FO Friday -- Sophisticated Edition

I know you've all been biting your nails in anticipation, so I'll come right out with it:

My Baby Sophisticate is finished!  Proof:

Thank you all so much for your suggestions about ways to make the sleeves work.  In the end, I had a very specific picture in my head, so I got myself another skein of yarn, then pulled out the sleeve and started again, alternating skeins every other row to better blend the colors. 

You can sort of almost see it if you look very, very closely but I'm willing to live with that.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out, though.  And I'm hoping it will be well loved in its new home. 

Since that's all that's really going on this week, you get a gratuitous puppy shot.  She's growing like a WEED, and while she's definitely not an FO, she is making progress (thank God!).  I think we'll keep her.

Even if she did eat my phone charger.

Have a lovely weekend, guys!  And consider kicking it off with visits to FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday.  I'll see you there!

FO Friday -- PUPPY!! Edition

guys! Guys! GUYS!  Guess what?  Okay, you guessed.  WE ADOPTED A PUPPY!

(I know, I know, FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday are all about the knitting, but if I talk about my stripey socks and make you wade through lots of words, all you'll read is:  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, PUPPY!  So if you're strictly interested in fiber, scroll down for the socks...)

Here she is!  See?  (Shelter's fuzzy pic):

My much better pre-adoption snap:

And the picture that melted my heart:

Now that we have the squeeing out of the way, I can tell you the story.  Mr. Right and I have been talking about getting another dog to (at best) keep our old girl company.  Or at the very least, to inspire her to be more active during the day.  So we decided that I would go by the shelter after I dropped him at the airport on Wednesday to do some initial research.  Easy enough.  I went, looked at lots of grown up dogs and made a list.  One by one, they dropped off because of different limitations (hate kids, hate other dogs, that sort of thing).  I was standing at the desk going through this list with the clerk when an old man came in with this cute little puppy on a leash.  She proceeded to run  up the back of my jeans, then went away with the man.

I went and met with a dog who turned out to be Not Our Dog.  He was a cutie, but would've driven our geriatric shepherd into an early grave.  No dice.  When I went back out, the clerk told me I should check back since they get new dogs all the time.  "Like the puppy that guy just surrendered."  What???  Seriously???  Why would anyone do that???  "Can I see her?"  And the rest, my friends, is history. 

I sat down on the floor with her and she climbed into my lap.  It killed me.  Then someone walked past the glass door and she ran over and barked.  Shortly after that, a big dog went by and barked at her, and she dove back into my lap and tucked her head behind my purse strap.  Then it was really all over.

After a meeting with our dog, and a looooooooooooooong phone conversation with poor Mr. Right who's half a continent away, we decided to bring her home.  I can't believe it!  She was spayed this afternoon, and Mr. Right and I will go pick her up tomorrow morning on the way home from the airport.  She's SO not the dog we thought we'd be adding to our family, but she's perfect!  She's ostensibly a purebred Australian Cattle Dog who is 4 months old.  And at the moment, she's called Peanut, but I expect that will be old news by the end of the weekend.  We'll see what fits our new girl.

And oh yeah.  In other news,  I knitted some socks.   I finished these before the holidays, but they're the last in my back up of FOs.  This was my first foray into the world of self-striping sock yarn, and I've made a vow not to buy any more of it without seeing a swatch.

In the beginning, I thought they were the ugliest things I'd ever seen. (In my defense, the first repeat started with pink, purple, rust.)  But I must admit, I'm pleasantly surprised with the way they turned out.  They're a nice bit of cheer in a pretty dreary winter.

Now that you have your puppy fix, go check out FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday.  Both are guaranteed to have much more yarn-y goodness than this particular entry -- but absolutely no chance of finding a cuter puppy.  You win some, you lose some, right?

FO Friday -- Really Big Beanie Edition

I can't believe it.  It's Friday again, and I actually have another FO to share.  Know what's the best part?  I already have another one ready to go for next week!  I know.  I can't believe it myself.  Now that we have that out of the way...  I present (Really Big) Turn A Square:

Ta da!

