I made a road trip to Lawrence, Kansas this afternoon to visit the Yarn Barn, the only actual yarn store within a reasonable driving distance. There are a couple of others, but for various reasons, they just don't suit me.

I drove all the way out there (about 40 minutes) because I needed some needles, and I only like wooden ones now, and I needed a 16 inch circular size 6 needle, and they are impossible to find in town.

The project I had in mind was the Sock Monkey Stocking from this Christmas Stocking book.

So I bought the needles, and wool for the stocking, and they were having a "grab bag" special, so I bought three bags of various cotton yarns that I have yet to actually inventory, but they were cheap and lovely, and I drove home and started the stocking.

I didn't swatch it--I know, I know, but it's a Christmas stocking, for Heaven's sake, who cares what the gauge is? Doing it on the 16 inch circular was not working AT ALL, so I switched to four double-pointeds. The knitting was so much smaller than the needles that I can't imagine it was a gauge problem. The double pointeds should be fine, though. Pictures anon.