Progress and the trip to K.C.

Last weekend I flew to K.C. with Casey to visit my sister and her kids (my brother-in-law is in Iraq). It was a nice trip but I did NO knitting - can you imagine...me, not knitting for 4 whole days! It was pretty crazy. Casey and I aligned our days around their schedule so there was a lot of "normal" stuff she and I missed as well. Ah, there's no place like home!

Before the trip I had started a baby blanket for John's baby (his name is Jason I came to find out) and had been gauging for Stefanie Japel's Cathode, unsuccessfully I might add. As mentioned, I had been planning to use the Lion Brand Homespun that was sitting in my stash from a frogged project and I wasn't making gauge (too few stitches) even though I was using the right weight yarn. Problem was, I also was stubborn and didn't think that going up the needle size would produce the same "fabric" (Sue used to tell me that I like dense "fabric" - she's right!). Finally, eureka, I got it! I doubled up the yarn and swatched again...success! And even better - I'll use up TWICE the amount of yarn - hooray! Here's a photo of where it stood early last night (it's now several inches longer and ready to start the coordinating color ribbing)...



I think I'll use a clasp for the neckline instead of putting on the long collar. I'll probably wear it a bit more that way.

Here's the baby blanket progress...


And because I never posted pictures of them...

here's a shot of the dreaded bobbles from the Textured Sweater:



I'm wearing this sweater today, and while I've worn it to work before, apparently NO ONE ever noticed. Or maybe it's that more people know I knit so they realize I've made it? :o)

...and here's a shot of Liz's sweater...it really turned out fabulous (she's lucky it didn't fit me or I would have stolen it!!!)