Note that the hat in question was very helpfully modeled by Mr. Right prior to being gifted, and that my sweetie has a much smaller noggin than the intended recipient.  I'm happy to report that it fit Brother-in-Law's giant melon quite nicely.

Anyway, I think I mentioned that I decided at some absurdly late date to knit a pair of fingerless mitts for my shiny new sister-in-law for Christmas.  Well, some time around the thumb gusset for mitt number one, I came to the conclusion that it would be sort of rude to do that and not make something for her husband too. 

And so I set about making Jared Flood's super cool hat pattern on December 28 (keeping in mind that we were seeing this part of the family on December 30).  It went swimmingly, and after just a few hours of frenzied knitting I was ready to start the crown decreases.  Unfortunately, I had nowhere near the correct number of stitches.  A quick review of the pattern revealed that I'd completely forgotten to do the increase round after the ribbing.  You know, about 1" into the hat.  Gah!  I spent a good hour trying to convince myself that it might be alright if I just knit the hat a little longer, and maybe his head wasn't so big, and maybe... 

Then (you know what's coming, right?) 

I ripped the whole blinking thing out (well, back to the ribbing anyway) and started over.  On December 29.  Le sigh.  Somehow, I managed to knit like the wind, and even got it finished in time to take a few photos *and* get it wrapped before our gift exchange.  Phew!  I'm awfully glad it worked out, and that he was happy with his hat, and even angling for his own pair of fingerless mitts.  But really, I don't think I'd like to get quite that close to a gift deadline again.

Bonus Points:  I totally knit the mitts AND the hat from stash yarn!  For those of you keeping track at home (okay, I'm willing to accept that I might be the only one)... That's 4(!) projects in a row from stashed yarn!  I'm hoping to continue this trend for the better part of this year, but we'll see how it goes.  Anybody else stash dieting this year? 

That's it from these parts.  Hope y'all have a great weekend! If you have time, I highly recommend starting it off with visits to FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday.  All the cool kids are doing it.

FO Friday -- Fo Ho Ho Edition

Twice!  In one week!  Be still my beating heart, it's SO fun to be back here and be in touch with all my bloggy friends.  I missed you guys!  As I mentioned, I lost all my marbles the week before Christmas and decided to make presents for my shiny new sister-in-law and her husband, neither of whom I'd ever met (despite being with Mr. Right for almost 7 years now!).  I have no idea what possessed me to do this, but once I got the idea in my head there was no convincing me otherwise.  Nooo, I'm not stubborn at all.  Why do you ask?

Anyway, I decided a pair of worsted weight fingerless mitts would be a good idea since I had a pattern I'd been eyeing, and plenty of appropriate yarn.  What I didn't have couldn't find was a set of dpns in the right size.  Grumble.  Undeterred, I decided now would be a good time to teach myself how to magic loop (see "stubborn" above).  And while I found looping completely unintuitive, I totally pulled it off, yo!  Check it out:

Okay, I didn't have time to block them, the color's kind of wonky in this photo, and there's one tiny mis-crossed cable on the right mitt that I had to work hard to ignore, but overall, I'm really happy with how they turned out.  And they look pretty good on, if I do say so myself:

This is much closer to the actual color

Sister-in-law was properly happy with her gift when she opened them, until Mr. Right made sure to let her know that I'd made them.  She didn't believe him at first, then was all kinds of impressed.  Definitely a knitworthy reaction, which was really fun.

And once I finished the mitts, I decided to knit a hat for her husband.  Twice.  But you'll have to wait until next week to hear that harrowing tale.  You see, I'm currently knitting a fingering weight hoodie, so if I don't string out my recent FOs, I'll have nothing to share for eons.  Until then, there are plenty of other goodies to check out over at FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday. Go check 'em out!

