good start on gifts

Between games and while lounging around with my teammates at the hockey tournament, I got a good jump on my holiday knitting, which, by the way, is now part of Alison's Holiday Knit-a-long.

My teammates gazed on as I brick patterned the poncho until I ran out of yarn (one ball finished!! Yay! Three more to go.).

Then I picked up the sock yarn and cast on "with Pickup Sticks" as one teammate teased - sock is now going nicely. I realized a little bit into the ribbing that it's going to be quite difficult to get both socks to look the same. It's self-patterning yarn, and sadly it doesn't seem that the two balls I bought start at the same part in the pattern.

Maybe Dobby's single-sock fashion trend will start to catch on...? (The fuzz in the picture is Zeke, who is currently very grumpy due to the appearance of a new food that is supposed to make him feel better since he's been showing symptoms of being allergic to his regular food. He has been eating around the new kibbles and crying a lot.)

And that reminds me - I finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last night! This is certainly worthy of being mentioned on knitting day since there is so much knitting in the HP books (and movies!) and since now that I'm not reading about Harry on the bus, I can knit on the bus. Those Christmas presents should be done in no time (in theory)!