Extreme(ty) knitting, part 1: the feet

I whipped up a few FOs this past week, all of them covering extremeties. My next project is to finally finish Burridge, so I'm gonna spread out these FOs for as long as I can, because God knows that blanket will take me at least another month.

Anyway, first up are some simple top-down socks in Regia Cotton Surf (Atlantik colorway):



I won this yarn on the Christian knitters group on Ravelry for being weird. I never would have picked this yarn in this colorway for myself (I don't like blue all that much), but I ended up really loving it. The gentle hues and the smoky quality of the colors just worked very well. The one downside is that I knit these on size 1 needles, when it really should have been 0. They're quite loose at the ankles, but, more concerningly, one of the socks' stitches are really loose at the toe. That's a hole waiting to happen.

Also, does anyone have this problem? If I knit socks, my first sock's gauge is always looser than my second sock's. Always. So even though I knit the same number of rounds, my second sock is shorter than my first.

In a word, I wouldn't call this pair a winner, but I'm awfully fond of them.

Speaking of socks, thanks to my wonderful brother-in-law, there's lots more in my future! Look what he got me for Christmas:



Isn't it gorgeous? It's Fleece Artist Supermerino in Polar Sea. For a girl who doesn't like blue, I'm sure using alot of it! Just look at how gorgeously rich that color is! My BIL also got me enough Lang Jawoll for two more pairs of socks (one pair blue, one pair orange). Did I mention he's my favorite BIL?