So, where was I?

Oh yeah, I remember. I was just running out the door for a little trip. Well, I'm back.

I actually went to help my sister, who had a little operation. She is doing much better now, which is a huge relief. She made some comment about us getting older now and this being just the beginning of the health issues...sigh. Not me. Even though I am the oldest of my siblings, I am not anywhere near old enough to say this is the beginning of the end. It's all about your attitude, right?

In honor of our sister's surgery, and because he was long overdue, our baby brother came to town and brought his lovely new wife. He spent some time at the sister's house, then packed up and moved over to my house for a nice visit.

I didn't even mind missing the Yarn Harlot last night, at least not too much. It was their last night with us and since my brother's visits have been less often or reliable than the Yarn Harlot's, I wanted to spend the time with him.

By the way, his wife is wonderful! We all love her and hopefully didn't smother her too much with our adoration.

Have I mentioned that my brother is a chef? And that his wife is too? Just thinking about the gorgeous, delicious food I have eaten in the last week and half makes me smile. Unfortunately no food pictures. I didn't want to scare my new sister-in-law too badly with my oddities, at least not all of them at once!

Oh, and all of these flower pictures are from my yard. It has been a very wet, gloomy Spring around these parts, but things are still blooming. Hooray for that!

A little knitting has been happening too. I wanted to welcome the sister-in-law with something special, so I knit her a pair of socks.

Pattern: Sarah's Slip Stitch Sock, Yarn: Blue Moon Socks that Rock colorway Midsummer Night, Medium weight.

My sister-in-law is a beginning knitter, so I thought she would appreciate something hand-made. She did seem to and even put up with my request to pose for pictures in the new socks. See what I mean about not exposing her to my oddities all at once? I knew the sock pictures were more important that the food pictures.

Finally, for those of you who have made it through this entire post, here is a little yarn p*rn for your enjoyment:

This is a skein of hand spun Superwash Merino from a little company called Declan Knits. I bought it at a super tiny yarn shop in ZigZag Oregon called Cast One On. I had never noticed the shop before, but as I drove by I saw that they had a large sign that said "Yarn" on the side of the building. Since it was new to me, I had to stop in and see what they had. Was I ever glad I did! The owner was very sweet and is a dyer and spinner who seems to only sell through her little shop at the moment.

Yes, the color is at least that vibrant in person, actually I think a bit more. I absolutely love this yarn!! She had a pair of mittens made out of the same yarn and I think that may be what mine is going to become. For now though, it is going to stay next to me in my office and keep me company.

By the way, she wrapped the yarn in tissue, put it into a gorgeous little bag and even included a tape measure as a little perk. If you ever find yourself in ZigZag Oregon (and why wouldn't you), I highly recommend stopping into Cast One On and checking out the handspun.

That's it for now. I'll try not to stay away so long next time. Otherwise I just end up with these huge posts.

I'm getting ready to run out of town for a couple of days, so wanted to make a quick post before I go.

As promised, here are yet another pair of socks. These are for A. When I was knitting my "happy rainbow" socks, she kept asking me "Are those for me?" and later it was "When are you going to make my happy rainbow socks?'. How is a mother to refuse?

Stats: basically the same as for this pair of socks, only smaller.

I may have mentioned this before, but I think she may have a future as a sock model. All of these poses are all her. I love that she is little enough that not only does she not think it is weird that I take pictures of her feet, she actually likes to participate.

One more, just for fun. Of course, there were half a dozen more, but how many pictures of a plain pair of socks would anyone want to see?

I also finished this hat in the past week. It is destined to be a chemo cap which will be donated to a local charity.
Pattern: A combo of the "Robin's Egg Blue" hat and the "Cashmere Beanie" hat, Yarn" Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky

These are both fun, very easy patterns. I wanted to knit something a little different than the normal beanie I knit for charity. It looks super cute on, but I have decided to spare both my husband and the rest of the world from seeing pictures of him modeling it.

I'm now going to go back to my crazy trip prep. Be back in a few days.

Wednesday Update

Seems I've only been able to make it to the old blog on Wednesdays lately. I like this Wednesday update theme I've got going on because I know I will write the blog at least once a week. Not that I ever run out of things to write about, but for some reason this is working for me for the moment, so I'm going to go with it for another week.

So, without further ado, here is the Hubby's vest - done!

Pattern: Vest from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, Yarn: Nashua Creative Focus, Worsted, Colorway: Evergreen

I actually finished it Saturday, but haven't had the five minutes required to write up a post about it. It did end up being quiet a slog, I think because I was just not fond of this yarn. It's really hairy and consists of a fairly loosely spun single. This meant I could not knit this without looking at every stitch. The minute I would look away I would put the needle through the yarn. For me, a big flat piece of dark colored stockinette that requires me to look at every stitch equals torture.

The attached i-cord around the neck and arm holes ended up going pretty quickly, after I finally settled on a plan. Getting to the plan only took four false starts and enough ripped out stitches to equal roughly both armholes.

However, the Mr. loves it. I think he has worn it every day since I finished it. You can't get any better endorsement than that!

By the way, there are only these two pictures because as soon as we stepped outside to take them it started to hail. Every time we tried to go out for pictures on Sunday, it would rain or hail, so we finally gave up. This will just have to do!

In addition to the vest, I also finished a hat and a pair of socks for A. this week. I'll take pictures of both projects and post them soon - hopefully before next Wednesday....

The only old WIP I have now is the Malabrigo Kiri. I'm afraid that one is going to sit around for awhile since I am just not that into it. Recently, a friend kindly pointed out this post to me...doesn't look much different does it? Ah well, I'll get to it when I'm in the mood.

I am now off to start another pair of socks, this time for my new sister-in-law. I'm going to meet her for the first time next week. Since she is a knitter I thought she might like to have something I knit for her. I know I love it when other people knit things for me!

WIP's and other Wednesday Goodies

I think I like this "reporting on my WIP's" Wednesdays. It has motivated me to at least try to put some time in with them.

This week. I made some real progress on the vest. Sorry for the weird angle of the picture.

I finished seaming the vest and have started the edge. It turned out, even though I followed the pattern precisely and the pieces were blocked to just the right size, this was going to be pretty short for the Hubby. So, we agreed that I would add a rib at the bottom to lengthen the entire vest. I was glad I had started with a provisional cast on at the bottom, because it made the ribbing seamless.

Maybe I'll have this thing done by next week?

In addition to working on the vest and the little socks I wrote about last time, I also knit 2 small samples for the pattern line and wrote up the pattern for those samples. I feel so productive!

As we move closer to the June TNNA show, I anticipate fewer of my projects will be things I can blog about. I'm sure I'll find something to write about though. For example, this last week I received a gorgeous hand knit lace scarf from my friend Robert for my birthday.

I am not sure of the pattern, but the yarn is Blue Moon Socks that Rock. I think the colorway is Midsummer's Night. Isn't it gorgeous! I don't know how he knew that is one of my favorite Blue Moon colorways. I guess he does know me pretty well and I am pretty predictable, so no real mystery after all.

Thanks so much Robert! I am already enjoying wearing this one and look forward to using it a lot!