Surprise!

Kathleen-
So we've spent months plotting a baby shower for Aubree (technically due at the end of the month, but she's full term). And tonight was the night. Aubree knew we were doing a little thing, but not about the extra surprise we had in store.

In the past few months, 14 knitters knit sections of the Circle of Friends Blanket. At knit night, pieces would be slipped in my bag when her head was turned, or handed off surreptitiously in the coffee shop next door. This weekend, I seamed. And seamed. And wove in ends. And more ends.

The finished project was so worth it!



There were, of course, other knitted gifts. An adorable (matching!) hat.

An ruffly pink hat:
The Baby Surprise Jacket I knit earlier in the year:
An an adorable sewn sleeper gown.

So now the baby is properly outfitted, she can arrive!

Right Aubree?


Coming up in my next post: our Grand Canyon trip in pictures. And: New Knitting Priority List.

Hodge Podge

Kathleen-
Ack! I'm sorry to hear about your Dad's injury...I hope he's doing better and not lifting anything, and that he's being a good patient for your Mom's sake!

Yesterday involved a lot of digging and gardening. After I posted I went and bought a big bunch of pretty bulbs, and planted them out front, and pulled a ton of weeds (how do the weeds get out of control so fast?!)

After all that, I didn't knit much...a bit on Henry, and a bit more on the socks for Grandpa. I'm succumbing to the group opinion and keeping the toe/hell brown. Actually, the further I get with the green, the more I like it. I'll be measuring tonight...I think I'm almost to the gusset increases for the first sock!

There was, however, no progress on Rogue. I just couldn't face the thinking required.....

There was a bit of progress on a super secret knitting project, but being super-secret, I'm not going to spill the beans!

Super Secret Projects

Kathleen-
Like you, but apparently unlike the rest of knit-blog land, I was not at Rhinebeck this weekend....but I was wishing we were there enjoying the sheepy goodness.

Instead, I worked, hung out with lots of people who were in town for a wedding, and spent lots of time playing with fiber.

• Inspired by all the SOAR posts, I managed to get quite a bit of spinning done.
  
• Inspired by the crisp weather, I knit a bunch on both fronts of Rogue before discovering a potential problem. You see, Rogue is perfectly symmetrical...but the cables on either side of the neck are not mirrored...they twist in the same direction. So I'm deciding how much this bugs me, and thinking about re-charting the cables. My thought is to re-chart only the neck sides, but not the cables at the top of the hood. Just so that when the hood is back, the cables that fall on either side of my neck are mirror images of each other.
  
• Inspired by upcoming holiday deadlines, I worked on some super secret projects.
  
• Inspired by my chilly neck, I knit more on Henry.

Despite all of this, I have a total of 0 pictures. I know, bad blogger! But until today, our day after day of rainy weather got in the way of any decent photos. Hopefully tonight! In a last ditch effort to stretch my Oregon pictures as far as they can go, here's a lovely Hippo:



Mike and I are off to AZ on Thursday for a combination business trip/friend's wedding, and I'll be taking knitting...but also a ton of work!

Tinnitus?

Hey Flan,

So I figured out the problem w/ The Hubby's Sweater. There was a teeny tiny bit I was leaving out. It so happens you're supposed to slip one and then knit two together and THEN pass the slipped stitch over. I was conveniently forgetting the whole K2Tog thing. I think ripping is the only solution. Arg.

I'm working on a super secret project. Since it's super secret all I'm going to say is that it's Italian Silk and the third time is the charm. I started once on my trip to The Sister's graduation and decided I didn't like how the pattern was turning out. I did some research and found a pattern I thought was far better suited and started off. I decided the needle size wasn't quite right and started over on needles 2 sizes bigger. Much much better.

I had a rough day yesterday. It started out surprisingly well (always a sign that trouble is probably brewing) and then got much, much worse. I thought things might improve upon going to job#2. Sadly, the only thing resoundly confirmed was that marble makes sounds, such as those made by screaming children, echo. I could go on, but there's a ringing in my ears and it's making it difficult to concentrate.