Trying new things, getting new yarn....

Today I was off work for Colombus Day. I met up with my friend the "Frogginqueen" at a JoAnn Fabric store at a city in between where we both live (North Richland Hills, TX). They had some new yarn out and does anyone besides me see a resemblance to NORO colorways, here? I'm excited to see how it works up, but have no idea yet what I want to make.

After our "shopping spree" that took us from JoAnn's to Hancock Fabric (it must be the last one standing, they closed all the others in the DFW area that I know about), we went over to Chick- fil-A, where we had a nice lunch, and M was kind enough to break out the sock patterns and show me what I have been missing all these years of knitting, in the way of using dpns. Yes, dear readers, I have allowed myself to avoid dpns almost religiously over the years. I tried a couple of times and hated it so bad, I never wanted to try again. However, I keep seeing all the beautiful sock patterns out there that I would like to try out. I thought about starting out on circulars, instead of dpns, but then decided that what the heck, I will soldier through learning to use dpns on my *first ever* sock attempt. M makes it seem almost easy, and here is my beginning attempt on the "Monkey" socks pattern with Lion Brand magic stripes sock yarn (don't know the colorway, I guess I threw away the labels).

I feel confident that I will make it to the heel ok, but at that point, well, we'll see. :) Wish me luck, won't you?