♥ Down With the Knitty Gritty ♥ ™: Favorite Color Swap

I got a big surprise in the mail yesterday! (Totally unexpected too!) My pal, Ronnie, from the Favorite Color Swap sent me a wonderful package! There are 10 skeins of gorgeous yellow cotton and a skein of Rowan Magpie. There's enough cotton to make a tank top too! There was also a delish smelling bag of coffee, (which Shawn is ready to dive into), a bag of Werther's Originals, (all mine!), a bar of yummy chocolate, (which I had to swipe from Shawn when he was looking at it...I don't trust him), a pair of baby booties for Scout, a set of needles and a little Dennis the Menace grab bag for Jem, (that didn't get photographed because he immediately broke it open and was playing with the boomerang that was in it). I've been spoiled rotten! Thanks so much Ronnie!

I don't know about you, but here in Southern California we've had ridiculously warm weather. As in yesterday it was about 88 degrees here in Canyon Country. Like I said, ridiculous! So I took Jem to the pool, which was ridiculously cold. But he enjoyed splashing around for a half hour. And while there I worked on my Provisional Cast On technique for the Dalton socks.

It took a little practice, but I finally got it right. (Part of the reason it took a few tries was because I didn't have any smaller sized crochet hooks that matched with the size 2 needles I was using.) Anywhoo...I was doing great, until I started messing up on the reverse short row shaping. Those double wraps had me a bit confused. So I started over and this is where I am so far:

I only did the first short row shapings for the toe, I haven't gotten to the reverse shapings yet. (That will be later on tonight.)

I did a little drive by to JoAnn's to pick up some thread and buttons for Scout's Lacy Dress. I think I did good on the color match:

Saturday afternoon I picked up a copy of Jan Eaton's "200 Ripple Stitch Patterns: Exciting Patterns to Knit and Crochet for Afghans, Blankets and Throws". There are a number of patterns I would like to use from this book. But for now I'll only be doing one for the Ripple Along KAL. (I also got two smaller sized crochet hooks, just in case I need them for other projects.)

And this was the yarn I decided to go with:

It's Red Heart Soft Yarn. I had originally wanted to do the Ripple Blanket in browns and teals, but I could not, for the life of me, find the color combination I was looking for. And since, like other fiber addicts out there in the world, I was impatient to start N.O.W. Anyway, the red/black/white combination is very pretty and I have to say that this is the softest acrylic yarn I have ever felt. For $2.99 a skein (and over 200 yards a skein), I'd say it's a great deal.

Can you guess what this is?

It's Scout's new outfit I got at Target this morning. I had been looking for some shorts for her and these were just too cute. (Can you believe that this is a 12 month size though?) Two weeks ago, Shawn and I had been stocking up on onesies and jammies because she's getting too big for her 0-3 month clothes. Well, we got plenty of onesies but the jammies don't seem to be working for this hot weather. So I bought a couple pairs of shorts and a striped shirt to match both pairs.

Cute, huh?

She's contemplating.