I'm back!

Back from a great visit with my sister and her husband and my new niece! You know as soon as I got there I made my sister open her birthday gift first thing! I had gotten her a few things she wanted for the house, and of course made her the socks she had been asking for for months.

Oh and after I made her socks I had some of the yarn left over so you know what I had to do with that!

These were for my beautiful niece Adelaida. Now just a footnote: the yarn is Knitpicks sockgarden yarn in Daffodil. I am aware that these are colors that might make a normal person somewhat woozy, but again if you know my sister, you know that orange is a big favorite color for her, and just the orange and the green and yellow in this yarn, well, it was meant to be. While my sister's socks are a pretty straightforward, basic sock pattern, Addy's were a different story. This pattern is the Hugs and Kisses Better than Booties Baby Socks which involved this way intricate short row heel and toe thing I had never done before. All with a special zig zag bindoff. Yeah, I know, it even sounds hard. On the first one I did the toe 3 times before getting it right. Now, I don't know as much as a lot of knitters out there, but still I had not been this challenged in a long time. So much so that honestly, that second little baby bootie almost did not get made. But it was worth it I guess. I learned from it. Also in the end it was worth it of course, just to see this...

Oh they're so cute! They just make all that frogging and swearing worth it! Oh and for anyone paying attention this yarn was the issue I had at the beginning of December where I didn't think it was going to come in time for me to get the socks done for my sister's birthday and stuff. Knitpicks had said the delivery would take 5 to 19 days. Of course, being December you know that package had to come on, yep, the 19th day. But still I love Knitpicks, just look at that picture? How could you not?

So I spent a lot of time in Florida just catching up with my new niece and my sister, cooking, eating, knitting, taking lots of lots of pictures.

Sorry, I had to include that one too, I just thought it was so cute. It's my sister, Adelaida and my mom. My mom by the way was a really good sport and did accompany me to the one yarn store I visited. She is a non-knitter but always a very good recipient of knitted gifts and a pretty well behaved companion for yarn crawls. Which I imagine must be pretty boring for them. It's like if I ever had to accompany my husband to a football store, or like a Lord of the Rings store if they existed, I would probably be reciting nuptials over that. But my mom is pretty good. We took a drive out to Sip and Knit in Maitland. A really neat little shop, the people working there were very friendly and there was a pretty good selection. Knowing that whatever I purchased needed to go in my suitcase somehow, my purchases were somewhat limited, but I am nonetheless very enthusiastic about them.

Sock yarn ahh, lovely sock yarn. Two kinds I have not seen in any stores around here. I love the stripey one, it's like a brown and green and cream mix and the one on top is actually a dark burgundy. (I know this is a not good low lit picture) I bought the chibi more because I had lost my tapestry needle somewhere in my luggage, needed another and also figure this case might be a big help so I don't lose more needles in the future. I also did a little shopping for my secret pal too. I hope she likes what I have to send!