I’m furiously trying to finish this little baby jacket before the big baby shower next Saturday. I made the same jacket, from the pattern Easy Baby Cardigan, for another baby not too long ago. This time I’ve added the hood and it’s for a girl. I know it’s not the color we normally associate with baby girls but the expectant mother specifically requested that we all go easy on the pink. As it turned out, I happened to have a ball of my favorite sock yarn, Jitterbug, lying around, and that’s what I used.

This may very well be the last thing I ever knit – sadly. My fingers are stiff with arthritis and I’ve also got tennis elbow. Years of overuse from manic knitting and computer use along with advanced age, have created quite a bit of pain in my right hand and arm. I don’t think I’ll give it up altogether, but I’ll probably slow down significantly.

So what else shall I blog about?

Today I helped my little sister, Liz, felt her first slippers and I felt so proud. Honestly, I had so much fun that it revived my excitement in felting. Liz got it into her brain to make slippers for several members of her boyfriend’s family but I don’t think she realized what she had gotten herself into. The slippers are a little tricky and you do have to keep your eye on the pattern at all times. They’re not difficult per se, but they do require some short row shaping, etc. However I do think, for the first attempt, the slippers came out amazing.

Here are the next pair of slippers in progress:

Has anyone out there used Lamb’s Pride for felting? I’m a little worried about the mohair content.

In any case, felting is a very forgiving form of knitting art and hides a multitude of knitting flubs.

It’s also a lot of fun!

I so enjoyed knitting the koolhaas hat for a friend, that I decided to make one for myself. It wasn’t the pattern that bowled me over so much as the fiber. Malabrigo twist is probably the most luscious fiber I’ve used in a long time. I rushed right out to Article Pract in Oakland and snatched up their remaining two skeins in these two colorways.

Sorry people. They might have more left but this is definitely a yarn worth searching for. So amazingly soft that I thought it was silk…or yak…but not surprised to learn that it’s merino, the finest wool around IMO.

So in between writing my literature review this cold, rainy weekend, I’ve been stealing moments here and there to work on my new hat.

<<sigh>> Back to the paper.

There are a couple a new things here. First of all the pattern. It’s the Moss Grid Hand Towel from Mason Dixon Knitting. I’ve never attempted a hand towel before. Srsly.  But I happened to see a hand towel that my neighbor made and it inspired me. Plus, I’m knitting this particular hand towel in linen, another first for me and it’s blue. Yes, blue. Blue the color that I use least often and that appears nowhere in my wardrobe (except for jeans). But somehow, blue is always my first choice for towels, such as bath towels, so this should make a nice addition to the bathroom when finished.

The pace of my life is crazier than ever and I’m mad at myself for breaking my once a  week blogging rule. I suppose nobody really cares but me. I thought my life would slow down once I finished my credential but now I’m in a graduate program at CSUEB and doing BTSA as well (don’t ask) – all in addition to teaching 150 whiny, needy, energetic, crazy, lovable, frustrating, rambunctious, creative, lazy, funny, high school students.

I’m feeling so overwhelmed by the start of school that I completely forgot to blog yesterday. Instead I attended the first football game of the season. I did manage to start a new project recently of which I’m giving you a sneak peak. The fiber is yummy Malabrigo which feels like cashmere. So wonderfully and amazingly soft. Well that’s all I can say about it right now. It’s a surprise for someone special. Shhhhhhh.

I’m up in Portland, Oregon visiting old friends and haunts and I had the chance to drop in on the Sock Summit yesterday. What a thrill! I bumped into one knitting celebrity, Anne Hanson of Knitspot, at the Verb for Keeping Warm booth but I was too shy to get her photo. She was most gracious nonetheless.

The sock museum was totally exciting for a sock knitting geek like me. I have knit many of the sock patterns that were on display including the Spring Forward socks pictured below. Seeing them reminded me that I’ve been wanting to re-knit that little number for months now. Perhaps I’ll cast on for my next trip.

This gal, known as “sock it to me Susan”, is as crazy about knitting socks as I am…er…used to be.

Going to the Sock Summit inspired me to get knitting on socks again soon. Now if it would only cool off.

It seems like just yesterday when I was lugging this blanket around and knitting rows and rows and rows of garter stitch. But it’s been finished for over two years now. Today I adore it but I couldn’t believe it when I saw this little error the other day. OMG – I must have inadvertently purled when I was sleep-knitting through this project. And let me just say that it took all the self control I could muster not to frog it and knit the whole thing over. I think that’s why we knit. If we wanted perfection, we can easily buy it.

This vest is a beautiful design from Jared Flood aka Brooklyntweed which I started in January 2009 and haven’t touched in months. <sigh> I don’t know why I thought a purple vest was a good idea – I already have one!

Here’s a project that I’m ambivalent about. Should I try and figure out where I left off or frog the entire piece?  The original pattern called for two balls of Misti Alpaca Hand Paint  but I’m on my third and I fear I’ll need a fourth. So with all this yardage, I’m afraid that I’ll be swimming in this shrug when it’s done. Either that or it will droop down to my knees. <sigh> Perhaps I should visit Ellen at K2Tog and solicit her advice. After the recent heatwave, the weather is cooling so this shrug could defnitely come in handy. Where oh where did I stick that darn pattern?