Well, no baby yet. We’re having to practice a great deal of patience waiting for this first grandchild. However, there should be news by midweek. The doctor has promised a baby by then, one way or another. Wednesday is Bill’s birthday, so we figure as long as we’ve waited this long, that sounds like a good day. But . . . babies have their own agenda.

My knitting has been the beneficiary of all this grandmotherly anxiety. I finished the Baby Wallaby and just have to darn in ends and graft the underarms. I was trying to decide what my next major project would be and spent a whole evening gazing fondly through books and magazines. I have always wanted to make Fulmar (from Starmore’s Fisherman Knits book) and gave it some serious thought until I calculated how much the yarn would cost me. Almost $100 using KnitPicks yarn and twice that using Starmore. Yikes! I was getting a little discouraged when I realized that I already had two major projects that had been languishing for quite a long time. I had spent about that much on yarn for each of them and decided they really deserved my attention. I’m glad I did! I had put Kongsberg away because I was stymied by the neckline. The pattern instructs you to bind off the middle neck stitches and then start working back and forth. Of course, we all know this is bogus because working back and forth in color pattern is, well , just wrong! But the pattern has you binding off a certain amount of stitches at the beginning and end of each row for about 20 rows. I couldn’t figure out how to do this with a neck steek. Thank goodness, Chery came to the rescue! I emailed her for advice and here’s what she suggested: Instead of binding off the stitches, just purl them. When you come around again, just incorporate the stitches above the purl into your steek. When I stitch before cutting, I will just follow the line of purl stitches and then after stitching will cut about 2 stitches above them, leaving a small seam allowance. Ingenious! Thanks Chery! Since this started making my steek pretty large, I decreased occasionally as I went along, making for a pretty odd looking steek, but it will mostly cut away. So without further ado, Kongsberg’s front:

And back:

I really love the back detail on this. And once I resolved the problem on the neck, I found myself getting very excited about it again. I guess you just have to give old projects a second chance. Also on the needles is Ingeborg. I started it as a knit along, but I think everyone else finished about 6 months ago. So it’s on to Kongsberg’s sleeves.

And for once, it’s a different model posing with my knitting. Don’t let this sweet little face fool you. Did you know that Corgis shed? A LOT!!! Actually, we were prepared for this. The breeder warned us, but also asssured us that it only happens twice a year. It’s manageable if we vacuum at least every day or so, and we even taken to vacuuming her. She doesn’t really seem to mind. It’s a good thing it’s spring and I’ve put my black away. But a little dog hair in the soup is a small price to pay for such a sweet friend.