What a Suprise!

Kathleen-
What a fantastic surprise!

Like Kathleen said, we went to the zoo, where I snapped this picture of Kathleen and Mike:


As well as this picture of Kathleen's favorite animal (that's a moose, for those who aren't up on their ungulates)


And of Kathleen with a statue of her favorite animal:

I ended up buying the yarn we picked out for 2 pairs of stranded mittens, and started the first:

(I can't resist the cute picture of our friend Sue's cat playing with my yarn:
And we threw a successful baby shower at knitting, where I gifted the mom to be with the TINY baby booties I made while you were here:
Apparently Minnesota decided it's not spring yet, as we're supposed to get a rain/sleet/snow mix, so I leave you with this sunny picture of a leopard from our trip to the zoo.

Summertime....

Kathleen-
I'm with you on the summertime knitting. I have very limited ability to knit in the summer in the absence of air conditioning. At the moment, we only have one of our air conditioners installed, so the master bedroom is nice and cool, but the rest of the house has a tendency to swelter. As I watched the 10:00 news last night, the words "tropical dew points" came out of the weather woman's mouth, and I knew I was in for trouble today.

Sure enough, it's already hot and sticky. Thank goodness for air conditioned offices!

I too have many projects, but I'm trying to focus at the moment.

1. Sockapalooza socks! The deadline is early August, so I'm doing my best to get them done sooner rather than later to remove the deadline.

2. Babies. I'm with you, babies are popping up all over the place. (None from me). So there's some baby knitting going on. A few pairs of booties, and maybe a couple of EZ baby sweaters are in my future.

3. Lace! So funny you should mention this. Yesterday after I posted, I was exploring the internet, and decided to sign up for the Mystery Stole 3 KnitAlong. The premise is that each Friday (with one exception for the Harry Potter release) the moderator posts a clue, and we all knit along with that clue. There is no picture of the finished stole in advance...thus the mystery! The first clue goes up this Friday, and sign-ups for the group are closing on July 5th....so if you're interested, sign up sooner rather than later. It's already got over 3000 participants.

I haven't swatched for it yet, but I've got it narrowed down to two yarns. Either Misti Alpaca Lace in a Lavender (from the Borealis Memorial Day Sale), or Blackberry Ridge Silky Merino in Samarkand Blue (from Shepard's Harvest).

As for the question of the day, I can only answer with my current answer: Priority 1 is the sockapalooza socks since they have a deadline. Priority 2 is to keep working on baby booties in small amounts, and Priority 3 is the Mystery Stole 3 KnitAlong.

Shrugging

Kathleen-
Well, I did it! The shrug was finished Thursday night, blocked Thursday night into Friday, tried on with the dress.....and then we had dinner with Mike's relatives, and my clothing plans changed for Saturday night, and the shrug wasn't worn.
I don't have finished, modeled pictures yet, but I do have a picture of my progress on Thursday morning.

The party was a great success, marked by absolutely perfect weather for cruising down the Mississippi, lots of family and friends, and only a limited amount of discussion of hockey!

Now that the shrug is done, I'm buckling down on my sockapalooza socks, and some baby booties for the pregnant ladies in my life just for fun!