Snickerdoodles for my birthday!

This post begins with a prayer. Last Tuesday my father-in-law passed away from complications due to cancer. Jim had been fighting cancer for a couple years now and he is no longer suffering. God please let him rest in peace.

Jimmy and I left for Huntington early last Tuesday after getting the call from his mom. While we were packing he turned to me and said something like, "make sure you get your knitting projects in order and pack them."  If anyone wonders why I love this man this is a good indication of one of the many reasons. :-)

We spent a lot of time sitting with family, in waiting rooms, and just car riding, which afforded me a ton of knitting time. I worked on two projects while we were away. First, was the 3.14159... Shawl and this sucker has grown to over 1,000 stitches per round. Yeah this is a great knit, knit, knit and more knit stitch project when you don't want to concentrate but need to keep your hands busy.
 
Second, was the Snickerdoodle Luxe Sweater. I spent a fair amount of time knitting on this while in the hotel and at my Mother-in-Law's house with family.  Sunday I finished the knitting and seaming on this beauty. Last night I finally finished weaving in the many ends. Tonight I plan to soak and block it. I hope it will be dry so I can have wear snickerdoodles for my birthday. I will take some pictures tonight while blocking and post.

Saturday I took a break to The Yarn Shop to knit and buy some yarn for a couple projects I have been wanting to knit. First, I purchased some Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette to knit The Vine and Leaf Beret. This hat is on the cover of Fall 2009 Vogue Knitting and I fell in love hard. I wanted to knit this hat right then and there. Well I contained myself. Saturday I decided it was time to purchase the yarn.

Picture obtained from Vogue Knitting Website.

I have been itching to knit Bella's Mittens. I love, love, love these chunky cabled mittens. Bonus, the pattern was created based on the mittens Bella wore in the movie version of Twilight. I didn't care for the movie and probably wont see New Moon unless I become so utterly bored someday and just need a good laugh. I will keep the book versions alive in my head at least for now. Anyway these mittens rock. At the time of writing this post I have finished the first and working the cuff on the second. The yarn I bough for these Reynolds Andean Alpaca Regal. This yarn is amazing and the first mitten fits me perfectly.