Birthday Surprise!

Great Gran’s Surprise:

my sister and me

Darling Sister (on the right)! See our dark circles? We stayed up Too Late.

My Mom and my sister Elizabeth came down from Atlanta! And the best part is that it was a complete surprise! For her birthday, Great Gran got a new VCR/DVD thing, a toaster, a set of Denise Interchangeable Needles (from M and me) and enough birthday cards to fill up the top of her chest of drawers. I think she had a great birthday.

While Mom was here, we started on scarves made from the chenille Becky sent me in a trade.

three scarves in a row

From right to left: the one Mom is making for me, the one I am making for Mom, the one Great Gran is making for Elizabeth

We are using the Jo Sharp pattern “Misty Garden” from Scarf Style. Since the yarn is hand painted, each one is unique. Mom says to tell you that she’s winning the knit-a-long. I’m not sure that I adequately explained what a knit-a-long is…but YAAAAAY, MOM!

Elizabeth brought her one Excessively Long Sock back with her since since she didn’t take any pictures. She claims that her camera will only take blurry pictures. Whatever. I’ve taken one:

it only comes up to her knee!

The sock is Substantially Too Short. The current plan is for me to try to get a hold of the Haneke Yarn People (they are tough to get a hold of) and try to get another hank or two of yarn in the same lot so that I can add many more inches at the knee. If I can’t do that, we have decided not to start over with a whole ‘nother batch of yarn. Instead, I will either make two pairs of socks of ordinary length with diamonds on the back, or I will make her a pair of diamond knee socks. All of these options require me to frog most (or all) of the Excessive Sock. Sigh.

The BF socks are moving along slowly, I had to give up my Cat Free Zone so that Elizabeth could have a place to sleep. The right front of the Doppelganger Cardigan (Amanda is right, this is coming out WAY too close to the original to truly be Inferior) is almost finished. I should be able to block the remaining pieces tonight. Which is great because I really need to start practicing fair isle for the Olympics. I know NOTHING about fair isle.

*I would have told you all this yesterday but Elizabeth wanted to run to Daphne to go to just two stores. The plan was to be home by lunch. Then she said, “Hey, lets go to the outlets in Foley!” And the rest of my day was lost…

11 thoughts on “Birthday Surprise!

  1. meg

    Those are gorgeous socks, too short or not. She could still wear them with longer skirts, eh?
    If your library has them, the “Knitting Around” videos (Elizabeth Zimmerman & Meg Swansen) are *fantastic* for showing quite a lot of knitting techniques, including fair isle.

  2. Karen

    Oh I hope you can some more yarn in the same lot. It would be such a shame to frog them; they are so beautiful.

    Sounds like Great Gran had a wonderful birthday! Happy weekend! 🙂

  3. erin

    Oh my goodness, those are the loveliest socks and tell your sister that she has the perfect legs to wear them! I hope you get the yarn (fingers crossed). The scarves are in the yummiest colours, they are all so pretty.

  4. becky

    First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAN again… I’m going to start a petition to get Gran her own knitblog! GRIN….

    Second, What’s with the excessively long sock pic? I must need to clean my bifocals again because it looks as if you cut her leg off at the knee and then took the pic! ??? I definately need to go clean my glasses. Whatever, I still love that sock!

    Thirdly, your cardigan is definately NOT inferior dear. But then you know that!

    And lastly, THE OUTLET MALL!!!!??!!! Are you insane! It’s like the black hole.! Your day will be oooooooooooooooooooooover before you leave! Not to mention you will be poorer!

    Oh, but before I forget, did you see that Gracie went to a little shop called Debi’s Little Yarn Shop and that the yarn is FIFTY PERCENT OFF!!! and that included CTH Sock yarn???????????? OMG I want to go!!!!!!! Take sis and mom and go there instead of Foley!

  5. Rachel

    I think the ELS looks great — sorry that it’s too short in some dimension or another.

    And I think the idea of a competitive knitalong is sort of fun…if stressful.

  6. Jenn

    I had the same problem with my over the knee socks. They hit right at the middle of my knee. 🙁 So I started over with one of them, and then when I got to the ankle, I had decreased too much. This is still a painful experience for me. They’re haunting me from my yarn basket.

    You’re the first blogger I’ve told after I posted about it. It hurts!

  7. Teyani

    The socks are still gorgeous, short or not.. we are all crossing our fingers that your get more of the same yarn, so less to frog.
    Happy Birthday Great Gran !

  8. KT

    The socks are great. You could, if said yarn is not available, do some fair isle at the top. It could be super cute. Did I actually just say super cute? sigh.

    And I am convinced you are NEVER going to spill it about the yarn labels…sigh.

  9. Katie

    Sounds like your Great Gran had a very nice birthday. Pretty scarves too! I’m sorry you have to frog–I feel the pain! (i would be too lazy to even fix it) lol but they look good anyway! Are you watching the super bowl?

  10. The Darling Sister

    Well, you could have said no the outlets, it would have been fine, but I thought you had fun? And BOY, am I NOT photogenic. Yuck. I have to say though, the ELS make my legs look very nice. All in the knit, I am sure. And I am very sorry about the BF socks and the Cat Free Zone! I didn’t know that was the case otherwise I would have braved the Crack of Dawn Sunlight in the other room! Why am I finding out that I was so pushy and mean to you now!? Heavens! I would never have wasted your Whole Day or slowed the BF socks on purpose!!

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