Almost famous

This week I have put my projects on hold in order to make my brother these cashmerino convertible mittens. His birthday was the 21st. He turned the big 2-0.I was knitting them at SSK on Tuesday and Lisa was also knitting fingerless mitts and needed help learning how to do cables. I love teaching people to do cables because it's so easy and I love to see their face when they realize that. Anyway, she was making the Fetchings from knitty.com, which I've been wanting to make for a while. They are one of the most popular patterns from the site. I looked at the pattern and realized that it calls for the same exact yarn I was knitting with and seeing that I had plenty extra at home I decided to make it. It might be a Christmas present, but we'll see. Here is my progress so far:
I got on a roll and stayed up too late.

Unfortunately, though, I've been neglecting my other knitting projects this week. Here is the Estes Vest everyone keeps asking about:All wadded up in a corner of the living room, in the same position for days. No I am not done yet. I just need to finish the second pocket then do the i-cord edging, which I hear takes forever.

And my Tilted Duster:Which has been in three pieces for the past couple of weeks.

And here is my Heidi stitch scarf, all frogged out. Didn't like it much. Used too small of a needle.
But here is the most exciting knitting thing that happened to me this week. I was purusing the knitting books on the way home from knitting night like I sometimes do, hovering because a cute guy was looking at home improvement books right near me, and my eye stopped on this new book:
It's part three of a series (also including One Skein Wonders and Designer One Skein Wonders) There were a few of the shiny new books there, all in a row, like they had been put there that day. I have been waiting for this book for a while. I honestly didn't think that it would come this soon. So why have I been waiting for it? Well I'll answer my own question (my pet peeve). It contains my first contract project, this crochet scarf designed by Amy.It's the brown scarf. It's not that I made that pattern; I made that scarf. As in, my little hands and size E hook manipulated the wonderful Blue Sky Alpacas Royal into a pattern Amy created, and then the scarf was shipped to the publisher who photographed it and printed it in this book. I know, I'm easily amused. Amy always tells me to not be impressed with her fame--the knitting/crochet community is not that big--but still, this is really cool to me.

She gave me a skein of this yarn as payment for my crocheting services, so I can make my own. This is part of the reason why I bought this book, since I forgot how to make the pattern already. I also just love the concept of this book. Being a youngin I can't afford too much of the ultra cher yarn, so when I do buy it I only want to buy one skein, just to try it out. This book is great for that. Yarn experimentation without emptying your bank account.

Go check it out yourself! Happy knitting...