A Sweater for Pippa and other stuff

Check out those sweet buttons I found at The Sew Inn on High Street in Morgantown!


This week I knit like a madwoman every day to finish up this sweater in time for Lisa's baby shower. It is based on the Elizabeth Zimmerman February Baby Sweater from Knitter's Almanac. I substituted my favorite lace pattern, Fancy Trellis, for EZ's Gull Lace because both are 7 stitch repeats. The yarn is Patton's Kroy Socks in the Flax colourway.
The main deviations from the original pattern are in the sleeves, which I knit in the round. The sweater is made seamlessly by picking up the cast on stitches at the underarm just like I did on the Madyson Sweater, using the selvage of the knitted-on cast on as a row of stitches. It isn't perfect, but anyone who picks up the baby's arms to stare at my seamless join deserves whatever they get!

Delia and I arrived late to the baby shower because unlike most people, I have to work on Saturdays. It was a lovely party which we enjoyed very much (Judy has a TREEHOUSE in her backyard!).

We left the party a little early, but I think it was actually a cosmic good thing, because as we pulled onto Edgehill Street I saw an old friend of Husband's walking up. He'd knocked on the door, but I think Husband must've been upstairs because he failed to answer. It was a great thing that I caught him and his wife before they got to their car. We had such a lovely visit! I hadn't met Andy's wife Yu Ezhong before (so strange to think how quickly 6 or 7 years can pass, what all can happen in that time that you didn't realize you'd missed!), but we hit it off. We ended up having dinner at Lavender Cafe. Our dinners were not brought out at the same time, I stared at my Spicy Red Dragon Roll for 15 minutes while we waited for the rest of the food.
Otherwise everything was DELICIOUS, and the conversation was also delightful. Yu Ezhong (please forgive me if I butchered the spelling, I had to crib it from the internet as best I could) ordered a seafood dish that so reminded me of Dad. She told us about her favorite restaurant food back in China, which is kind of a meatball made from squid, which nobody here in WV seems to know how to make. She also helped Delia with her Chinese pronunciation, because Dee has been learning a few phrases in school. We all had a great time! I hope we get to do it again soon.

On the way home from the restaurant we were waylaid by a shambling tide of ZOMBIES. I wish I'd taken photographs, but it was still a worthwhile experience. We stood on a pedestrian island so the ZOMBIES could drag themselves down the street all around us. They were led by several men in Umbrella Corporation uniforms, which I thought was a super nice touch. Delia was delighted by the spectacle at first, but then came the first Screaming Fast Moving Zombie. And I have to say here that I am SO IMPRESSED by the decorum of the ZOMBIES. Even the folks who were really in character, really making it scary, they never crossed the line and got close enough to touch my kid. It really only took two scary monsters to get Delia Deliciously Scared. And by that I mean the good kind of scared she gets from reading Goosebumps books. We all three huddled together in the street as the tide of ZOMBIES flowed all around us. I especially liked the Gas Mask zombies from Dr. Who. Hooray for the Zombie Walk!