Endings and Beginnings (and Somewhere in the Middlings)

Let me start off with a couple of clarifications. First, my needles were free because I finished a project. I know it's tough to grasp that, what with this being the Drunken Monkey blog and all that. Unfortunately the needles were not free of charge, although sometimes I can get them for 50% off at Hobby Lobby, and that's nothin' on which to spit.

And yes, not only did I finish one project on deadline, but I finished another project by its deadline as well. The first one, I can show you:

Pomatomus socks from Knitty, for Morgan, whose birthday was yesterday. Happy Birthday, Morgan! These were made with Claudia's Hand Painted sock yarn, in the chocolate covered cherries colorway. I must have had two different dye lots, or else it's a hazard of knitting with hand painted yarn, but one of the socks is a bit lighter than the other sock, but they still go together quite well.

I didn't originally intend to make these for Morgan's birthday, but I was pretty darn proud of myself for getting them done in time. I had a hard time taking a good, interesting picture of them under pressure to pack them up to ship them, so maybe I can get a good picture at Christmastime when we visit.

Here's a teaser for the other project I finished and mailed out. Isn't this the best button? At first glance, it's just another brassy button. Upon closer inspection, it's the cutest little walrus with the cutest little mustache. And frankly, it's on the cutest little sweater, but I can't show that to you yet, cuz his birthday isn't until Thanksgiving.

I don't have to tell you that I have other projects going. We all know there are at least half a dozen socks rambling around here somewhere, and I think there's an entrelac bag still waiting to be loved. However, I worked at the yarn store yesterday and was forced into loving a sweater pattern. One of the owners was talking about the pattern, then showed me the pattern in the fall 2006 knitscene magazine. I wasn't even interested in that magazine! She made me like it! Only a few minutes after we finished talking about the sweater, a customer came in wearing the exact same sweater. We made quite the scene. It was gorgeous, and confirmed my need to make one. Wanna see?

Isn't it great? In a very uncharacteristic fashion, I plan to make this sweater from the very yarn it calls for, in the very color it's modeled in. I do plan, however, to make some extreme adjustments to the pattern, since it was not originally designed to fit a prehistoric carnivore. I have the pattern and one ball of yarn for swatching, and soon I shall commence. Hopefully.... hopefully this will end up being my very first COMPLETED adult sized sweater. Wish me luck!