Overdue knitting status report

Oh, its not that I'm not knitting. I have one project that I'm so excited about I could just pee in my pants but I can't tell you about it. I have one more hat left to knit of the Mystery Hat series; man, am I ever having trouble getting to it. I'm *SO* over the Mystery Hats. And not only do I have one of the original 20 left to do, but I've had a request for one I'd like to deliver and I also found a pattern for still another that I'd like to attempt as my first fair-isle effort.


Yesterday Haley and I went next door to help a BFF and favorite neighbor with their knitting:







A. is a natural, and so is her Mommy. I hope they'll both really get into it. Our families get along famously, sharing a love for barbecuing on the back deck, jazz and Baltimore cop shows and all things local sports (that would be mostly Rob I'm talking about...). They built their house at the same time we did, our first babies were born within weeks of each other's. They really feel like family to me (without the sibling squabbling!) and I sometimes have bad dreams that they sell their house and move away. They're the best of neighbors.


Anyway, this is the knitting post, not the neighbor post.



So here are some looks at what I'm working on presently...




Cardigan


This will be a very simple, quite boxy, top of the hip jacket/cardigan; entirely in garter stitch (that can get really really odious...). It has a "shawl collar" and lapels, asymmetrical piecing. I'm doing it in ArtYarns Silk Rhapsody . If it goes as I believe it should, I will have a very elegant jacket that could be worn for presentations at work or even evening wear socially. The fiber is silk and mohair with a metallic gold thread woven through. It is astonishinly beautiful and wonderful in the hand. Because Woolwinders is having the world's best promotion this month, I ended getting the yarn for 40% off rather than the 15% Jacqui had promised me at the time she made the special order for me. I love that shop and Jacqui does a wonderful job of keeping the business exciting and profitable. Of course, I keep up my end of the retail relationship...




Socks---I have one sock about half way through the heel flap in Opal Hundertwasser; its Charlene Schurch's book using the six stitch, slipped rib pattern:








Charlotte's Web Shawl: I haven't knit any more on it recently but I don't think I had posted a photo of its current color layout when I talked about it last:







Very exciting stuff. I think I have still another project in progress but I'm not sure...

Guitar
I think the guitar could be a threat to my knitting time. I do love it. I'm working my way through a lesson book until I get over feeling guilty about the $$$ I spent in Bmore with Haley. I was ready to start lesson three before I left but thought better of it since I was getting ready to go away and didn't want to end up frustrated if I didn't master the material before going. As of now, I've got six notes on strings one and two between frets 1 and two pretty well down, I can shift between them well enough. I know from my previous experiences that this part of learning is a matter of repetition to get down the "muscle memory" kinds of things. I'm proud of myself and I really do feel kind of humbled by being able to produce those silly six notes and hearing them over and over. I kinda feel not worthy or something. Isn't that curious?