I can finally share!

So toward the end of last October my Dad and I started on a little top secret project for my knitty sisters. We decided - after a long back and forth of me swearing it's not hard to him looking into it and declaring (as if I didn't already know) "hey these will be easy to make" - that we would make sock blockers for my knitting group.

They're so expensive to buy and it seemed silly since the construction is so basic - -or so we thought. The initial cutting out of the blockers wasn't hard at all and I even got to learn to use that hand held sawy-thing that you see below. Of course my hand isn't so steady and being too short for the work bench even at 30-something left me with the job of using the hand sander. Also a cool toy, but all the vibrations makes your hand feel funny after awhile.

Anyway, we got everything cut out and sanded and looking nice until it came time for the painting. That's when the S%#& hit the fan!
(give me a break it was the trial run)
Everything seemed simple enough, I bought the spray paint and we gave then all a good coat but then it was time for the second coat. My Dad gave them all another spray one night and came in to bust my chops that I must have gotten cheap paint because it all bubbled up! In the meantime we were also trying to add a decal - a super awesome logo that one of the knitters created for us with instructions to make it in all variations and ask no questions. They were applied, bubbled up and ruined the paint job yet again. So now this project has become my Dad's Everest and I'm barely involved other than as a sounding board. Re-sand, re-paint, re-sand repeat. This went on for quite some time and it became obvious that they weren't going to be ready for Christmas.

Ahh but then the light went off! It wasn't the paint but the temperature of the paint! They're not kidding when they say keep it above a certain temperature. That was the trouble all along. once we figured that out we were off and running again, keeping the can in the house until paint time worked perfectly. We gave up on the logo out of fear and finally gifted all the blockers.

Don't worry though, in between drying times I made sure to test run each set. Boy, I'm going miss being able to dry 3 pairs of socks at once :-)
Two of the three ladies had birthdays coming up (in MARCH mind you) so they received STR from the Raven Collection to accompany the blockers. Ahh, the blockers have finally left the nest!
Chris & Jana's Birthday yarn
In other knitting news, my aunt gave me a big box of "wool" from an elderly woman at her church who had to hang up her knitting needles (sigh). In the box was a plethora of Lion Brand Baby Soft in yellow and green, a few skeins of scratchy blue and purple old school acrylic and the beginning of a child's sweater. Sadly no pattern accompanied the box or I would have loved to pick up where she left off. I know there's more knitting stuff from her out there because we all know no knitter would have just one new pair of size 8's plus long (bent) and one short size 8 needle in their stash!
My second Condom Critter was gifted to my cousin's bride to be at her bachlorette party and seemed to receive a warm welcome to her new home.
The baby sweater was almost done - knit and blocked and ready for assembly, until I realized the sleeves were way too narrow to fit the body. Jana, the ever brave knitter in the group, said I should be able to fudge them into place but I'm afraid of making it a lumpy mess so I decided to just pick up the stitches and re-knit the sleeves. I know me, if I get too frustrated it'll never get done.
Well, that was a long post but I think it wraps everything up. Oh, yeah, I picked up some socks that were patiently waiting their turn to be finished while the sweater was blocking, I just turned the heel so after the sweater I'll get those bad boys off the needle too. Then I can FINALLY get back to my sweater - just in time for 75 degree weather!