't-ask-me-what-happened photo of her done and on:
Pattern: Smooch from Rowan All Seasons Cotton Collection
Yarn: Lang Twin Lame #159, 7 balls or so
Needles: Susan Bates Aluminum 40" #9; Lantern Moon Rosewood 10" #7
Mods: I hated this pattern when I knit the sample for the store, and I hated it when I knit this one for us. I do like the finished project, it's just that the pattern was awful, most especially when it came to the eyelets/decreases for the front neckline. So I just did it in a way that made sense for me, gave it the right shape, and put the eyelets where they belonged.

I probably won't make this one again.

And next up on the needles:
Circus Monkeys! I do love this pattern. Once again, I am doing it sans purls, and I will make the legs 7 pattern repeats rather than the 6 the pattern calls for. I call them Circus Monkeys because the yarn (Sockotta #15) is very colorful and happy and reminds me of a clown.

Red Sock #2 just needs a heel, then it'll be done and smile pretty for the camera with its mate.