Baby stuff!

No socks, just baby stuff. I have a friend who is due for a week, and I gave her her baby gifts today:

That's the Vine Lace Baby Hat that Knitting Daily just released. It's knit in the Coton Microfibres that I used for the Dauphin top and modeled by my brother's Cabbage Patch Doll, Lionel. It's an incredibly quick knit - I knit it Sunday evening while watching "Snakes on a Plane" and "Without a Trace."

This is the Little Lambs blanket from Vogue Knitting On the Go - Baby Blankets. It doesn't appear in the sidebar, because it was knit in 2001, and has been waiting for a baby ever since. The color is totally off in the picture - it's really a lovely creamy color. Here's a closeup of the sheep:

Oh so cute.

Nothing else of importance to report.

Surfacing again

This has not been a stellar year so far for blogging. I blame it on Saturn's retrograde period. (As good as an excuse as any.)

This post will be finished objects. I promise to follow with current knitting and recent acquisitions in the very near future. (Oy, the acquisitions. Must. Stop. Shopping.)

First up, Day Two of Round Three of Sock Madness:

I was definitely out by 1 pm Thursday, and I was probably out earlier than that, but I wasn't sure who my opponent was on Flickr. I was OK with it, because I really didn't like those socks. The pattern was too wide for my feet, and the gauge given was far too loose for the Socks that Rock. I'm not a fan of cuffed socks - I find them too bulky. I might have been happier had I used the STR and the specified needles rather than the specified gauge (which goes against everything I've been taught about gauge), but I don't think I would have been happy. The yarn will wait for another pattern. Other lessons I've learned from Sock Madness is that (a) I'm a control freak (I kept thinking, "But why? I would do it [this way]." and (b) I like a VERY tightly knit sock. That said, I loved the fourth round pattern, and will be knitting it at some point in the future.

Now, some pretty pictures of the Bloomin' Feet socks:



Look - spring blossoms! (Especially incredible considering we had snow two days before that picture was taken.) My package was mailed off today, and should get there next week. I hope the recipient likes it!

Random family knitting. The now seasonally-inappropriate (knock on wood) Esther Williams Hat:

The pattern called for crochet trim, but I seem to have a very short head, and the trim would impede my vision. I have two fresh balls of Mission Falls in Raspberry to knit another one for my mother, who has a hard time finding hats that cover her forehead as she likes.

I'm back to knitting socks for Mom, since she's been neglected this year. At the end of March, my LYS finally received the long-anticipated shipment of Koigu (it was due in originally "end of October, early November). Two skeins had to come home with me:

Since I pilfered the STR that I had intended to use for Pomatomus socks for Mom, and in hopes that the Koigu would not stripe like the Lorna's Laces I used for mine, I wound up the Koigu and knit away:

Oh well. They not only striped, the stripe reversed direction on the foot. They're still cute, though.

A Finishing Machine...

I finished up my Bloomin' Feet socks!

Well, mostly finished. The crappy photo is mostly there to prove that there are two complete socks. That strand of yarn floating around? Last end to be woven in. After some momentary panic when cropping the picture - Ohmigod, the socks don't match! War! Panic! Mushrooms! - a bit of experimenting determined that they are the same size, but one had been on my foot and the other hadn't, meaning one was slightly wider and shorter. A good wash will fix that. So, when I can find a blooming spring plant (or, if necessary, abscond with an African violet), proper photos will be taken. The weather just needs to make up its mind first.

You might notice a new entry in the Finished Items column - the Esther Williams Hat (scroll down to the third entry). I printed this out a long time ago, and finally knit it. It's a speedy knit - I cast on yesterday afternoon while websurfing, took it to band practice, and finished it up this evening. No photos yet - I'm waiting for daylight. I'm going to skip the crochet trim, because I seem to have an abnormally shaped head and it's already just past my eyebrows. The crochet trim would probably block my vision!

So, what's up next? Round 2 of Sock Madness. The new pattern calls for a sport weight yarn. I finally found one that I loved - Angora Valley Fibers Monarch, especially the Field of Dreams. Problem? I found it on Saturday. There isn't a snowball's chance in Hades that it could have made it here in time. (One of my Zip DVDs took a week to get here from Calgary.) So, it was either stash dive or buy some Briggs and Little. Exfoliating as the B&L would have been, I turned up something I hope will work in the stash:

That would be some ... well-aged Esprit Print from Elann in Summer Sky. You may have seen it in such projects as my first-ever socks (the ones that were two different sizes) or my fishnet stockings. I got gauge, and if I run short, I'll just have obnoxiously mis-matched toes (I'll probably use the leftover Fourth of July I used for my Broadripples.) A couple of other people are looking at using it, so I won't be the only one in trouble if it doesn't work. The pattern is to be released tomorrow evening, so I'll find out then how this goes.

And, I succumbed to the siren song of Elann last week. Usually, I wait until late afternoon, at which point, the colors I want of a given yarn are long gone. Not so much with this:

Seven skeins of Rowan Pure Wool in Ultra Marine. It will become Cambridge, a RYC pattern currently available free from the Victoria and Albert Museum website. I've been wearing one of my Ribby Shells as a vest and really liking it. So, more vests in my future!