Okay, to make up for my recent slacking, this post is going to extra amazing (I promise!)

First and formost: A FO!

May I present - Branching Out!
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (possibly my favorite yarn in the world), colour: 300602, 3 skeins

Needles: US size 10, straight (some kind of wood, I have no idea because they were free...)

Pattern Modifications: none, except that I used heavier yarn and larger needles to make a more substantial scarf.

Notes: this is my very first lace project, ever. i adore it. the pattern was super easy, but interesting enough that I didn't want to gouge my eyes out or anything. i used a lifeline, because as a new lace knitter, i realized extremely quickly that i am too dumb to be able to fix mistakes.

Thanks to the lifeline, I am happy to say that this is a 100% mistake-free knit!

I particularly enjoyed blocking this scarf. Having never knitted lace before, I was kind of amazed at the awesome-ness of the blocking transformation. Here's a picture of the scarf half-blocked and half-not-blocked (it was so long that I had to block it in two stages):

This is a gift for my best friend, which is a good thing, because if it were for anyone else, I swear I'd keep it! It's officially ready to go :-)

Okay, next up: fingerless gloves for my roommate, Sam! I finished the knitting on the first glove, and am working on the second. I'm using this fingerless glove pattern, which I'm enjoying a lot. They look small, but they stretch a lot (I had Sam, who is a pretty big guy, try this one on and it fits just fine), which means that this pattern would fit almost any adult.

Sam picked the yarn himself (brave boy - I sent him into the LYS by himself with a paper that said "two 50g skeins of sport weight yarn"). It's Blue Sky Alpacas sport weight, which I adore knitting because it is gloriously soft. I'm knitting them with US size 5 addi dpns.

Onward! (I told you this was gonna be a good one!)
I'm still awaiting news on the birth of my soon-to-be second cousin. In the meantime, I've been slowly (painstakingly slowly, really) frogging my very first crocheted item. It's a blanket that is one enormous granny square, and you can read the whole story here, in my very first post. anyway, it's made out of acrylic, which is good for... oh, nothing... except baby items! also, this baby is being named after my grandma, and so I have this feeling like I need to take the yarn given to me by my grandma (who is, i imagine, smiling down from heaven) and use it to make one million baby items.

My plan is to knit a few things to send as a "welcome to the family" gift when she is born. Since that could be any moment, I should probably kick it into gear!

Okie. Now, I mentioned in my last post that I had been bad and ordered a lot of yarn. Well, lest you think I was exagerating:

Starting in the back row, left to right: 4 skeins of knitpicks crayon (probably for a baby sweater), 12 skeins of Shetland Aran (possibly for Stasky), 3 skeins of Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora (lord knows, but I love this stuff), 6 skeins of Debbie Bliss merino dk (maybe a substitute for the brown in the Deep V Vest i've been planning, 12 skeins (in two different colorways) of elann.com Peruvian Baby Silk (no clue, but it's cheap, and I wanted to try it)
row 2: 4 skeins (in two colorways) of knitpicks Palette (probably for some mitts), 4 skeins of knitpicks merino style (also a possible substitution for the Deep V)
row 3: 8 skeins of knitpicks gloss (knitty's thermal)