FO Friday - Lotsa Lace Edition

How sad is it that I couldn't post on Wednesday because I still haven't managed to start any sort of meaningful knitting project?  Slightly distressing, I must admit.  I'm getting closer, and we're finishing up the Big Move on Sunday, so there's light at the end of the tunnel, peeps.  It's about time!

No matter, what I do have is an actual finished piece of knitting.  Exciting, no?  I think so.  I started the Nympheas scarf waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in June, knit tons of it while I was stuck in a hotel room nursing Mr. Right and his Exploding Appendix, then put it aside for all manner of wedding knitting, and wedding stuff, then picked it up again on our honeymoon only to have my needles ripped from it and confiscated by a VERY ANGRY Costa Rican TSA guy.  This little scarf has had quite a journey!

I was a little worried since I bought the yarn in a Ravelry destash and the skein arrived in all sorts of tangled disarray.  It seemed a bit lighter than the prescribed yardage, and I was afraid I'd come up short.  My finished scarf, once I'd used up all of it, was only about 47" long so I pinned (no pun intneded, but Ha!) a lot of hope on the magic of blocking. 

I took a deep breath and threaded my borrowed blocking wires (never used those before) through the edges.  And then...

It totally worked!  Finished and blocked, my Nympheas is about 64" long.  Pretty close to what I was hoping for, actually.  Win!

It's warm and cozy, but not too heavy...

And it looks pretty good hanging from a tree in an artsy Fall photo:

Yay!  And now I'm diving back into the packing-and-moving-and-unpacking black hole, but I promise to come up for air now and again over the weekend to visit y'all over at FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday.  Happy weekend, guys!

FO Friday -- Bulky Baby Blankie Edition

Great news, y'all!  I finished the baby blanket I'd been working on at breakneck speed last week!  And only 5 days after the baby shower!  Oops.  I tried.  I really, really did.  But apparently I brought some sort of exotic cold back from Costa Rica with me, and then had to ship Mr. Right back off on the Business Trip That Never Ends (...it goes on and on, my friends!) and all of it slowed me down just a smidge.

But!  All flimsy excuses aside, here it is:

I loved knitting this blanket.  For reals.  It was fast and easy, and the pattern was both well-written and very intuitive.  After a bit, I only had to glance at it occasionally.  And that doesn't happen for me very often.

If you're interested, I modified an afghan pattern to shrink it down to baby-size, and knit it in Knit Picks Brava (acrylic!) Bulky.  Details on my mods are here.  And I gotta say, the yarn was surprisingly soft and squishy.  I'm not a fan of acrylic at all, and I'd totally use this again for something like a baby blanket that needs to be both washable and generally mistreat-able.

It's an all-around Woot! project, I'd say.

In other news, I'm still waiting on the rest of the wedding pictures so I can write up a proper post or two.  Soon!  Promise!  I did find one picture I wanted to share with you all:

Remember Wendell?  He's my ridiculously adorable and incredibly reliable wedding assistant, sent by Kathleen to help me wrangle all the details.  He totally came to the chapel with me and hung out in the dressing room while I was getting ready.  He stood watch over the bridesmaids bouquets and just generally made me smile.  Wendell rocks.

Speaking of things that rock... (smooth transition, no?) Go check out FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday for lots more yarny goodness.  They're all kinds of awesome.

FO Friday - Wedding Puffs Edition

Happy almost-weekend, guys!  I'm still digging out from all the wedding debris around here, and knitting my fingers off on the baby blankie for *gulp* tomorrow night, but I wanted to take a quick minute to share a fun pre-wedding FO. 

I mentioned once or twice that I wanted to knit some hexipuffs in our wedding colors to hang in the apple tree for decoration, and then eventually work into my beekeeper's quilt.  Sentimentality and all that mooshy stuff.  I showed you a pile that looked like this:

And then like this:

And then things got super crazy, as they tend to do in the week before a wedding, and I didn't manage to knit the puffs with our initials on them like I wanted.  Fortunately for me, I had 6 (!) good friends staying at my house with me during the wedding weekend, one of whom is my bestest knitting buddy (Hi, BB!).  Bless her heart, she spent a semi-frantic 15 minutes on the night before our wedding embroidering our initials onto two of my wedding puffs, and then stringing them all together into a happy little garland.

