Progress, I think

Chick-a-dee-dee-dee! Chick-a-dee! Chick-a-dee-dee-dee! Have you ever seen these little stuffed birds? You squeeze them and they play a recording of the actual call. I love them. My dogs do too. Tucker especially. You can really tell he is a bird dog(Cocker Spaniel); he gets sooooo excited at the sound of the bird call. He has even learned how to bite down on it to make it call. Sometimes if he gets excited about something else, he even runs to get the bird as if making it call expresses his excitement. I read that a good bird dog has a "soft mouth" and can retrieve a hit bird for the hunter without damaging it. I swear it's true. Tucker runs around with this in his mouth, and really keeps it in near-pristine condition. (Okay a little slobber on the "feathers" but nothing like some of his other toys.)

Well this little bird told me you were all dying to know how my knitting projects were coming along, so here is Sovann's first sock, as it looked in the morning sunlight on Saturday. And here it is finished and the second one started this evening

And this next picture credits Elizabeth Zimmerman for how the second sock will look better than the first. I should have checked with her before I struggled with the first heel. Well, the second will go better. I also figured out that my cable cast-on was not a cable cast-on. In fact, I don't know what it was. I watched a video tutorial and learned it, thinking it was a cable cast-on, but it wasn't what EZ called a cable cast-on. What I did (whatever it was), seemed too loose and floppy, but when I tried a correct cable cast-on, I found it was too tight, even though I tried it 3x, trying very hard to leave it loose. So I started the second sock with the cable-imposter cast-on, this time purposely snugging it up a bit, and it came out just fine. I just wish I knew what to call it. I guess Knitting Without Tears can only be achieved if one consults EZ before beginning!

Now this little bird, being used to having all the attention, insisted that we check in on the Dapper Chap Vest (aka Kim Wagner's "His Quilted Vest"). Well this is how it looked at Saturday morning's photo shoot. It is knitted from the bottom up, and I was using acrylic for my poor wool-allergic Ian.Well, no longer. I'm switching yarns. I've ripped it out and knitted up a gauge swatch with the Lion Brand Cotton Ease (50% Cotton/50% Acrylic). With a little math, I'll be able to make the switch, since this knits up a little smaller than the brand Kim uses in her pattern. I looooove the feel of this yarn. Very soft and smooth. And the subtle elasticity is easy on the hands.
And yes, these skeins were in my stash, so I'm not violating my vow to knit/crochet stash only. I don't have enough of the stone (that beige/gray color on the left) to knit the whole thing in one color (I don't think), so I'm going to knit stripes into it on the lower half, and hope that that leaves enough of the stone. It it doesn't make it, I'll have to come up with a plan B, which will probably involve buying another skein of the stone in the closest-matching dye lot. Or more stripes?I just had a funny thought. Wouldn't it be something to knit a zig-zag stripe all the way around, a la Charlie Brown.. If you knew my Ian, you'd know that he'd wear it, and proudly too, and before long, his friends would want one too!

Tomorrow, the crochet update.