Birthday boy!

My dear husband is 45 today. By a coincidence, he is off work today and has decided to spend the time catching up on things like gardening. Not my preferred way to spend a birthday, but whatever floats his boat is okay by me. I am also off work - my purpose for the day is to do some of his chores for him so he doesn't have to, including the preparation of supper. Garbage and recycling will probably also make the list.

We had his birthday party last night - a small family affair with my dad's famous Aussie stew and my step-grandmother's even more famous chocolate cake. Naturally, I gave him his socks. He loves them. :) After I told the stories of my agonies getting the gauge and pattern identicalization right, and that I considered them the most perfect socks I have ever knitted, he loved them even more. Mission accomplished.

In comments...Tanya, I did indeed see your photo of my family on your blog, thank you so much - I would have commented on it and some other stuff but I'm not a LiveJournal user. However, if I didn't say it enough on the day, the dress is fantastic and you totally deserve the award. :) Congratulations.

Taupe socks for Dad

I just blazed up the foot on this one, boy howdy. You know that photo of the first sock I showed you in my last blog entry, of just the toe? Well, the next day I whizzed ahead like crazy and was turning the heel before the sun went down. I LOVE this continental thing.

After I turned the heel, I decided to do something different. I've been thinking about this for a while. All I've done so far are plain socks - simple stocking stitch with ribbing at the top of the leg. I was hankering for some variety and I thought my dad might like some classic-looking cables on his socks. And in taupe, they'll show up very nicely (it would have been pretty pointless putting the cables on his black socks).

So after I turned the heel, I did a bunch of increases and then started simple rope cables (4 stitches wide) all around the sock. A few twists later I decided having that many cables looked too fussy, so I ripped back and instead started doing two rope cables (twisting in opposite directions) on each side of the leg. I think it looks very handsome and classic, and I think my dad will like it.



The only doubts I'm having now are whether the twists in the cables are too far apart. I'm doing the cable cross every six rows, and I keep thinking it would look better every five rows instead. However, the more I knit, the less likely I am to rip all the way back and start again. I think I'm committed to what I've got.

Stornaway sweater for DH

What you are looking at is the first increase for the underarm gussets. Yes, I'm at the gussets! Whoopee!

Self-designed baby hat/mitts

Duplicate stitching on the hat continues.

I am SERIOUSLY going to have to come up with another way to get all these colours on the hat. This duplicate stitching thing was okay on the teeny-tiny mittens, but on the hat (which has ten motifs requiring embroidery) there is NO WAY other knitters will do it. (And even if there are knitters stupid driven enough to do it, they will curse me to oblivion during the process.)

The hat is looking good, though.