Almost done - whatever that means

I now have several "almost done" knitting projects.  My travelling woman shawl is actually in the bind-off row BUT...I'm going to have to frog a row or 2 because I've dropped a couple of stitches ::swears under breath::.  I'm starting to think this poor shawl is never going to be done!

My corset-t, which has been languishing for nearly 2 years has been getting some action (oh, wait, that doesn't sound quite right!) lately.  The first dozen or so rows of the corset-t is pretty fun.  After that, it's k2p2 the whole way.  While it looks good and will probably fit well, it is B..O..R..I..N..G.  I've taken to keeping the project in my car so I can take it with me whenever I'm somewhere that I'll have some waiting or down time (doctors, dentist, choir practice, etc.)  This may get done in my lifetime, I just hope I still want to wear it when it's done.

The moderne log cabin blanket I'm making for my son's girlfriend is about 90 rows from completion.  I'll probably run out of yarn before then, so I think I'll just stop knitting when I'm out of yarn.  I have enough of one of the colors not in the last block to do a quick border, I think.

My oldest child and only daughter got married last June.  I started a reversible cable afghan for her and her husband...I really want it to be done by their first anniversary!!!

Lastly, I'm working on a birds nest shawl for my BFF.  It's a rectangular shawl that's knit along the long side.  The good news: there are only 150 or so rows.  The bad news: each row is about 4 bajillion stitches!  I'm going to Belgium to visit her this weekend, so I'll take the shawl with me and work on it a bit while I'm there.  The yarn I'm using for the shawl is Bristol Yarn Gallery's Buckingham which is a silk / baby alpaca blend which feels heavenly.

If I find any good yarn shops in Brussels, I'll post them here!

Shawl is almost done and less animals (for now)

Tapioca, the cat in my previous post, has found a new home.  A co-worker of my DH's took him.  She's a single mom with one son.  I think Tapioca will be very happy with them.  He's a "one-cat-family" kind of guy. 

I've been making great progress on my beautiful Travelling woman scarf (using the British spelling because its used in the pattern.)  I only had about 12 rows to go when I decided to add another pattern of chart A.  I finished a few more rows and now have about 15 rows to go.  I'll put a photo up as soon as I start to block it.  Lace (even though there isn't tons of lace on this) does NOT look good unblocked.  It's made with sock yarn on size 6 needles, so that makes it look kind of wonky too before blocking (at least that's what I'm hoping!)

Had a really fun day on Saturday.  My DH and I went to a small event in Harrington, DE called COOPtastic.  It was an information day with vendors and contests for folks with backyard chickens.  I've ordered 6 peeps that will be in next month, so I thought I would get some good info there.  Got some good info on chicks and chickens, but not much on coops (hey, it was called COOPtastic...I thought there would be lots of different types of coops!)  DH will probably finish the coop design this week and start putting it together next week.  We've decided to pasture the chickens, so we're going to use a mobile coop and a mobile run.  I need to come up with a name for the coop (Coop-a-cabana is currently my favorite, but that's likely to change).  I also need to come up with names for all 6 of the girls.  Here are some thoughts (we're getting 2 of each: austrolorps, buff orpingtons, and ameraucanas):

• List 1:  Laverne and Shirley, Lucy and Ethyl, Betty and Wilma (my late mother's name is Betty, so that seems kind of disrespectful)
• List 2: Grace and Hopper, Ada and Countess, Winifred and Asprey (computer scientists)

I'm trying to come up with others, too.

Progress and more animals

The baby dress is done:

 

My friend's daughter is named Hannah, so I just HAD to make a banana for her too!

I've cast on the travelling woman shawl and started to work on it.  I've also made a couple of scrubbies for the kitchen.  I made the scrubbies from Peaches 'n cream and tulle.  The tulle is a bit hard on my hands, so I'll make some more scrubbies tomorrow.

In non-knitting news:

1. I ordered my first chicks ever!  I ordered 2 Araucanas, 2 Buff Orpingtons, and 2 Black Austrolorps.  I ordered them at the local feed store and they'll be here around the middle of April.  Yaay!  
2. Jeff, my DH, brought home ANOTHER cat on Thursday.  We had him (yes, a him, we thought he was a she for 2 days) evaluated at the vet today and he has a clean bill of health.  He is all white and has a very sweet disposition.  The vet thinks he's probably 4-5 years old.  He's already been neutered and declawed.  We've decided to name him Tapioca for now.  This brings our cat "herd" to 5!!!  I'm definitely starting to feel like the crazy cat lady.  Our other male cat, Brownie, is not too happy about this new addition.  The girls, Gravy, Buffy, and Mittens, don't really seem to care.