Progress and Riiiiiip

I got a package from my friend Linda yesterday! It was little and cute and came from a goth store in Leipzig, so I knew it was going to be good. But I had no idea how good! If you click on the picture to get a better view, you'll see that these are buttons. They have a spider on one side and a bat on the other. Awesome reversible bat/spider buttons, and enough for a cardigan! I'm really, really excited about these and will be looking for the perfect goth cardi pattern to display them -- bat side up, naturally.


It's freezing out. Today, it was cold, but tomorrow, the low will be 1 F, and that's without the wind chill. So I'm knitting a hat for Mr. Batty. It's a pattern from The Knitting Man(ual), which I can't recommend enough. It has very wearable patterns for men, and the models look like real people. Oh, and the yarn I'm using is black, not some washed-out gray. Beautiful, dark black. As you can see, it's coming along nicely.


Also coming along nicely was the Mad About Plaid sock. I was beginning the toe decreases sometime last Sunday and was looking forward to casting on sock #2 when it suddenly hit me: 18+22 is not, nor will it ever be, 30. Which was really unfortunate, because 40 meant that I had not decreased 10 stitches after picking up the gusset, which meant that the foot of my sock was now huge. So... riiiiip.


I put the sock in time-out and cast on the hat. Now, I'm ready to get back to sock knitting, I think. But I had to get away from this glaring evidence of my lack of mathematical prowess. At least for a bit.
Pretty socks, though! I love the way they're turning out.