On the big day, they hung on the gate leading to the reception:

And they looked pretty freaking awesome, if you ask me.  I'm SO happy with the way it all turned out, and with the helping hand I got in getting them all finished. 

The other wedding FO was the groom's socks, which I posted about before, but here's a shot of them in action on the Big Day:

That's a wrap on the wedding knitting, stay tuned for something new and exciting coming soon to a blog near you -- just as soon as I figure out what it is.  Meanwhile, go check out all the fun stuff happening at the other FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday blogs.  They're pretty much guaranteed awesomesauce.

FO Friday -- Here Comes the Groom Edition

Happy Friday, y'all!  I'm super excited on this particular Friday for lots of reasons:

First, if you're reading this it means I've finally put in the last hours at my terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad job.  What a relief.  I'm SO excited to start a whole new life in the next couple of weeks, and only a little bit sad about the whole affair.

Next, I finished the Wedding Socks!  And I did it in plenty of time to meet that whole Olympic knitting deadline.  Awesome.  They fit Mr. Right's feet perfectly, and I love the way they turned out:

Not bad, eh?  Bonus:  Despite more than a year transpiring between sock 1 and sock 2, they're almost exactly the same size.  No idea how I managed that, but pretty happy that I did.

More pics to come after the Big Day, promise.  My little sock blockers don't quite do a great job of showing off the pattern since boy socks are so. freaking. big.
And... I have another FO this week!  Largely because someone else made it.  Behold, wedding jam:

These cute little things are our wedding favors.  Homemade peach jam, courtesy of my awesome matron of honor, and spectacular jam labels courtesy of my equally awesome art director friend.  I'm kind of smitten with them and hope our guests are, too.  They still need a ribbon or a bit of twine around the lid, but that should be pretty painless.

Now, just 2 1/2 more puffs to go, and the wedding knitting will be finito.  Phew!  Then, I just have 11 million and 3 things left to get done before the wedding.  Next week.  Eep!  Okay, I'm exaggerating a little bit.  Really, we're in great shape as far as stuff coming together.   I know this because I still have time to knit.  Baby blanket!  Woot!

And now I'm off to wash the dog.  Oh, the glamorous life of a bride!  But then I'll check out all the cool stuff that's happening at FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday, because both of them are way more fun than stinky, wet dog.

FO Friday - Temporary Amnesia Edition

Hey you guys!  How the heck are ya?  In case you missed the update, I was all set to write a WIPW post this week, and then got an email on Wednesday morning from a blog friend (Hi, Nikki!)  asking if I was okay since I'd missed posting two weeks in a row.  I was really, really confused for a minute as I'd been totally convinced that it was Tuesday.  Yeah, not so much. 

The upshot is, I'm alive and well, and utterly unable to keep track of the days of the week any longer.  Ah well, there are worse things, right?

So here's a tiny update for you:  When last we spoke, I was still in California, taking care of my newly surgerized fiance in his business-trip hotel room.  I ended up flying home on Thursday, and happily they sent him home with me to heal up for a few days.  He did, and is now back in California (sans appendix) working away.  Phew!  It's a bummer to be apart again, but I'm happy to have him healthy and be back for normal pre-wedding stress levels. 

And now for the FO Friday/ Fiber Arts Friday portion of the festivities:  I'm still knitting away on the wedding puffs, and despite having some serious trauma with the heart puffs (yeah, I know, there's nothing much "hexi" about them), they're coming along.  Here are the first 8:

Pretty cute, no?  I'm definitely getting faster at them and have high hopes for at least a couple of dozen of them hanging from the apple tree at the reception.

