Celebratory knitting purchases!

My wonderful husband got a new job, and to celebrate, he gave me a gift certificate to Brooklyn General! We walked over there on Saturday and he waited patiently, reading about Japanese textiles, while I looked at every item in the store at least 3 times. I ended up buying the Mason-Dixon Knitting book, a skein of Morehouse Farms Merino worsted with which I'm planning to knit a lining for my Gimli hat, a couple balls of Rowan Calmer which were on sale, and a crochet hook in a size I didn't have. I spent just over half the gift certificate, and I'm looking forward to going back and buying more stuff in the future. Note the awesome tattoo lettering on the envelope -- John is not only generous and thoughtful but talented as well. Okay, enough bragging!

Monday was another beautiful day and I had off from work so I walked over to Knitaway and bought The Knitter's Companion. I love that it shows how to fix a dropped stitch when it's at the end of a row. Every time I've been in that situation it's taken me way too long to figure it out and I'm never sure I've done it right.

Also I went a little nuts on Amazon and bought Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns, Knit Fix, and two Elizabeth Zimmerman books (Knitting Without Tears and Knitter's Almanac). My knitting reference library is starting to take shape!

Pile o' baby knits

Here's a peek at all the baby knitting I've recently completed, along with a cute sheep-featuring card we bought for one of the new babies.

Knucks yarn

Emily and I went to Knitty City and I picked up some sport weight alpaca for Knucks I'm knitting for John. I started one but ended up having serious gauge issues and it's coming out way too big. I'm not sure yet what I'll do, but maybe I can get away with ripping back just to where the thumb is joined and switching to smaller needles. For now I've set it aside.

Modified roll-top booties

I made a new pair of booties with many modifications -- stitches adjusted for aran/worsted weight yarn, all stockinette except for the bottoms, knit in the round (mostly -- the bottoms are seamed). They came out according to plan. I wrote up the revised pattern and maybe I'll post it soon.

Roll-top booties
Started: Sept. 30
Finished: Oct. 1
Pattern: Based on this one but heavily modified
Yarn: RYC CashSoft Aran in Haze, 1 ball
Needles: US 8 circ, US 8 dpns, US 6 dpns