Once upon a time, before My Love, I had exactly two people to knit for (excluding myself) -- my parents. And exactly one variation on the holiday theme -- my house or theirs? I had recently lost the last of my grandparents, begun what would end as a painful fission with one friend, and the old friends from high school were rarely seen, and infrequently knit for. Now I've got in-laws -- a whole new group! Happily I was informed early on that only my new father in law would appreciate anything hand made -- besides my DH, naturally. Well that saves months of agony and bitter disappointment, doesn't it?
So when Father's day approached, instead of smuggly knowing I had everything covered, I didn't. Mostly because of my aching hands -- which nixed any hand knit items. Panic. Severe. What in blazes did I used to do before I knit?? Cook? Well, that covered one -- and purchased chocolates covered the other. Phew! But -- how to arrange the celebrations?
Saturday night, after work, my DH and I took my parents out to dinner at the restaurant of my dad's choosing -- and he also got the chocolates. Sunday morning, at 6 am (we got to sleep in an additional 30 min longer than usual) had us blearily up and feeding our critters. By 7:15 we were on the road. Until 10:30. During which time we listened to the 2,500 someodd songs I've got on our iPod (shuffle mode meant alot of skipping -- classical and opera don't always help to keep the eyes open), and I knit. I also knit while we were at his dad's house and I got deluged by new faces and names. Most of which I actually recall. Rare for me.
Anyway, I got about 3.5 inches done on my DH's socks. They're in fingering weight -- Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock color way Amish, I believe. I'm doing them both on one long size 0 Addi Turbo -- which is 60" long. My favorite way to do socks. Eric -- my DH-- actually prefers worsted weight, but I want him to be sure, so am knitting him a finer weight pair to compare. I may be shooting myselft in the foot (not intentional pun)-- you should never argue when someone prefers worsted weight to fingering if you give socks as gifts. ;)
At the Shoppe I am periodically working with crochet to give my arms and hands some different movements. This, believe it or not, will be a sweater someday. I hope. Anyway, it's in Fiesta Yarn's Rayon Boucle. Colorway is Amazon. A bit brighter than what I normally wear. Ahem. But it was originally a shawl that had enough errors (early in knitter career project) that I couldn't bear it and had to rip it all out.
And for those of you who have been in the Shoppe recently -- or read the last blog post -- I finished the Trifold Knitting bowl and felted it yesterday. Ta Da!! Here it is before felting -- finished it Saturday. 
Here it is felted on my deck drying in the sun.
Here is my dog Sorcha who is refusing to be photogenic. Does my shadow look irritated?
Here it is in place on the Yarn Shoppe's table. The pens are in the center -- designed really to hold yarn. The pockets have all the Shoppe Tools -- stitch gauges, crochet hooks, scissors, tape measures, calculators, sticky notes, darning needles, stitch markers etc -- and on either side sit notepads and coasters. Don't you want to come by and knit with us? We'd love to have you!
Here are the Irish Wolfhounds, Kiera and Konan who love to "help" around my parents' house and who visit upon occassion at the Shoppe. They're the sweetest creatures on earth, but shed nicely. Too bad we aren't into spinning dog hair.
And what is Chrisanne doing? Not petting Pippen at the moment -- hence his looking at her. 
She's doing . . . Socks! Yup. Didn't guess did you? ;) She's playing with a new lace pattern. Will she be farther alone tomorrow? Will she keep working on it? Or will it be rrriiiiippppeeedddd out or neglected for a newer, sexier project? Keep tuned to find out! Ah, what a pest I can be with a camera!
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