My Computer Shows Me No Respect

I hate dial-up Internet. It's slow, and fussy, and at the moment it's not having too many good days. It's taken to dropping off for no reason, so now I have to figure out the reason. On a good night we only drop off twice. Needless to say, our phone bill has gone up, as has my frustration.
This week Denise and I were in a hurried knitted gift making frenzy. My cousin's daughter was being baptised and we were invited. While we knew of this for a while, I thought last week that a knitted something would be very meaningful. So Denise got out the crochet hook and made a baby's sun hat, I went downloading, and got the pattern for the Katja baby top from Knitty. We'd have pictures of these items, but I finished the top 10 minutes before giving it to the baby. Denise's sun hat was a hit. Everyone loved it, and as little bub was being passed from person to person, she needed something on her head. I'm sure Denise will be making another for her friend in Ballarat with the little one, so I'll grab a pic then.
One thing that has been finished is my Christmas stocking. It's a great big fluffy stocking, and I can fit plenty of wool in it (I know, I tried it to take the picture). Now I'm hunting down the next pattern to try for Denise's stocking. Denise suggested doing a Picot Cast Off so that the stocking has points on which to hang small bells. Although I think it may be so she can hear Santa putting the gifts in her stocking!
So far I've tried Wendy Johnson's Generic Toe Up Sock. Not bad, although I don't really like provisional cast ons, I never feel like I'm catching all the stitches. So next time I'm going to use the Figure Eight Cast On from Knitty's Tiptop Toes article.
Still have to figure out how to cast off loosely enough. Denise had this problem with her first pair of toe-up socks. Asking around on GLBT-Knit, Fiberqat suggested a row of single crochet to cast off. Have to give this a try, although it probably won't matter too much with the stockings.
Anyway, this was just meant to be a short post as I managed to get on and to say that we're still here. Denise is busy studying for her final university exams. She sat in her final lecture ever, and is looking forward to the 11th when the only thing left to do will be to walk across the stage and get that certificate.
Yay Denise!