Babes, socks, and too much driving.

I finished the doll from Knitted Babes for Monkey last week. She's extremely cute, and I love all the little details like the felt facial features and eyelash stitching. Of course, all those little details are what made it something of a bitch to finish, but all that's over now. The hair is still a work in progress, however.

Wednesday night we headed up to my dad's, and I started working on a dress for Annika (as Monkey named the babe). I got most of it done on the three-hour drive and finished it up at Dad's house. As I was seaming up the back, though, I realized there was no way the dress was going to fit the doll. Absolutely none. And sure enough, the dress is a little bit snug even on a Barbie. Grrr. I suppose knitting the dress out of DK on size 5 needles when I knitted the doll out of worsted on size 6s should've been a clue, but hey, I was in knitterly denial. (Kinda like when I try on those size 6 clothes in my closet that I think still fit. From now on, I'm going to think of them as DK, and I'm a worsted.) I'm going to finish seaming the straps and give it to Monkey for her Barbies anyway. Annika will have to wait and get a dress at a later date.

Saturday we got in the car and headed for Ponca City, Oklahoma, where my dad grew up. My granddad still lives there, and all of his grandkids and great-grandkids made the trip to surprise him. That was another three and a half hours in the car, which got me started on the Spring Forward socks from Knitty. So far I'm loving this pattern, but the jury's still out on the Jojoland Melody. I want to like it a lot, because a) it's cheap--$14 for a pair of socks!, and b) I have two more balls of it in purple, and it's not like I can not use it. But it's a little splitty and rough. We'll see what the finished product is like before making a final call. I worked on them all the way home Sunday--six whole hours of drive time. With two kids. Fun, fun, fun ...

Oh, and I bought two more books from Interweave Press's hurt books sale. It's a disease, I tell you, a disease! (I got Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush and Favorite Socks from Interweave Knits.)