KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

After dropping Barbara Walker off at the airport and writing the blog entry, I picked up Brett, the birthday boy, and we went to Murphy's in Virginia Highland for brunch:

Nancy, Brett and Melissa - waiting for our table for ten people. Lou, Doug, Michael, Steve, Diana and I were also part of the little celebration. I gave Brett a picture of his birthday-present-to-be, a Rowan sweater:

It is a very old pattern (I think from the 80s), and when we looked through the magazines a while back, Brett really like it and I thought - good idea for a birthday gift. I bought Cascade Tweed (Color: Olive) at Knitch:

It is 100% Highland Wool in worsted weight. I've already swatched it, and I'll use a US size #6. There's no hurry to start the sweater since he won't be able to wear it until winter.

And I had another little surprise for Brett - I had Barbara Walker sign a birthday card for him. He met her at the AKG meeting but Brett was so busy that evening that he didn't even get one of his books signed. When I handed him the card, I told him that it was from somebody who was unable to make it to his brunch... he-he-he.

Then we headed over to Knitch for several hours of knitting:

Nancy and Melissa made a Strawberry Cake for Brett. We were a pretty rowdy bunch and at some point I truly thought we would get kicked out... I can't believe how many bloggers we had that afternoon - Melissa, Jen, Fatimah, Reagan and Rebecca. Go bloggers!

I scored some handspun from the other Melissa, which she spun from some roving Jen didn't like. And Melissa didn't like the handspun. These snobs. ;-) I was anxious to see what the handspun looks like knitted, so I started yet another multi-directional scarf right away. This pattern is perfect for handspun!

I think the scarf will be very pretty - I don't know what's wrong with these girls. ;-) I'll sure take their unwanted handspun any time. :-)

Before we left, Brett discovered a boo-boo on his afghan. He is knitting an afghan on commission and the pattern consists of several panels that he needs to sew together at the end. The panels either have a cable pattern or an Argyle pattern. Bless his heart... He had to take out the duplicate stitch on one of the Argyle panels, poor dear!

Brett is so brave - it looks very scary to me to just cut into the turquoise thread. But he is the Yarn Doctor - and this sure looks like surgery to me...

I finished the Monkey Socks while we were at Knitch:

That was such a fun pattern and I love the way the colors came out.

Friday night at WKK, I was brave and started a summer lace sweater with Patons Grace (100% Mercerized cotton). I'd been eyeing this pattern for a while and I finally decided to give it a whirl:

I was truly shocked that I knitted all that lace at the SNB group without screwing up once. Now I have to adjust the pattern to my size. Unfortunately, the pattern only comes in a size S - darnit - and I have not been a size S for at least 25 years... If I can't figure it out, I will turn it into a lace shawl and just continue in the little leaf pattern until I've used all 10 balls of yarn.

Now I feel a little blogged out now - need to get some lunch. And sleep...