Partial FO Parade

Well, I only have some photos, but if I keep waiting I'll never get anything posted! So, some of the projects I finished while in New York. Like I said, it rained every day we were there, so I spent a lot of time on the couch knitting!

3 more squares for the Malabrigo Swap Blankets:



Caramel Cable hat for Jake's dad:


I really loved the construction of the hat - decreasing in the Cables was so clever! I didn't love that I had to pick up and knit further on the bottom to make it cover the ears fully, but I like it in the end. I'll try and get Jake to put it on for a modeled shot, but the blocking version will have to do for now!

My Baltimore socks are done, too! The proportion in the picture here looks odd, but they are, in fact, normal sized :)
I think the yarn and pattern worked together really nicely!
I am most proud of my made up decreases. The foot fit nicely on 80 stitches (gauge was 9.5 spi) but was too big up the leg, so I omitted two pattern repeats. I think it looks like it was supposed to flow in the pattern this way. If I were a teacher, I'd give myself a gold star for cleverness!
Not a FO, but my most recently cast on are the August Woolgirl Sock Club installment. The yarn is Madelinetosh Sock. The sock is knit flat after the toe, then is made into a tube by knitting a strip on the stitches held on waste and joining to the selvedge edge. Pretty nifty! It's going really quick since it's all stockinette. As seems to be the theme with the sock club thus far, the color isn't one I'd choose on my own, but it's nice so far! Knitting flat really breaks up any pooling that might otherwise happen (and I did see it in someone else's project who used the yarn for Thuja's rather than the club patterns.)

Of course, the most exciting thing finished is Maude, buttons on, blocked and everything! That has to wait for Jake's photo assistance though.

The reason Jake couldn't help me this weekend with pictures? Oh, I wish I had photos of the mini-Monster Truck Rally in the yard! We used to have a big bush between our driveway and the neighbor wanted it gone because it got too big. He had been chopping branches off here and there, but Jake decided to pull it out. . . using his truck. His exact words were 'I don't expect much resistance from the bush'. Boy was he wrong! It took him and his buddy HOURS to get it out and the bush beat the truck in most attempts to yank it with a chain. It greatly amused the elderly man across the street to see tires spinning and the truck pulling back after the chain tensed and the bush didn't budge! I'm pretty sure the whole thing will cost a new set of tires on the truck, but I guess sometimes you are supposed to use a truck like a truck! Now our neighbor is going to buy a new small bush to put in as a replacement since Jake did all the hard work of getting it out. I guess this makes us officially southern!

What did YOU do on your long weekend?