Getting Down to the Wire

I made this pair of mittens from my own pattern. They are to be a Christmas present for my boss. I used "Lambs Pride" worsted weight yarn that I had left over from my failed felting project, size 4 brittany dp's and 40 stitches. I looked everywhere for the lable and I can not find it. The picture shows the color correctly, a very nice green. I worked on these on Friday night and finished on Saturday.

This hat is part of my daughter's Christmas present. Below you will see the scarf and mittens that will be gifted along with the hat and a pair of socks. The hat pattern is "Bobble-Edge Hat". I found the pattern on Yarn Demon's blog, this will get you to the pattern, http://yarndemon.googlepages.com/bobblehat. The yarn used was Berroco, Ultra Alpaca. Addi turbo size six circular needles. The first row took a very long time, the rest of the hat went along quickly and it was fun as the pattern stitch is always changing. The socks are also made from the Berroco, Ultra Alpaca. I used a pattern from the book "Socks, Socks, Socks". more about these when I finish the pair.

Now here is my dilemma. I am working on these socks, for me of course. I am using "Blue Moon Fiber Arts", "Socks That Rock" lightweight yarn in the colorway "X-mas Rock". I have tried 4 different patterns. This being the 4th. None of the other patterns looked good with this yarn. The pooling is incredible. I tried the "Kew" socks found on the Knitty website and the pooling was actually vertical stripes, yuk. This pattern, "Jeannie Townsend's" "Cascading Leaves" does not seem to be any better. Not really pooling. I guess that I just do not like the colors. The yellow is very yellow and against the pink, well I just do not like it. I can understand how red, green, and yellow relate to Christmas but pink. My daughter thinks that the pink is the inside of the lamb's ear. You know the lamb that was at the manger. My son thinks that the pink is the inside of the donkey's ear. My son's girlfriend thought that the pink is the color the Baby Jesus was when he came into this world. I just do not like it. Good thing it is cold where I live and I can wear these under long pants.