Things knit during Stitches

Here are a few items I was working on during/between classes at Stitches West. The first is a Swirl Ball, which was nearly done before Stitches. It turns out to be a baby gift, but I mostly knit it to see how the shortrows work to provide the shaping in each section. I added the last two sections Thursday - making my swirl ball 8 sections instead of 6 and requiring the addition of beach ball ends.

If the Birthday A Step Above socks are FO #1 for 2005 (January 6th), I think the swirl ball might be #2 (February 10).

Next we have the sampler I knit in a class with Beth Brown-Reinsel on Latvian Wristers. The photo shows the half braids, scalloped edges, herringbone braid and 3 color patterning we practiced in class. The wrister is a bit snug, but I'm thinking of making the second one anyway. If I could just knit the accent color looser in the color pattern section.

And an in-progress shot of my first Baby Suprise Jacket, which I am totally mad for. I love the colors, the feel of the fabric, and the wackiness of the instructions.

Tonight at Knitting Meetup, I managed to leave the body of the BSJ in the car, while the wool was in my knitting bag. At the bottom of the stairs, someone tried to grab my trailing string & hand it to me.. but the string kept going, and going... I retraced my yarn back up the steps from the downstairs room, out the door an between the cars RIGHT acorss the street. Cars were driving over the long string of yarn before we rescued it. I can't believe I nearly destroyed this project on my way into a knitting group!