The Knitting Doctor

True Blood Faery Ring

FINALLY! This one is done done done. Excuse me if I must post a gazillion photos, I’m so freaking happy this is finished.

I’ve never made a tassel before! I used a piece of cardboard to wind the yarn around, using these instructions.

I used the sweater yarn to crochet a tight single chain for the button loops, then just tied them into the button band from the back side.

Project Details:

Pattern: Tuilich Faery Ring, by Mary Scott Huff
Started: 11/2/2009. Yes, this was in a very long time out.
Finished: Today! 1/3/13! First finished project of the year!
Yarn: Black Water Abbey worsted weight. The color name is Haw, though in real life it is a True Blood Red.
Needles: Knit Picks Zephyr, size 6 & 7.
For: Me!
Modifications: Well. I pretty much knit the pattern as written up to the hood and sleeves, then just winged it from there, since the pattern was never completed in the Tuilich sizes. I used the sleeve pattern from the largest size in the Faery Ring pattern, and just made up the hood. The hood instructions for the smaller set of sizes called for a bigger hood for each size, which is just ridiculous. Your head doesn’t get a whole lot bigger as the rest of you expands. I just picked up what looked like the right number of stitches around the neck, then increased until it was wide enough, decreased a bit, then grafted the top when it was tall enough.
What I learned: I love cables. And I love this yarn. I have another sweater quantity of it in the stash in a warm caramel toffee color that will turn into a sweater someday. The yarn feels a bit stringy and harsh initially, but softens up, and shows cables marvelously. I also adore these buttons. They were made by a goldsmith named Carolyn Kent, her website is Minnowcreek Studio.

Alrighty then. Now that that one is done, here are my New Years resolutions, such as they are:

Read more. See my reading blog page for details
Knit from stash. John and I have been going through our credit card expenditures to set up a 2013 budget. Let’s just say that the amount of money I spent on yarn last year is quite embarrassing. I’m not ruling out the occasional yarn purchase, especially if it’s in the category of vacation purchases, but I’ve got plenty of yarn around here and I’m going to try to use some of it.
Blog more. I’m going to go back to doing monthly updates and goals.
Spin more. And get back into dyeing fiber and yarn.

That’s pretty much it.

Here are the January goals:

Finish the body of my Green Jeans sweater
Finish the pair of socks on the needles (Pot ‘o Gold socks)

In the cooking category, here are the photos of our New Years BEPs (black eyed peas). You didn’t think we’d forget them, did you?

Onward!

Almost There

OK, did anybody else think of Andy Williams or the Lettermen when they read the title of this post? Terrific, now I’m not going to get that sappy song out of my head.

Anyway, this post is not about Andy Williams or the Lettermen. It’s about being Almost There with a finished project.

Yes, I have been knitting this blasted thing for eons. It’s Almost Done, though. The knitting is All Done, and it’s currently in the tub getting a soak. Then it’s the buttons, and the little button loops, which I have no idea how to do, but I suppose I’ll just wing it, like I do most things. And a tassel. I’m pretty sure the hood needs a tassel. Then it will be Really Done.

Buttons! I keep forgetting about the buttons, which is pretty much why I made this sweater. Here they are, again.

True Blood Faery Buttons!

We’re Almost Ready for Christmas around here. We’re having our big annual Solstice Dinner on Saturday, so I’ve got a lot of cooking to do. Of course there will be photos, so stay tuned.

Here are a couple of photos from our tree decorating this year.

Why yes, we do open a bottle of champagne for the tree decorating!

And now, just for your listening pleasure:

Oh Dear

I sort of missed most of the past month, didn’t I. Oh well. I’ve been sick, then busy, then more busy. And I haven’t even knit all that much. That crazy bug that I picked up on our cruise has really hung in there, and more or less knocked me on my butt. It turned out to not be whooping cough, according to the test; didn’t get much better with a round of antibiotics, and has turned me into a total slug for the past few weeks. I’m still coughing though it’s finally getting better. All that whining is my latest excuse for not blogging.

I did start doing NaNoWriMo in a fit of insanity. I got to about 7000 words before I decided I really wasn’t having any fun, and wrote another 2000 or so words before I REALLY decided that, no, in fact I am not having fun with it this year, and abandoned ship.

Enough of the pity party. Here’s some fun stuff. My latest socks.

Click on that to get a better photo of the wild and crazy that is Lewey.

Getting that model to cooperate was no easy task. He was not one bit interested in helping me blog, he just wanted to eat the yarn. I didn’t take the time to shoot any more photos since the mutt smelled a little funky when I got close enough to tell. He just had a bath too, so I’m sure he thought it was necessary to roll in something at the dog park. Lovely.

I’ll forgive you if you’ve forgotten what yarn that is. It’s Frolicking Feet, from Done Roving (I got mine here), color is Pot o’ Gold. Do me a favor and go buy her out so I’m not tempted to buy more of this.

