I Got the Chills, They're Multiplyin'

Brrrr . . . it's cold outside today. The downside is that I was hoping to take the dogs for a long walk or go for a run, and the upside is that I don't feel bad about doing neither. Instead, I've been finishing Christmas Cards (just looking for a few missing addresses now), running errands, packaging up the Green Buzzbee, and knitting. I finished the Red Tune Cap, and although it is too small for me (my head is Large, I knit size M as a gift), I want to wear it around the house because I love it. I love the shaping at the top, I love the yarn (Malabrigo, in Ravelry Red from Webs), I love the idea of a secret iPod and headphones pocket. I used about 54 grams of the 100 g skein for the Medium, so there's no way I'll get a Large hat out of the remainder, but I may have some leftover Malabrigo that I could stripe into another hat. This is the first time I've knit a top-down hat, and it makes so much sense to knit hats this way because you can try it on as you go. That didn't help me a lot, since the hat is for a smaller-headed person, but I did try it on a few times anyway. The pattern, as I mentioned in my first post about this hat, is available here.

In other knitting news, the Red Hot Chili socks are a lot slower work, but they are starting to look awesome:

I love the way the Wollmeise is striping, even though I know that it won't last once I start increasing for the gussets. I'm knitting these on size 0 needles, and the fabric is nice and firm (but not too stiff to knit).

What I really should do, on this cold winter day, is finish the last several inches of the Hulk Smash socks, and put them on my freezing cold toes--but it's more likely that I'll take a nap right now, and use dachshunds to warm up my feet!

Some Hats May Have Been Started

Too late in the evening to blog . . . . but I may have started a couple of new hats.

Maybe one that's knit from the top down, and will hide an iPod and headphones . . .

(it's a lot bigger now, but hard to photograph).

. . . and maybe one from the cover of this collection of patterns, that if finished & mailed quickly will keep a Southern baby warm when he visits Germany in January:

(I started this yesterday, so I should get it in the mail maybe this weekend).

So much for working on the same projects all the time . . . although I'd like the record to reflect that the progress on the Hulk Smash socks has been significant. I've finished the gusset decreases, and now it's a race to the toes. The pooling is a little weird in the photo, but the cashmere softness and quick pace of the knitting more than makes up for it:

You'll have to trust me when I say that these look a lot less busy in person (at least until they're finished & blocked).