Purtiest and saddest sight to be seen

Okay so I finally got around to taking some photos of the Crazy colors sock I've been working on -- maybe I will actually finish its mate before the end of summer ... lol. Its my 'empty hands' project...that is it keeps my hands from being empty when I'm someplace - it tends to come along, and while it will come out of my bag it will rarely get worked on or worked on at a snails pace.
It is a toe up sock of my own pattern (its fairly simple but I will put it up after the second sock gets finished ... so I can check the pattern). I had a bit of a problem with the increases ... I am so used to working with dpn's that I kept trying to work with the needle of the 'quiet' circs still holding stitches. For the second socks I will work them with the non-working stitches on the cable and not the needle, that way the first stitch of the other needle will be just a little tighter and not make the hole (hopefully).

here it is with the needles showing ... yes those are ebony circs - the ones I got on sale at herrschners.com ... they are very nice. I was a little leary at first because the wooden single-points I've used have always seemed to 'sticky' to be able to work with, I like to have the stitches slide off the needle when I'm taking off the stitches instead of hanging up or leaving lint behind - so I tend to stick with the metallic needles.
here's a slightly closer shot so you can see the colors a bit better. Actually I swear the photo makes the color too 'orangy' than it really is. It is a nice 'hot' color scheme of mosty red apple red & magenta (more on the purply side). In fact when you look at the first photo - the band by my thumb is red and the wide one near the toes is magenta. Okay - those letters aren't magenta but I don't have the color code for it yet.

I wish the photo would show the pattern a little better - I like the way it is working up...and it is so simple too.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
now for the saddest thing ... okay maybe not the saddest in your life but its the saddest on this page that's for sure.

Yes that is another pair of ebony circs that I got on sale. no they did not come that way. I thought I had order 2 pr of size 2.5 (3.0mm) for doing socks on but found that I had only ordered 1 pr so I set them aside by my bed and didn't think anymore about it and just used the matching pair I had, figured I could switch to them for when I do the cuff and heel .... well I didn't think anymore about it.
Until one morning after the kids had been wrestling on our bed I heard a horrid crunch ... at first i thought I had stepped on a pencil (they do their homework in my room on my bed where they can spread out) ... so I didn't panic.
Until I picked up the card! Oh my - I could have cried. My only consolation was that I paid less than 1/2 price for them. Actually I am going to see if I can't reshape and sand them into a shorter pair of needles and then wax them to coat them and see what can be done with them.

I'm not sure what I will be able to use them for, but I'm a creative chick -- I'll think of something.