Monkey Off My Back

So being the slowest knitter EVER! Most projects take me a long time. I have a few projects on the needles and I knit on them intermittently. Most of my knitting is for me, as there's not a ton of people who request things.

So, it is with great pleasure that I announce the completion of The Monkey Socks! *applause applause applause*



Ok, maybe not as exciting for you as they are for me. According to the previous year's resolution, I started these puppies in April (yes, that's April 2008). The date I recorded completion, 3/31/2009. See, I told you I was slow.

These were for my mom, I say were for a very specific needles. I followed the pattern and did the exact number of repeats between sock one and two (I know, I counted a ton of times). I triumphantly held up the finished socks! Only to find out one was BIGGER than the other. Holy crap, who knew?! I had read about this mysterious gauge problem before, but thought that it could never happen to me. Boy was I wrong.

So, one sock bigger, might not have been so bad except that both socks were way too big for my mom! She has smaller feet than mine. Bonus though, the small one fit me great, the big one, was, well, big.

This has prompted me to learn how to knit two socks at once, toe-up. This may help improve my sock knitting. Though, I guess, not having a year in between start and finish might do the trick also....

In other news....

Last night, while running errands, I dropped into the local Dressbarn (saying that is weird because where I grew up, the only things local were cows). I pop in there once in a while, because they have my size and slightly dressier stuff. Usually I find, maybe one thing. This time, they had a ton of stuff! I ended up buying a bunch of tops. Some of these will translate to the cruise, all of them will translate to work!

These are a step up from my button down collar shirts. Don't get me wrong I like those too, but these are great.