Today: More Catching Up

Today I get to catch up a bit on last post, thanks to my helpful sister-in-law who kindly sent some photos to share of the apron of which I hadn't remembered to take a photo, and of the penguin hat in action, which is of course, infinitely cuter than a penguin hat without a cute baby in it.














So, here is my extremely adorable nephew (about 6 months) with his winning smile (such a cutie!):

and with his proud Dad, providing confirmation that despite the hat's colours coincidentally being an exact match for another hockey team, this kid is definitely an Oilers fan (but of course!):















Here is his mom, who looks lovely in her new apron:

 


I'm glad to show the apron off here, especially as I was so pleased to find the fabric. It struck me as being stylish without being too elaborate or fussy and of course being in blue, which is among her favourite colours, also made it a good match.













And here are the gorgeous-looking Linzer cookies that my lovely sister-in-law made with the cutter set I had tucked into the apron pocket. I'm sure are quite tasty too, as she makes excellent desserts.










To continue to catch up a wee bit more, here is a hat I whipped up for a new baby who lives far away (it's fun knitting hats for babies, it hardly seems to take any time at all if it goes well, and this one did):

I designed this hat after a bit of swatching and sorting through the yarn stash, finding some nice soft Swish DK from Knit Picks in Squirrel Heather. I think it went rather well, and am pleased with how I managed to fit the decreases neatly into the cable pattern despite starting without knowing how I would end it (though I did stop to chart it out just before ending to make sure it would work).

Now this next item is definitely about catching up, as I started these socks about a year and a half ago when I was in Vancouver for a football tournament. By the time I arrived at home, the first of the pair was not quite finished. A few months ago, I fished them out of the bottom of one of my knitting bags, finished the first, and started the second. Sometime last week, I decided to just finish them up already, and so here they are:

These are the Sunday Swing Socks by Kristel Nyberg, worked in Patons Stretch Socks in Licorice. When I had started these in Vancouver, I found it an enormous effort to keep track of the (really quite simple) lace pattern, but when I picked them up again, I found them extremely easy to work with only occasional reference to the pattern. It only goes to show that a bit of practice with a newer skill (in this case lace) goes a long way when it comes to the facility of reading your knitting. I'm glad I picked these back up, if only for learning how far I had improved in a year or so.