Baa Baa Black Sheep have you any...

My secret pal's delivery came in the mail yesterday. Thank you so much whoever you are!!! I can hardly wait to "meet" this person. She's a lot of fun. She actually sent me 3 skeins each of pink and grey of a braided ribbon yarn. It's wide and flat and I love the colors. I'll post a picture of the skeins later this evening. Now I've got to figure out what to do with it.

The knitter who I'm secret pal to should get her yarn soon. This is fun. I picked a lovely, deep purple skein of the yarn made from corn fibers. It's just amazing the materials that are out there to use! I already know what my July pick is going to be for her. Stay tuned. I hope if she makes something with it she'll forward a picture. I love seeing how creative people are.

I know I've been telling people my next project is going to be socks. I've been collecting information, how-to, various patterns, a few skeins of yarn... however, the skein I was going to start with, when I tried to roll it into a ball, carefully removing the center strand, did not want to unwind easily and now I've got a pile of wool/acrylic blend mess. I'm sorting through it and trying to get it wound into a ball (sadly, this skein for socks has 440 yards!). I've heard of these nightmare skeins that just don't want to seem to play fair. Anyway, while I try to piddle with that, I decided to try another go at doing a prayer shawl for our local group Knit 1 Heal 2. The pattern I settled on utilizes the Feather & Fan pattern and I think it will be pretty when finished using the LionBrand Homespun I had on hand for a prayer shawl. More to come on that project!

Again, a huge thank you to my Secret Pal! She's pretty terrific and I look forward to hearing from her some more.

Two in one day? YES!

When it rains it pours they say... and the skies here in Ohio are dark and stormy today. I've got more pictures (yes I've been knitting my fingers to the bone!). I promised the baby blanket and soap bag pictures, so here they are.

As with most of my recent projects, there's been a lot of improvising done on the baby blanket. Knitted with Bernat Baby Lash on US 8 bamboo circulars, the blanket is soft and very heavy. I used 6 skeins of Baby Blue and 2 skeins of Soft N' Sunny. I'm concerned that it's not very big, but as heavy as it turned out, maybe that's a good thing. Perfect for laying a baby on, or maybe as a cover while baby is in a car seat that isn't going to be kicked off easily. Perhaps it will become a treasured security blanket.

The soap bag was a quickie project (and already has some soap in it waiting to be used on some lucky back!). The pattern is from the knitting page at About.com (here) and I used Sugar 'n Cream, the color was "salt & pepper print". I used US 6 bamboo needles, and mine doesn't look exactly like the one on About.com... I didn't quite understand the instruction about knit each stitch then wrap the yarn twice around the needle. I think mine turned out okay though and will make more. Would be a nice addition to a gift basket.

Isn't this Cozy?

A friend recently flipped through a book I had that showed a laptop cover. They'd recently bought a new laptop and mentioned how neat it would be to have a waterproof cover. Ever one to rise to a challenge, I surfed the net and found that Dale of Norway makes a teflon coated yarn called Hauk that repels water. So... 6 skeins later and one water test, I had a laptop cover made to order! I chose barn red and the charcoal colors and doubled it and used US 11 needles. One strand wasn't quite bulky enough. I also chose to use the stockinette stitch, thinking that the right side would help in keeping water away from the laptop. My friend seemed pleased with the finished product. It was slightly bigger than the laptop and afforded room for the power cord, rather than having to knit an additional pouch.

While I had no trouble with the stitch, I did have my first attempt at making a buttonhole (will need a lot more practice on that!). I also learned a valuable lesson about decreasing when doing the triangular foldover part. I like to think my errors lend a rustic look to it, which compliments the color scheme.

Once that was done I made a baby blanket for a friend's baby. Those pictures will be posted soon. Now I'm working on a neat cover for a bar of soap and learning a new stitch in the process. I keep procrastinating on the sock thing, but it should be next.