Something Fresh.

This is huge; yesterday I finally got around to learning the Magic Cast-On. I have no idea why I never bothered to do this sooner, because it's easier than any other similar cast-on I've ever tried. The world of toe-up socks is my oyster!

I celebrated by neglecting my Xmas knitting and starting a new sock:

This is Azure from the latest Knitty. In an amazingly fortunate twist of fate I had the exact yarn that the pattern calls for -- one skein of Colinette Jitterbug in Raspberry.
The Jitterbug had been waiting patiently at the bottom of my stash for quite some time, as the yardage is just a little on the short side. Toe-up socks will allow me to make the most of this entire skein, which is just as well because I really like the colourway.

Now to get through some more of that Xmas knitting so I can have a guilt-free sit-down with my Raspberry Azure socks.