Playing Blog Catch-up

I haven't written much knitting content lately, so I'm adding a bunch of stuff today that I've finished in the past month or so, or still have on the needles. First off is bit of ribbon in a lace pattern, which started out as a vest for me. I didn't like the way it was turning out, so I frogged it and started again by added alternating rows of grey mohair to the ribbon in just a simple garter stitch, and now it's becoming a prayer shawl. The mohair softens the ribbon and also adds strength - I'm loving it now. This is my completed letter "C", for the Poetry Society in London. It will join over 7000 other letters and spaces to form a poem. We haven't been told yet what the poem will be - the squares will be stitched together and unveiled in October. This is a huge project - my square measures approximately 12 inches square. I hadn't done intarsia in a long time, but this came out well - actually very smooth.

This is the pair of socks I knitted from the "flat feet" fabric which you unravel as you knit along. I used kitchener stitch on the toe ends - the first one came out just fine the first try, but for some reason I just couldn't do it again on the second sock. I made such a mess of it that I had to rip out the toe end three times and try again.

This is a photo of the final successful kitchener toe. At last! This is a little sweater I'm knitting from acrylic baby yarn in multi-pastel colors. I started it before I knew the sex of the expected baby - now I know it's a boy. This is not a frilly pattern so it will work well for the new babe, due at Christmas-time. I just have to sew it together and add the ribbing at the neck. This was a problem as well, because I had the front, back and half of a sleeve done when I took a close look and thought the front section was brighter than the other pieces, even though the lot number was the same. At first I thought "No one will notice but me", but then I had the semi-brilliant idea to rip back the sleeve raglans on the front, add some shaping, and turn it into a matching baby cap. I gave the prospective mother the baby cap at her shower, with a note that the sweater will be sent on later.

So since I now have two months left to finish this sweater, I started on another project. This is the Valley Log Cabin Blanket from WEBS. The pattern calls for 13 patches in each square, but I'm doing only nine - eight different colors and one used twice. I'm using stash yarn for this project - it's all wool yarns, but some are worsted and some are thinner yarns used doubled. There's a little different in texture, but I think it will work together when it's all sewn together. It's a little tricky to pick up the stitches evenly along the edges of the patches, but once that is done, it's just garter stitch and simple fun to do. Each square will be different by having the colors offset.

Horray for Alpacas

Last week, the Knitting Guild met at the

Shadow Pines Alpaca Farm, and here are

some photos of these cute and friendly critters.
They come in all shades of neutrals - black, white,

grey, and brown.

My favorite seems to have a little bit of all the colors.

Here's a Momma and a few little ones.

I bought a skein of wonderfully soft black alpaca,
from the fleece of an animal called Sharon.

Her picture is on the ball band.

I'm planning a lacy black

scarf, which will go well with my red coat.

Baptism for Lucas

Sunday was the baptism of my 3-month old great-grandson,

Lucas. He was so sweet through the long one-hour ceremony - the Deacon who performed the baptism certainly took his task seriously. He inserted so many special touches - responsive readings, a homily, special things for little brothers and sisters to help out with, you name it. The baptism itself was almost an anticlimax. All of the pictures I took in the church came out fuzzy, but here is a nice one of baby and parents.

This picture looks like Lucas is struggling to get away from me,

but I really think the expression on his face is adorable (and I don't think I'm biased).

This next photo is four generations, with me at the top of the family ladder (does that make me a matriarch now?)

This photo is special to me, as the little lacy dress is the one

my father was baptized in, in 1898. Lucas had another special outfit to wear, so we just put his great-great-grandfather's dress over him for the picture.