Making A Dent?

I really want to get some new yarn and start a few Christmas presents, but first I have to make a dent in my WIPs! I picked up my ripple afghan again, and am just about out of yarn. I'd like to think that by tonight the body will be finished and I'll just need to add the edging tomorrow afternoon. The diagonal baby blanket I'm making with Crayon is taking FOREVER. A stitch is added every row so it just gets slower and slower as I go. I also discovered I'm going to need approximately 6.4 skeins to make it the size I want, and I only ordered 6, so I need to get one more. I think I'm going to get white instead of the same blue so I don't have to worry about dyelots, then it will have a diagonal white stripe in the middle. It should work out ok, I guess we'll see!
I also have my socks going right now, plus my dad's deer. I've sort of given up on the deer - my brother joked that I should make the body the neck instead, and then mount it on a piece of wood. Slightly morbid, but something my dad would think is funny. Oh, plus the Sweet Dreams throw. I'm thinking of making my MIL the same throw in colors to match their new living room, but I'm not even 1/3 of the way done with mine, so that might be too ambitious. I just have too many different projects going at once! I really want to start a shawl, but clearly I have other things to do first :)
Since every post needs a picture, here is the most recent shot of the ripple:

Done!

I finally finished my sisters blanket, just in time to give it to her this past weekend when she visited. It was a complete surprise (yay, I handled keeping a secret!) for her to use when she moves into her new apartment today. Hopefully she'll get lots of use out of it.
It ended up taking around 2.5 skeins of each color of Loops and Threads Impeccable. I didn't measure it before I gave it to her, but it was probably around 4'x5.5'. A good snuggling on the couch size. I used the pattern I found on a leaflet at Michael's and followed it for the squares and color placement. Then I did a border of black sc, white hdc, and blue dc. The squares are seamed together using a sc join through BOTH loops of the edges.
Not only am I done, but I was the first person to finish one and post it on Ravelry, so my picture is the main picture for the pattern :) How fun!
Up next - socks! I am using the Lifestyle Toe Up Socks patern from Charisa Martin Cairn that I found on Ravelry. Really, the thing that drew me to it was the no-swatch needed aspect. It takes me so gosh darn long to make a 4"x4" square on sz 3 (or less) needles, I figured by the time I had it done I could be halfway done with socks! So far, I love it. Judy Becker's Brilliant Cast On is, well, brilliant. It worked so much better than all of the other methods I'd been trying. As for now, I'm just knitting one sock on two circulars, but I can see how next time it will be really easy to do two at a time instead. Ah, pretty Knit Picks yarn, already made into a toe for a sock! So excited! In fact, I'm so pumped, it's time to work on it some more. I'm doing a K2P2 rib for the instep that will carry up the leg, and I think I'll finish the cuff with a k1p1. We'll see.
Here's a picture, on my foot :)

Super Secret Afghan Project

My sister still doesn't know about the GVSU afghan I'm making for her, but she's visiting this weekend, so I'm working on getting it done. All it needs is a few more ends sewn in, and I'm set! It has made me decided I'm tired of working on afghans with lots of different squares. It is way too time consuming seaming and weaving in ends.
I'm ready for something that is all one color! I ordered more yarn from KnitPicks yesterday, plus some new needles. I picked out 6 skeins of Crayon in Azure to make a diagonal knit baby blanket. There are (at least) 4 babies coming up that need things made for them, so odds are at least one is a boy, right? I just fell in love with the color and had to get it. It helps that it was only $1.99 a skein - this blanket could cost me a total of $12, which is even cheaper than the ones I made with the $0.99 yarn! I also picked out some sock yarn. I need to practice a bit before I get it, but I found a tutorial on the figure-8 cast on, and think I might be able to do this after all. Finally, I ordered two skeins of laceweight to make a shawl with. With my cousin's wedding coming up in October, I figured I could make a shawl to wear over one of my dresses to keep me warm. I'm planning on Swallowtail for now, but that could change. My plan is to practice a few repeats with sportweight and big needles first, so I can make sure I know what I'm doing.
I just finished uploading all of our vacation pictures to the computer, time to get them online!
Mr. Giraffe says goodbye!