FO Friday - Socks! And Knitting Woes

Yay! I have another finished object to show you :) Actually I finished these socks last Friday, but I'd already posted my FO post, so I figured they could wait a week.

They were really quick to knit and I love the colourway :D Thankfully I have another skein left if I want to make another pair. Of course, since summer has since then finally arrived to Denmark, I haven't actually had any use for them since I finished them, but I'm sure that'll come much sooner than I'm ready for.

Next I'm going to try for some toe-up socks - see how I manage that. There are various techniques I want to try my hand at (knitting in the round on one long circular needle, knitting two socks at once, cables etc.) and socks seem like as good a place as any to learn those.

Unfortunately the shrug from my WIP Wednesday is already a wash, and I frogged it last night. I got to the point where I was to close off the sleeves yesterday, and I could see that it was far, far too small still. Had it just been the armholes that were too small, I could have knitted the sleeves longer before closing them off (it makes sense with the pattern ;) ), but it turned out it was too small across the shoulders as well, so I really had to start all over.

I hadn't made a swatch, as I'd already knitted with this yarn/these needles once before, so I figured it wasn't necessary, but I hadn't thought about the fact that that was back when I first started knitting, and my tension has gotten a lot tighter and a lot more even since, so even though I increased the number of stitches I cast on, it actually turned out SMALLER than last time! Go figure. At least now I know my new gauge for the yarn/needles, so if I ever dare attempt it again, I'll have a better idea of how to start.

For the moment I think I'm shrugged out though, so I might just end up using the yarn for something different altogether.