Grit and determination

When last we left my Elizabeth of York vest, I had screwed up the front border, and had determined that what I could probably do in order to avoid frogging and reknitting five rows (at close to 500 stitches per row) was to rip back and reknit just half of it; and hope that my gauge the second time around was approximately the same as it was the first time around.

This weekend, I worked up the fortitude to actually do it. Surprisingly, it didn't go too badly. My gauge was off, but fortunately in the too-much-yarn-leftover-gotta-tighten-up-a-bunch-of-stitches-after-the-fact way as opposed to the need-to-tighten-up-an-indeterminate-number-of-stitches-to-have-enough-yarn-to-finish way. That done, I continued on the seven further rows on the border, plus cast-off. It was a bit of a soul-destroying slog, but I did it. And as a reward, I finally have a front border where the diagonal motifs diagonalize in mirrored directions:

(That colour is wrong; the actual yarn is more wine-like.)

I'm really close to finishing it now! I believe all that's left is to sew the side seams, do the armhole edging, and weave in a bunch of ends. Yeehaw! Can't wait.

In other good news, I finished up the first sock for my husband's birthday (in my last blog entry about it I incorrectly referred to it as a Christmas gift) and got started on the second one. No pictures of that, though, since he's here, and bringing out the socks to photograph right in front of him would be something of a dead giveaway.

And, it being Mother's Day, I got some yarn. The downside is that it was picked out by the children (well, the two older ones, anyway), so it's synthetic and sparkly and pink:

But that's okay, it's very sweet, and I will probably use it to make a "Parfait" cardigan for DD3. The lovely thing is that the older girls picked it out specifically thinking that I would use it to make something for their baby sister. I really have fabulous kids - being their mom is the best thing ever.

Finally, thanks to those who commented on how much they liked the baby bonnet pattern! :) Congratulations are due back at Joanna, whose Marianne Dashwood Shawl is in the same issue as my bonnet and is very nice indeed! I love how it looks when it's worn crossed over and may well end up making one for myself. Of course, everything in that issue that I've seen so far looks fabulous. I still have to wait for my comp copy to come in, but my mom bought a digital copy as soon as it came out and I am planning to tide myself over by spending a heck of a lot of time poring over it when I visit my parents' house this week. Squee!