home again

We're back from visiting the west coast rellies. Grandma's shawl was a big success, though she thought it was a scarf. I've always thought of shawls as grandmotherly apparel, but I guess my grandmother was too hip for shawls. She didn't even know what one was when I told her that's what I had knit her. So she wears it as a scarf, and it looks really good. It also actually provides some warmth worn that way, because spread out as a shawl it's just too thin.


Being out in sunshiney California also provided the perfect opportunity to break out Baby's Miss Dashwood Hat. This is the first thing I knit for her when I found out I was pregnant with her. Of course, at that time I didn't know she was a 'she'. Lucky she ended up being a girl, or else I would have had to give this adorable hat away. As you can see, I need to block it a bit so the edge doesn't curl up like that so much. I knit it out of handpaintedyarn.com bulky merino 6 ply. Who ever heard of a wool sun hat? Hee. When I first knit it, I knit up the ties and ear flaps as well, but didn't want to sew them in until I had a baby to test it on, so I'd know where the earflaps belonged. But in the end, since it's only now fitting her (summertime), I decided to leave the earflaps off entirely.


I just finished knitting up a soaker (just like the curly purly one shown below but in newborn size) for Erika who's having a baby soon. And now I'm working on another one for my little one, since I'm sending along the soakers she's just about outgrown with this gift soaker in a trade for some of Erika's awesome soap.

Next project is a cashmere shawl for my mom for her birthday. I'm making the Bird's Nest Shawl from the book Folk Shawls. I don't have quite enough yardage of the cashmere, so I'll have to shorten the shawl a bit, I think. Hopefully it will turn out okay.