Here’s more fun. I needed some new shoes, and found these.

Closer…

Click on that one, too.

Knitted shoes! How cool! They have these on Amazon, here they are. Danskos are not cheap, but they are seriously some of the most comfortable shoes you can buy if you are on your feet all day. Take a clue from hospital nurses, Dansko clogs are what many of them wear. You will note that I’m wearing mine with hand knit socks, too.

I’m off to knit. I get to work the weekend, so I want to stockpile some stitches today.

We Interrupt This Travelogue…

We’re home! We got home Wednesday evening, and I’ve pretty much been in a fog since. The Budapest photos will have to wait a bit, since I don’t have them sorted. I came home with a nasty bug, and have been laid low by it, which is quite unusual for me. Most of the boat passengers were sick with some sort of respiratory bug; by the end of the cruise the ship sounded like a floating TB sanitarium. Mine kept getting worse and worse, and last Sunday I signed into my medical website and scheduled an appointment for Thursday (Group Health! Schedule your appointments from Budapest!). Both my primary care doc and I were at least a bit concerned about pertussis, so she consigned me to isolation for 5 days of antibiotics. I didn’t really want to go back to work after a nice vacation, but this is ridiculous. I just got the results this morning (Group Health! Get your test results Sunday morning online!) and it’s not whooping cough, though I still feel like crap, and I’m pretty sure most of my patients and co-workers would be glad I stayed home and didn’t spread whatever it is around.

I do have some good news to report, though. Not too long after the spinning bug bit me, I stumbled upon Watson spinning wheels, and developed a serious case of wheel lust. I ordered a Marie later that year, and mine finally came due earlier this summer. Andrew Watson is a genius and a marvelous craftsman, let me tell you. He came up with a plan after several back and forth emails, and it was done in September. He packed it up and planned delivery for when I returned home from vacation, and it arrived here the same day I got back. Let me tell you, I’m sick, but not so sick that I couldn’t unpack it and put it together. Here are some photos.

I was a little nervous about having to put it together myself, but Andrew sent explicit directions. John got the box open for me, and it was pretty simple after that. It’s a “Marie” wheel, mostly cherry wood with purpleheart accent bits. It is quite lovely, and spins like a dream.

That’s all the news I have, I’m off to take more sinus drugs.

ETA: Knitting Doctor now with Photo Embiggen! Click on that spinning wheel and get a close up view!

On The Way Home

We are back in Amsterdam, and will fly home tomorrow. It took 14 days to get down the river to Budapest, and a little under two hours to fly back here! Here are a few more photos. Even I’m getting tired of them…

The town of Melk, where there is a magnificent Abbey and a very cute little main market area.

Then we came to Vienna. Neither of us has been there before, but it is a city I could easily return to for a week’s vacation. Here are a few highlights:

That’s the town incinerator. You might wonder why I would find that fascinating. It was designed by a man named Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser. Those of you who are knitters know that the sock yarn company, Opal, used several of his designs as inspiration for one of their sets of sock yarn. I knitted a pair myself, and might just have bought some more on this trip.

ABC in Vienna:

That’s the Hotel Sacher. We had to stop and eat a Sacher Torte. Yum!

I’ll bet you’d like to see a close up. Here you go…

That was in a bakery window. It’s a baked replica of the imperial crown! They wouldn’t let me try that one on, either.

We also saw the summer residence for Maria Theresa and the rest of the Hapsburg gang.

I suppose they needed a big house, since she had sixteen children. Only eleven survived to grow up, but still, that’s a lot of bedrooms.

That’s a photo taken in Bratislava. I missed that stop, since I finally caught the respiratory bug that swept through the cruise boat for the whole two weeks. I still feel like I have ebola or something equally as dire.

Next up is Budapest, but I’m saving that one for its own post. Both John and I agreed that it was our favorite place on the trip. We were on the boat overnight there, and then stayed on another day and a half, and could have stayed another several days at least. I’ll show photos later when I get them sorted.

Last but not least, new socks in the making:

The yarn is Frolicking Feet sock yarn, by Done Roving, color Pot O’ Gold. I got mine here. There might be some left in the shop, though I tried to remedy that. This might be my new favorite sock yarn. The colors are splendidly intense, and the yardage is amazing. It might even be better than Wollmeise (shhhhh…don’t tell anyone).

We head home in the morning. I’m off to dinner; we’re staying in the same B&B in Amsterdam where we were on the first leg of the trip, and our hosts kindly offered to make us supper tonight. Since Petra is a chef and does cooking classes, we weren’t about to turn that down!

ABC!

Which stands for “Another Bloody Cathedral”, or “Another Bloody Castle”. We’re now 16 days into our vacation, with three more full days of the cruise left, then we’re staying in Budapest another couple of days, then home. I can’t possibly do a blog post for each stop on the cruise, since I just had to dump a nearly full 8 GB photo card off my camera so we can finish the trip. That’s way too many photos to show you all. So here are the highlights. Get yourself a beverage before you start…

Cologne, or Koln. Magnificent cathedral. Of all the ABCs we’ve seen, it’s my favorite. Gothic excess out the wazoo.

