…at the ladybugs’ picnic!
So, hubby’s father remarried when he was in middle school. Stepmother-in-law is a wonderful lady who led an extremely exciting, globe-trotting life. Around the time hubby and I graduated from high school*, she decided she wanted to be a mother, after all, and they adopted a little girl. Since then, they’ve adopted 2 more children and seem to be having a fantastic time being a family and globe-trotting.
(* Yeah, we’re high school sweethearts.)
Said family of five is currently staying with us for a 2 week visit. I’m already rather behind on blog reading, replying to my comments, not to mention knitting–I ask your lenience for the next 10 days.
Despite the general craziness of having 5 additional people in a fairly modest house, the body of the ladybug sweater has been blocked!

I really can’t say enough good things about the Baby Ull. It’s a teensy bit splitty, but it is pure wool, machine-washable, and softens up to… well, something *very very soft* when it’s washed. Jacob wouldn’t stop petting it.

(A future knitter, if I’ve ever seen one. It all starts when you can’t stop petting the yarn, and the next thing you know you’ve got a whole closet devoted to the stuff and are eagerly looking forward to your first knitting convention so that you can buy EVEN MORE. Ahem.)
How well did blocking even up the work, you wonder? It definitely helped. It’s definitely not as tidy as the hat, sadly, but I think it’s good enough to still work as a gift.

Thus I’ve moved on to the sleeves. They’re really not as bad as I feared–practice makes perfect, maybe? I’m about halfway through the first, and I expect I’ll be done with both tomorrow. Then comes the insane amount of finish work on both the hat and the sweater. I still hope to be done with it by Stitches–I’m ready to start and finish the other baby gift I need to knit up and knit a shawl for me!