Birds and Yarn

I bet you thought that title meant something about birds using yarn, right?  Nope.  I just wanted to show ya’ll my ‘birdie friends’ and my latest projects.  🙂
Let’s see my birdie friends first.  These two showed up about a week ago (when they knew I needed some sunshine and happiness, I guess) and I can’t for the life of me figure out what kind of birds they are.  I’m pretty sure that they are mates, since they are normally not far from one another.  And I see them several times a day, sitting on the branches of the tree that is right off the front porch.  The mystery of what they are drives me nuts.  Normally the only birds you see around here are robins, blue jays, cardinals, mocking birds and these brown finches.  The occasional blue bird is a treat (usually only see one  a year) and I saw a Chickadee once.  😀 

Yellow bird in tree

Here’s the yellow birdie in the tree.  I’ve got a close up of it, too.  I think it’s the female.

Yellow bird close up

Red bird close up

Here are pics of the red one.  And as the kids and I were at the sink in the kitchen yesterday, it just decided to fly right up to it and check out this old, dead wasp nest.  (I’m ashamed of how the window looks, but it is too hard to reach it and clean it because a big a/c unit is in the way underneath it.  😦  If only our hose would reach to the backyard.)

Red bird in window

If anyone knows what kind of birds these are, I’d greatly appreciate the answer.  😀

And on to other animal stuff, look at this next pic (NOT THE ONE BELOW IT YET!) and tell me if you can figure out what it is?
What is that in the tree?

Well……………………it’s my cat, Munchkin.  A really small cat that is one year old, but about the size of a 4 month old kitten.  I looked out the window and there was a cat, chillin’ in the tree.  LOL!

Just a little cat nap before I get tired of being a bird.

First socks I made for myself!

Ok, now I can talk about yarny stuff.  😀  First, we have the Schooner socks that I made on the Kiss Sock Loom. 
Then we have the dragonfly dishcloth that was Angel’s surprise pattern in the Kiss group a couple weeks ago:

And  (OH!  I see my little birdie friends!)  Drumroll please…dadadadadadadadadadada!  MY FIRST NEEDLE KNIT SOCKS!  They’re Stephanie’s (awesome to have a 2 1/2yo to try out socks for because they don’t take too long before you have your final result.  :D)  She loves her pink socks, of course!  They were made using two circular needles, US size 2.  I used this ‘magic cast on’ from a back issue of Knitty.  And this wonderful way to get no hole heels without doing wrap and turns or yarn overs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu5YAKsAEpY 
I’m determined to figure out how to do these short rows on the loom, so keep your eyes open for that, OK?  😀