Finish-it-up-itis

I feel like something has come over me lately that's made me want to finish everything on the needles (and then cast on for all the things, but we won't talk about that right now). After finishing up my Caesious, I then cast on for a new hat for Rainbow, which was done in just a matter of days. We had a little photo shoot over the weekend, so I can finally give you a proper peek at the pattern.

I switched the colors from mine, and her hat has only an inch of ribbing at the brim, but otherwise it's pretty much the same. She's been wearing it every day since I finished it, and she's dubbed it "Pommy" because of the fluffy pompom. Of course it makes me very happy when someone appreciates my knitting, but I'm especially glad that she's so keen to wear it because of how cold it's been. The double layer of yarn due to the stranding means this hat is extra warm!

Over the weekend I finished a project that had been on the needles much longer (since close to the beginning of January).

The sock pattern is not very exciting -- these are just plain stockinette (with a garter rib cuff) worked over 70 stitches -- but that just means the yarn does all the work. The yarn is Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce, a superwash merino/nylon blend, dyed as a set of what Lisa of Fibernymph calls Inversibles. These two-skein sets are self-striping with the same two colors, but as you can see, the width of each color reverses in the other sock.

I think the only reason these socks took so long is because I was working on a smaller-than-usual needle to get a gauge of 9 stitches per inch. While this yarn does have nylon in it, it's also a fairly thin two ply, so I figured a firmer gauge would help them to last a bit longer. We'll see if it does the trick!