Surprise!

So about a week or so ago, I went to an SnB at my LYS, to find that they're now selling the Baby Surprise Jacket [scroll way down] pattern! Now, I have been coveting this for a good long while, and even went to purchase it online at one point, but wimped out when I realised that shipping was almost 80% of the cost of the pattern itself. But suddenly, with the pattern right there at the shop ready to come home with me, I snapped that sucker up so fast that it was in my bag practically before everybody else had a chance to say hello to me. :) I can't tell you how badly I want to start making a jacket with it, but I'm going to have to hold off until I put a bunch of my deadline-driven projects to bed.

And suddenly, I have another deadline-driven project, because one of my extremely dear friends (whom we haven't seen in a while) called me a few weeks ago and revealed that he and his wife are expecting in the new year. SQUEE!!! So I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to make, but as I say, he's a dear friend, and she is a serious knitter, so whatever it is, it's going to be good. I may design something especially.

I was also delightfully surprised by the fact that my LYS is having a sale this week to celebrate the one-year anniversary of moving in to their new location. So I took advantage.

That's one skein of On Your Toes Bamboo sock yarn, a bunch of Fabel sock yarn, and five skeins of Classic 8 Ply from Naturally Magic Garden. The picture shows only three skeins of the Fabel, but I actually bought four, all self-patterning: two of a glorious earthy orange-reddish theme for an adult-size pair of socks (probably for me), one of a really fun blue/green/purple colourway for something for my baby girl (possibly socks, possibly something else), and the last one:

Christmas socks for DD1

This yarn is deliciously cute and fun, it's perfect for my older girl, and I love it like crazy:



I'm using my own sock pattern and am getting close to finishing the first sock already. The yarn is just so much damn fun, I love it.

Ragna sweater for brother

This is what I've really been pulling out all the stops for in the last two weeks. I finished the front:



And I'm very close to finishing the back:



The needle is angled in that shot because I'm already working on the neck shaping on one side.

Of course, it wouldn't be a true large Christmas knitting gift without some serious problems threatening to rear ugly heads. Firstly, I'm almost down to my last four balls of yarn and I haven't even started the sleeves. This makes me extremely nervous. Even more nervous-making is that I'm not sure I've truly finished the front because the length looks a little short. And secondly - I have completely lost the notes I made on how long the sleeves are supposed to be. Sigh.

But the good news is that I'm no longer panicked by how little I've done vs. how soon Christmas is coming - I think that as long as the yarn supply holds out, I'll be fine to make the deadline.

Lauren's blanket

Although I don't really have to worry about this until after Christmas, I really wanted to at least decide on the yarn and general idea of what I was going to do as soon as possible because, well, I'm just obsessive that way, I guess. :) I'd had my eye on some Northern Worsted acrylic in my LYS which is a gorgeous dark yet vibrant blue. Unfortunately, there were only five skeins of it, which was not enough to make a blanket, so I had to combine it with something. After much rummaging throughout the store (seriously, I combed the whole damn store), I found exactly ten 50g balls of Red Heart Comfort in a really nice navy, which - when combined with the Northern Worsted - gives me 1000g in total, which should work very nicely.

So now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with it. I've got a really nice cable motif that I worked out at some point in the past, but at the moment I'm having a hard time getting the increases I need for the blanket to work with it. I've lost track of how many times I've started it up. This is the latest attempt:



The good news is that the blue of the Northern Worsted doubled with the blue of the Red Heart Comfort creates a dazzlingly beautiful result - a deep, rich, velvety blue which the above photo doesn't do justice to. If only I could get my pattern idea to actually work, all would be well!