My other FO for this week is wedding shoes!  Sounds silly, I know... but it took 5 phone calls, 1 store visit, 2 internet orders and 1 rather painful mail order return to get them done.  I'd say that cements their FO status, don't you think?  Anyway, here they are:



I don't love them on their own, but they're really pretty spectacular with the dress, which you'll have to wait a bit to see since Mr. Right some times reads my blog (Hi, love!).  So take my word for it and I promise to share lots of pics when the time comes (44 days -- eep!)

I'd show you the invitations too, but I can't figure out how to blur the details and I don't really want to invite the whole of the internets to the wedding.  Ooh!  But I can maybe crop it so you can just see the design my friend made for us...

There's not really a black outline around the edges, but it got a bit lost on the background without.  Aren't they so cute?  And in case you haven't guessed it yet, my next wedding DIY is making flag bunting to hang on the fence at the reception.  Stay tuned for pics of that progress next Wednesday, provided I can figure out what day it is.  Until then, have a spectacular weekend!

FO Friday -- Not Quite Dry Edition

Happy FO Friday, y'all!  As promised, I got Narragansett fixed up and blocked this week, but somehow it didn't quite dry until this morning.  And so, what you get is a super quick post, a few cruddy pics and my heartfelt promise to add some details and some better lit photos this evening.  Deal?

I love how this sweater turned out.  The Shepherd's Wool blocked gorgeously and is incredibly soft. (The color is an awesome shade of spring green, contrary to these crap photos -- better coming, promise!)  And warm.  Perhaps a teensy bit too warm for June 1, but let's overlook that little detail, shall we?

The slip stitch cable detail is fun, too.  I like that  it adds a bit of decoration without being fussy.

I followed a fellow Raveler's modification to make the eyelets along the raglan smaller, and I'm glad I did since I think they're plenty visible as it is.  She basically traded a YO in the pattern for an M1,  which worked great.

I also lengthened the arms a smidge, from the recommended 9" to 11".  This worked well for me too, keeping the ribbing off my elbow, which makes me all kinds of happy.

The other change I made was to run a crocheted slip stitch around the inside of the neckline to keep it from falling too far off my shoulders.  If I knit this again, I'd go down a needle size for the neckline to snug things up just a little more, but this tutorial from the Yarn Harlot was hugely helpful.

(I'll upload a pic of this feature tonight, promise!)

And that's it for now as I'm running out the door to work.  Happy weekend!  And happy Fiber Arts Friday, too!

FO Friday -- Duck and Cover Edition

And finally we reach the end of the post-swap FO Friday pile-up.  It's been so fun to have something to share every Friday, but unless there is some major miracle-knitting on Narragansett in the next few days, our run has come to an end.  At least for a week or two...

For now, let's focus on the socky love.  I finished the Duckie socks on the way to Stitches West, on a plane packed full of knitters.  It was awesome.  I even kitchenered on the plane, and without help from my favorite youtube video on the subject.  Yay, me!  Oh, and voila!

I have to say, I'm loving these socks.  The yarn is probably one of the best skeins I've ever worked with, and I'm feverishly trying to figure out what I can knit with the 80 or so yards I have left.

The pattern was great, too -- super easy to memorize and nothing fancy to worry about.  Also?  Free!  Bonus.  It called for 10 repeats of the pattern before the heel turn, and I added two more for longer socks.  They're still a bit short for my taste, so if I knit these again I'll do 15 repeats on the leg, I think.  Also, if I do these again, I probably won't make a little cable in the sole of the sock on the left next time.  Like so:

Heh.  Apparently, when I picked up that dropped stitch, I put it back in not quite the exact right spot.  Oops.  Ah well, I'd still call them a win. 

And writing about them makes me want to cast on another pair of socks.  Hmmmm.....

Happy weekend, y'all!

ps.  Go visit Fiber Arts Friday, too!

FO Friday -- Epic Cuteness Edition

This FO Friday/Fiber Arts Friday brings us to the last of the super secret swap gifts that were sent off to the UK, presumably by carrier pigeon judging by the amount of time they took to reach their destination...

