An FO... and SOCKS-to-be!

I finished my paw cozy last night! Took a little longer to finish than planned, but I got distracted with the Branching Out scarf (that's about halfway finished now). I was inspired by this pattern, but had to put my own twist on it, of course. I knit an allover cable pattern and closed up the bottom, other than a small hole at the end for the leash to pass through. The large part of the retractable leash will fit through the top, eliminating the draftiness of the original design. I knit it a little large so I can felt it just a bit to add even more to the warmth. The cables started getting boring about halfway through, but I like the result. Not the greatest photo, but hey, gotta work with what ya got. =)

I stopped by Jo-Ann Fabric tonight on my way back to the hotel looking, yet again, for yarn to make the scarf/hat combo my mom wants. Still no luck finding the right yarn, but I did find something else:

I've been thinking I want to try my hand at socks again (and use better yarn this time), so I've been checking out sock yarn at every yarn shop I visit. It's always either too expensive ($15-20 for a pair of simple socks?!) or they only have one small skein of the color I want. Finally! This is only carried by Jo-Ann's and is self-patterning sock yarn! Yay! I can knit a basic pair of socks without them being so plain or worrying about color pooling like with regular variegated yarns. SO excited to try this out! There are a few projects ahead of this, but it was meant to be. They only had two skeins of this color left and they were the same dye lot. From looking around, it looks like I should have enough for an adult pair of socks and probably a small pair for a child as well. Not bad for $8. =)