Happy Birthday, sis!

Today is my sister's birthday! Happy Birthday, Doris! Alles Gute zum Geburtstag. Of course I called her earlier, she was enjoying her traditional strawberry cake (oh the advantages of having a birthday in June!). The whole family was gathered including our parents and her in-laws, her husband and her two sons. It's times like these I get very homesick and wish I could be there with them....

Here are some flowers for you, Doris. I know you like flowers, and pictures, too. :)


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Yesterday, I finally finished this little sweater. I had started it in January, and it was about time I finished it and added it to all the other ones our charity knitting group made. These will go to Guideposts.
The pattern I used is from Cabin Fever, the yarn is Encore worsted.

Also this week I am working on these socks. They are a graduation present for a young man who will be going to Cornell University in the fall and who is an extraordinary percussionist. As it turns out, he plays and practices in stocking feet a lot, running and gliding from one intrument to another....so making him socks was kind of the obvious choice, don't you think?

I love the yarn I found, which unfortunately will no longer be available in the US. It is a Swedish yarn distributed by Idena. It seems much much softer than other similar self-striping yarns. This is a sport weight, and I am using size 3 needles. Since the socks need to fit a size 10 men's, the choice of a bigger yarn than usual will help me get them done in time.

To get a break from all that plain stockinette stitch, I decided this morning to start this shawl from the book Wrap Style. An Evelyn Clark pattern called Shetland Triangle (how's that for self-explanatory?). The stitch is a pretty simple fir cone lace,

and it will work up fairly quickly in this sportweight alpaca/merino yarn from Decadent Fibers.

Please note my new needles!!! I love the new addi lace needles. All I can say is, What took them so long?? How did we ever live without these??

The sharp tip makes all the typical lace knitting maneuvers soooo much easier. I would even contemplate these for other knitting projects.

This shawl is a commission, but I know that I will have to make myself one, too, one of these days....