Anyway, I had been DYING for an excuse to knit one of Ysolda's Mousies for ages.  They're so stinking cute!  And since my swap partner not only shared her household with, but also seemed pretty smitten by an actual house cat, I figured this was my shot.

And so I started knitting heavy fingering weight yarn on size 0 dpns, which instantly seemed like a bad idea.  But the cuteness made me persevere.  And so I did.  This is what popped out:

Squee!  Sue me, I like the bum picture the best.  Since he was intended for a cat, I stuffed him with catnip stashed in nylon, and a bit of toy stuffing, too.  His front side is also cute...

But, I had some major difficulties with the french knots for his eyes.  The first came off instantly looking exactly as pictured in the instructions.  The second did not, and did not, and did not.  So his left eye was a tiny bit wonky.  I loved him anyway.

And it's rumored that the cat was pretty pleased, as well.  So, mission accomplished! 

Oh, and one more thing:  In case you missed it -- Enter a comment on this post (ETA:  That's a link to the contest post -- Just want to make sure folks aren't posting comments on this FO Friday post to be entered -- Sorry for the confusion!!)  to win a skein of Madeline Tosh yarn!  But do it fast, the contest closes at 8 am MST on Saturday (yep, that's tomorrow).

FO Friday -- Scrub a Dub Edition

Wow, it's been aaaaaaages since I got to take part in an FO Friday!  And now that Tink is opening all of her swap gifts, I have a little bit of a back up of FOs to Friday about.  Which is pretty awesome if you ask me.

This week...  Wash cloths!  One of the gifts I stuck in the box was spa-related:  a bar of pomegranate scented soap from a local soap maker (soapsmith?), and 2 knitted wash cloths.  I've had my eye on the Summer in Asheville pattern for ages, so I decided to dive in with a skein of Knit Picks Dishie in the pomegranate (total coincidence, honest) colorway.  I didn't look at the pattern much before diving in, becaue hey... it's a wash cloth.  Right?  Yeah, not so much.

It's also a 2-sided lace pattern which required a lot more concentration than I bargained for.  So we had a few false starts.  But in the end, we had a pretty, purple-y (much more wine-colored than this washed out picture) wash cloth, so yay.

Next up was Exfoliate!  A Dalek wash cloth, for all those Dr. Who fans out there.  I'd seen somewhere a reference Tink made to Dr. Who, so I figured it was a good bet.  Also, it looked easy.  Once again... not so much.  The pattern was easy enough, but all those stupid bobbles were enough to make my head spin.  Turns out they're not so fun to knit.  Who knew?

All in all, though, it turned out pretty well.  This one's also in Dishie, this time in the Flamingo colorway.  Just as an aside about the yarn... Awesome.  I'm not a fan of knitting with cotton, but this stuff is amazing.  It's really soft, the colors are great, and the price is comparable to the stuff you'd find at a big box craft store.  I'm glad I like it so much, because I accidentally ordered 5 skeins when I bought it.  Oops.

Pretty though, no?  I'm planning on knitting a small army of dish cloths for us, since the green Snoopy cloth sees tons of use in the kitchen. I'm sure I'll get right on that any minute now.  No, really.

In other news, and in case you missed it on Wednesday, there will be a Stitches West recap up at some point this weekend, complete with a few bad photos, a review of the epic pile-o-purchases (I had FUN!), and a giveaway of a skein of Madeline Tosh that I picked out just for you guys.  Because I love you.  So come back and enter, okay?   For now, go check out all the other FO fabulousness happening at Tami's blog today (ETA: and Fiber Arts Friday, too!).  There's tons of it!                                                                                                                                      

FO Friday -- Blocking Rocks Edition

Man, I LOVE it when I finish a sweater.  I love it even more when it fits and doesn't turn out kind of wonky.  And I gotta say, I had some concerns.  Here's how Lorna Suzanne looked when the knitting was done and the ends are woven.  It's pretty much the definition of wonky:

Yikes.  But I gave it a little swim in the sink, carefully squished some water out and then used approximately eleventy billion pins to wrangle it into submission.  Like so...

