Perfect Birthday

My brother's birthday is the day before mine, June 24. My husband's is June 21. Mine is June 25, the perfect birthday. Why is it perfect? Because it is the opposite of Christmas, making for equally spaced gift-giving opportunities.

I feel like I had a practically perfect birthday this year.

My husband gave me this beautiful gift for my birthday,

available at Abundant Yarn. I love this silver needle gauge. It makes an interesting necklace. And those who know that it is a knitting device immediately know that you are a knitter.

What a good husband I have! He loves to give me jewelry and I love to receive it, especially when it's something that I adore as much as this piece. I'm wearing it now.

I spent some of my Sunday at Knit-Purl, in my final lesson on the Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket. I left some supplies there (needles bought at-gasp-another LYS) so I will have to visit them again. Perhaps I will buy yarn when I retrieve my needles. I seamed up the shoulders of the Hippy Baby Sweater and have started on its I-cord border. It's coming along nicely, but I will probably have to donate it away because it is, to my mind, truly hideous. This shoulder seaming practice has given me the confidence to proceed with the other sweaters. We'll have those babies all bundled up by the end of the summer.

My husband got a pair of concert tickets to see Pink Martini at their concert at the Portland Zoo later this summer. He says he loves it. My brother got a variety of stuff, but from us he got a fishing pole. He and Husband have been talking fishing. I hope they get out on the water in the next six weeks or so. My brother has the coolest friends. It was so much fun to spend time with them.

I finished the left-hand Fingerless Garter(stitch) Mitt. I only did 26 rows after the elongated stitch section. Next, I have to re-string another 56 beads and cast on for the right-hand mitt. Hope I've got enough yarn.

I'm trying the garter-stitch hat from Sally Melville's The Knit Stitch book. I didn't swatch and it's turning out to be nearly adult size, although I'm in a fingering weight yarn and size two needles. The pattern calls for size fours and, I think, a DK weight. My hat is going to be nearly 18 inches in diameter. I want to try her method of decreasing, and then size it down for preemie size.

I still haven't gotten my pink or purple yarn to improve my mood, after all the ugly house-elf hats I'm knitting. The Sally Melville hat qualifies as a house-elf hat. What was I thinking when I bought such yarn? I've got blue/brown sock yarn, and grey/brown sock yarn. Yuck. Let's knit it up for charity hats or socks, and open up some stash space. I'm thinking Koigu KPPPM.

More good news: Precious, the mama cat we fostered, was adopted on my birthday. Hooray for her! I believe all three of the kittens were adopted on Saturday. They are undoubtedly getting lots of loving as we speak. June is still Adopt-A-Cat month. You have several more days to get yours.