Top Secret Project - revealed!

The past two weeks have been so crazy...between my son's graduation and everything that needed to be done before hand and after, including dealing with illnesses, concerts, Memorial Day parade, and having a house guest...that I have neglected my blogging (reading and writing) terribly.
Now back to the business at hand .... my knitting! Yes, even with everything I had to do, I've still been knitting away.

The first thing I want to show you is my top secret project. A sweater for my oldest son's girlfriend's (Kate) birthday present. Her birthday is tomorrow, but I gave it to her last Saturday.
I am not very fond of knitting sweaters, but when I saw this pattern ~ Blaze ~ I thought it had Kate's name written all over it. I had a feeling it would be something she would like. This sweater is knit totally in the round.
The only seams are under the arm which I should have grafted, but I hate grafting so I opted for a three needle bind off instead:
I rationalized the fact that what ever I did, it wouldn't really show because it's under the arm.

I LOVED knitting the zig zag all over pattern, which is really cables.
I followed the pattern exactly as written(size medium), no modifications except that I used a different yarn, Lion Brand Microspun sport yarn. This yarn is so soft and just heavenly to work with. I recommend it highly and the best part it's machine washable and dryable, which is a must for a very busy college student! When I came close to the end I have to confess that I was worried about the neckline bindoff. The first attempt was a bit loose, so I pulled it out and redid it being very careful to bind off extra tight. The results were perfect.

Kate was thrilled with the sweater. The color, the fit was perfect. She immediately tried it on and of course I had to get some pictures of her modeling it:
She was so appreciative and I knew she genuinely love it. She just didn't say she liked it...she showed me how much she LOVED it. She was ecstatic!! It made my day! I love to knit for Kate. Now I have to start thinking what to make for her Christmas present??

I also finished a diagonal Bee Stitch baby blanket for my church's prayer shawl ministry. I'm very happy with the results:
It's difficult to tell from the photo that the stitch reminds me of a thermal blanket. The resulting blanket is very soft and cuddly. I used the diagonal bee stitch dishcloth pattern and kept on knitting until there were 70 eyelet holes on one side. It makes a nice sized blanket using a size 10 1/2 needle.

Robin update: Not good news I'm afraid to tell you. Mrs. Robinson laid 3 beautiful eggs. She was a very attentive mother. On Sunday, one of the eggs hatched. From my bedroom window I could see the tiny hatchling with it's wide open mouth! Mr. and Mrs. Robinson were taking turns feeding the baby. Then on Monday, my neighbor's cat was seen prowling around the bush. Mrs. Robinson was very upset, squawking on the power line above. I threw water at the cat. After that episode the nest has not been attended to by Mrs. Robinson. The cat may have come back when we weren't looking. Very upsetting, but it is nature and from what I have read baby robins do not have a very high survival rate.

Can't believe June is right around the corner. School will be out soon and the summer will be upon us. Have a nice weekend with lots of happy knitting :)