For a sense of closure, I must say that I finished the baby sweater. I am now satisfied with the sleeve length. I think this turned out pretty cute.

• Pattern: Trellis from Knitty

• Yarn: Cleckheaton Country 8-ply Color 2194 Sage Green (Machine Washable!) from Yarn!

• Needles: Size 7

• Buttons from Britex Fabrics, as usual.

• Adjustments: Cast on more stitches for sleeves, worked shorter sleeves.

So I'm going to send this out today, before the intended recipient grows anymore.

Now I only have 5 works in progress! Three of them are pairs of socks, and two of those are past the heel on the second pair, so they should be finished in short order.

Peonies are in season.

I've restarted the sleeves I blogged about before for the baby sweater, finished one and started the second. Aiming for weekend completion.

Past the heel on the second Sockapalooza sock. I work on that project when I'm commuting, but that's only about 40 minutes a day, all told. Slowly but surely.

Some new yarn:

This is maybe a DK weight wool in natural brown. It's from Full Belly Farm in Guinda, north of Napa. I picked this up at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, just a little way from where I work. It's a great little lunchtime getaway for me. The Capay Organic Fruits and Vegetables booth sells this yarn in a variety of natural colors and weights, as well as a whole lot of lavender products.

I want to make a warm hat or something out of this. It's fairly rustic, with plenty of non-wool "fiber" in it, if you know what I mean. Noro yarns have nothing on this. But it's actually pretty soft, nonetheless.

I had wanted to finally post about the baby sweater I've been working on for my friends Sarah and Shawn, whose baby Max was born just about 2 weeks ago.

I didn't want it to be this:

This might seem fine, but it's for a baby. Babies aren't quite the same as adults. Their bodies are still developing, and they don't quite know what to do with their hands. Sleeves are better if they stay out of the way a little, and rolling them up is not the look I was going for. The post-its for scale, if that helps.

The thing is, the body has been done for awhile now. I have had trouble with the sleeves because after the first one, I thought they wouldn't be wide enough. But this is worse, in a way, because there's no quick fix.

Well, I did think about just cutting the sleeves and picking up the stitches for the cuff, but I want this to be a nice sweater, not a sloppy hack job.

The sleeves are now converted to this:

I have some more knitting to do. Fortunately, it's fewer rows. Ah, there's a bright side if you look hard enough.

Well, I finished the first of my Sockapalooza Socks and cast on for the second:

Okay, this works for me. It's not the fastest pair of socks ever knit, but I'm just used to knitting such relatively small socks. My feet are size 9-1/2 and Walker wears a size 12, so all the socks I knit are pretty big. I also like a long cuff, but my pal requested cuffs not more than 4 inches.

I've actually knit a little more than this picture shows. I've started the pattern on the leg, so just about 3 inches before I start the second heel flap! I could finish these before the end of May. I have some"secret" (not for blogging) projects I would like to work on, but I will try to have things I can share going on, too.

I haven't really blogged about it, but I have been working on a baby sweater for my friend whose due date was Saturday. I finished the knitting, I just need to sew it up. Look for that maybe during the holiday weekend ahead.

Last weekend was my birthday, and we went up to the Muir Woods in Marin County. It was really nice to get out and spend some time in nature.

So it's a national park, but we saw so many people who were dressed for shopping in the city. I even saw a woman wearing high heels! There is a nice flat, paved path but still, it's not a mall. I was wearing jeans, a flannel shirt, and sneakers. But that's not such a stretch for me. Heh.

It was great to see nice big trees. My family did a lot of hiking and camping stuff when we were growing up, in forests similar to this one (without the paved paths). Moss and mushrooms and decaying trees ... makes me a little homesick for the Pacific Northwest.

Then there's this guy:

The pamphlet we got at the entrance had little blurbs about the plant and animal life, and I was looking all over for a Banana Slug. It was fairly warm, so I didn't think we'd see one. Yeah, I've seen slugs before, and I know they don't help in the garden, but out in the woods is just the place for them.

More sock comes forth.

I have been knitting this on the bus, crossing the Bay Bridge. I look out at the water, and I have waves in my knitting too.

My sock pal has smaller feet than me, so I'll finish this sock very soon!

I'm excited to be participating in Sockapalooza 4. I do have a stash of sock yarn, but my swap recipient deserves something special. I had wanted to try Lisa Souza's yarns, especially since she is local. The colors I wanted were in stock, and I got them just 2 days later!

The pattern is Child's First Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by the revered Nancy Bush. I love her sock books! This pattern is easy to memorize. I admit I adjusted the number of stitches I'm using to work on size 0 needles. I think this will make the socks a little more hard wearing. My sock pal asked for cuffs no more than 4 inches, so I'm already at the heel flap! Sweet!

A little more about the yarn; my pal prefers superwash, and this is a superwash wool & nylon blend with a little more overt color variation than Lorna's Laces. I think the weight of the two yarns is the same, but Lisa's is a little softer. I had to get another skein for myself as well. I love the Ginger Peach color, even though I'm not normally a "peach" kind of girl.

Yeah, I can post again! The issues have been resolved, an early birthday present for me.

I am still working on the baby sweater, and I have gotten some work done on the first Sockapalooooza Sock. My sock recipient only wants 4 inch cuffs (or shorter!), so I'm working the heel flap already. Do I have pictures of it yet? No, of course not.

However, I have yet another unfinished project, the popular Swallowtail Shawl. I was just starting the border and I ran into some trouble, so I took it off the needle and it is "on time out" for now.

This is the coveted Sea Silk. I have no idea what colorway this is, it wasn't labeled.

A close up of the main pattern of the shawl.

I only have the borders to knit on this. These are the longest rows, of course. As for the controversial nupps, the lily-of-the-valley pattern, I plan to increase to 3 as opposed to 5 stitches. The Sea Silk is thicker than the yarn used by the designer, so I think it will look neater.

I like knitting socks, and it's very rewarding when Walker really likes wearing the socks I make him. The only difficulty is that he has size 12 feet. Yeah, that's a lot of knitting.

These are "Gentleman's Fancy Socks" from Nancy Bush's book Knitting Vintage Socks, a really good source for men's sock patterns, in case a knitter wants to knit something besides basic k2, p2 rib. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

The yarn is Regia 4-ply, Color 1991, a pretty light heathered grey, 75% wool, 25% polyamide. I reinforced the heelflaps with some sewing thread to make them a little more durable. i just knit the thread along with the yarn. These took a little over 2 skeins, but I have plans for the remainder as an accent color on another pair of socks for Walker.