Stealth knitting

Thursday afternoon, I ran into the mother of the realtor who helped me find a place to live when I moved. (She -- the mother -- works at the Main Library, so this wasn't a real surprise.) Talking to her reminded me that my realtor's baby is due next week!

So, that evening, I came home and cast on for the Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap. I wasn't happy with my first choice of yarn, so Friday evening, I cast on again, this time with a mystery sock yarn found label-less in my stash. It feels like Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock and, looking at the Lorna's colorways, I wonder if it's Sassy Stripe. No idea where it came from, though....

I finished the cap yesterday, which is some kind of record for me. I'm still not crazy with the way the orange pooled, but it's cute, and any baby born in Iowa in January certainly needs an earflap hat. All that's left to do is attach the I-cord ties.

So, with lots of yarn and some time, I decided I should do a pair of booties, too. With Ravelry's help, I found several free patterns, and decided to go with this top-down pair from Megan Mills. This will teach me to read through the pattern more closely -- it looked like a sock and it was knit from the top down. It would be a snap!

Actually, it wasn't really very hard at all, but instead of grafting the toe, you graft the whole length of the sole -- 48 stitches to Kitchener.

Y'all may remember how I dislike Kitchenering, even after a very good lesson by my friend Becky last summer. However, I got out the post-it note with the instructions from Becky, and grafted the first bootie at 12:30 a.m. this morning. And I think I've got it -- Kitchenering that many stitches, over and over, may have set it in my brain for good. I did the second one earlier this evening, with almost no panic!

I like the finished booties better than the cap -- less orange pooling. I went to Joann's this afternoon and bought both pink and orange ribbon, so all I've got left to do is decide which color to use.