Christmas in July, and another BSJ

Saturday I received my "Christmas in July" present I won on Pretty Knitty's blog....such fun! She sent me two skeins of lovely sock yarn (that'll be my next pair cast on!), some Cascade 220 with Kool-Aid to use to dye it (more about that later), some little butterfly note cards, a sample of skin cream, a keychain calculator, and a beautiful row counter set with stitch markers. So much great stuff!!

Yesterday I decided to dye the Cascade 220; this was my first attempt to dye yarn, and it was sooooooooo much fun! I used the microwave method to dye it with the Kool-Aid, and it's turned out to be a beautiful variegated blue. Now I just have to decide what I'm going to knit with it! Maybe a skinny scarf for myself. I've given away all but one of my scarves that I've knit; the only one I've kept is the very first one I knit, so maybe it's time to knit another one to keep. :-)

I've finished my second Baby Surprise Jacket, and am very pleased with the results. In fact, I've already cast on a third one, using Pretty Knitty's row counter and stitch markers on it. The next BSJ is white with wee splashes of pale blue and green. I think it will work up very nicely. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :-)

I have to admit that I was completely befuddled by the Baby Surprise Jacket pattern (no offense to the genius of Elizabeth Zimmerman, who would have been 100 years old today), and am just amazed and delighted that I've now (with the help of the Ravelry group) completed two of them. It's been so much fun to learn!

I managed to knit on my plain vanilla socks during my lunch break today. I've decided that the only way I'm going to get in any sock knitting time is to carry my socks to work instead of the Baby Surprise Jacket. On the current week, I have a grand total of 30 minutes sock knitting time. Pitiful, just pitiful. I'm KNITTING, mind you, just not knitting much on socks. This will change, of course. But for now my sock knitting time is looking really sad.