Seriously folks, I'm a girl in need of a set of blocking wires.

**This is the part where I show you the "after" bit, with the buttons all sewn on and the sweater looking fabulous on me... except for the part where it's totally still wet.  Sad panda. 

I contemplated going after it with the hair dryer so you guys could see, but that seemed a bit rash.  Instead, you get this picture with buttons carefully balanced amongst the pins, where if you squint, you'll be able to tell sort of how it might look say, tomorrow...

I promise I'll come back this weekend and update the pics on this entry with something more satisfying.  Sorry! **

Okay, so it took me until Sunday evening, but here are pics of the sweater in its full glory!

Pardon the squintiness, I was looking directly into the sun, and in a mad rush since Mr. Right and I were headed out to the trail to try out our brand new backpacks (more on them later!).

Here's a slightly closer shot...

That shows off the lace better.  I love this thing, and it's just a smidge bigger than I expected.  The only thing I wish was a smidge different was the neckline. It's a bit lower than I'd like.   If I had it to do again, I'd keep working the front for another inch or two before starting the decreases.  But as it is, I love it quite a bit, and am planning to wear it to work tomorrow. 

And one final shot of the back:

Pretty decent fit, I think. 

The yarn wasn't quite the color I wanted, but I think it worked out okay in the end.  It's Valley Yarns Northampton, which is dirt cheap and not bad to work with.  I used just over 4 skeins and so have enough left over for a pair of fingerless mitts or some such.  Not a bad deal at all.

As for the pattern, it was awesome to knit and the designer was incredibly patient with all my silly questions.  I read somewhere that she named the sweater after her mom, which I thought was an incredibly cool idea.  So cool that I totally copied her.  On my project page, this is actually called Janet Lavonne, who just happened to be the world's coolest grandma (despite her rather appalling fashion sense). 

She tried until she was blue in the face to teach me how to knit, then finally gave up and taught me how to crochet instead.  That didn't take either, but I think she'd be pretty pleased (not to mention jaw-droppingly surprised) to find that I'd actually knitted a whole (wearable, even!) sweater and named it after her. 

Next up in the ol' sweater queue is Narragansett, which totally line-jumped Idlewood when I found that amazing Shepherd's Wool that I picked up at the Loopy Ewe.  I'll start swatching as soon as I finish my Mousie (more on him Wednesday)!

For now, I'm going to go pester Mr. Right into taking me out to dinner to celebrate sweet sweater-y (almost) success.  And then I'm going to go check out everyone else's FO successes at Tami's and Fiber Arts Friday.  Can't think of a better way to start the weekend.  Cheers!

FO Friday -- Sock It To Me edition

Happy Friday, knitting peeps!  As previously discussed, I have *finally* finished my beloved Hedgerow Socks.  Yay!  We have quite a history together, me and these socks. 

First, I tried them in some pretty charcoal grey yarn.  It looked nice, but I convinced myself that I'd done something horribly wrong.  And no matter how much I stared at the sock or the pattern, I couldn't see what the problem was.

This was largely because there was no problem with the socks, only one with my little pea brain.  (As an aside... I'm amazed at how often I do this to myself!)  Unfortunately, I didn't figure that out until long after I'd frogged my poor little sock.

After several months of hibernation, I dove in again (Did I mention that I really like this pattern?) with some bright red Knit Picks Stroll tonal that I'd gotten as a gift.  This time, things went off without a hitch.

I knit the pattern as written, except that I grafted the toe instead of the prescribed round toe.  They just seem to fit me better and I don't mind the whole kitchener business.  I LOVE these socks.  They're cute and comfy and even a little bit Christmasy. 

What more can you ask for?  How 'bout lots of other fabulous FOs from oodles of talented crafters, and even more fibery goodness?  Lucky you, you can have both!

Have a great weekend, too!