It wouldn’t fit in one photo, so you get two.

We had a glass blowing demo on board one morning. He was a comedian as well as a glass artist.

Cruising through the Rhine Gorge. Lots of ABCs here.

That was taken at the Residenz Palace in Wurzburg. I’m not showing you a photo of the Palace, it looks just like a humongous castle and a church combined.

Teddy Bear shop in Rothenburg:

I found a new friend for Sweetpea. He doesn’t have a name yet, his ear tag says Fynn, but I think he needs a German name, don’t you? Any suggestions?

I had a birthday, and shared it with about 140 or so new friends!

This was in Bamberg. I wanted a photo of the guys in front, but pretended to shoot the monument.

Nuremberg. What can I say? This was one of the most sobering places I’ve ever been. That’s Hitler’s rally grounds, never completed. What he was planning to build there would have been terrifying.

That’s of course the courtroom where the Nuremberg trials were held.

On a cheerier note, sunrise off our “balcony”.

ABC. This one is in Regensburg, or RRRRrrrrrrreghghensburgggg, as Jan, our cruise director pronounces it. This has probably been one of my favorite of the cities we’ve seen so far. This may have had something to do with it.

John continues to be amazed at my ability to find yarn. I was like one of those people who won a contest and could take home everything I could pick up in five minutesl

Do you want to see a closeup of what I found? I thought so. Here’s Sweetpea and not-Fynn to show you.

Doesn’t Sweetpea look happy? She might have found her true love. I should ask her, she probably knows his name.

Next up was Salzburg. It was a lovely city, and I could show you lots of photos of castles, old buildings, and churches. Here’s a different one:

That’s a bridge in the city over the river Inn, which runs into the Danube. The tradition in the city is for lovers to pledge their commitment to each other by placing a lock on the bridge with their names or initials on it. I asked the guide if they have to take it away if things don’t work out, which sounded like a reasonable question to me. She didn’t have an answer.

Last, but not least, finished socks! I’m not doing the whole “Finished Project” thing. I started these eons ago (February 29th, according to Ravelry). The yarn is Unique Sheep Tinsel Toes, color Primary Ink, same old pattern, size 2 mm Ivore needles.

It’s cocktail hour, so I need to go find a glass of wine. We’re finally on the beautiful Danube river, we head to Vienna tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Ama Dolce!

We’re already more than half way through our two week river cruise on the Ama Dolce, so I thought I should post some photos!

We have a pretty slow internet connection on the ship, so I’ll just post a short bit of the trip for now. We started in Amsterdam, of course, boarding our river boat last week. Our first full day on the ship we cruised the canals leaving the city, on our way to Dusseldorf. Here are a few photos of the first day on the ship.

One of the many locks we’ve gone through:

After disembarking there the next morning, we took a bus to tour the Floriade 2012 Horticultural Expo. I’m not much of a gardener, and expected this to be more of a boring flower show, but it was absolutely fabulous! Here are some photos:

There were three of these creatures walking through the expo at the entrance. They were marvelous, and made me just laugh out loud.

Giants:

The Willowman’s building projects:

A fire breathing dragon:

Very big wellies:

Back on board for some knitting:

And of course, the requisite towel art, by our cabin attendant, Jack.

Next up is Cologne, but my internet is about to give out on me, since we mostly only have a connection while we’re docked in port. I’ll leave that to next time!

Amsterdam!

Or,

A Holland Haul!

We’ve been having a terrific time in Amsterdam. We arrived Tuesday morning, and have been busy touring the city and nearby countryside for the past several days. We have friends in Manchester that met us here, and we had a jam-packed week trying to see everything there is to see in such a short time. Tomorrow we board the cruise ship for the river trip, but it already feels like we’ve had a great vacation! Here are some highlights:

Canal tour:

Where Rembrandt slept (actually where the servant girl slept, but Rembrandt’s house!):

Butterflies at the Botanical Garden:

Friends eating and drinking:

Tulip Museum:

Cheese Museum:

Oh look! A yarn shop! What a surprise!*

Churches:

A very creepy and crabby cherub:

Ceiling at the Maritime Museum:

Pirate ship at the same museum. It’s really not a pirate ship, but looked like one to me.

Knitting on the bus to Edam for a day tour out of the city:

Cheese shop at Edam:

More church photos, this time Edam:

“Wild” life of sorts. This was somebody’s back yard.

I wanted to barricade myself in this shop and never leave.

More wildlife. I took this as a good sign; where there are sheep, there must be wool.

More you-know-what:

Seashore at Marken village:

Another yarn shop:

And again:

The last yarn shop was Penelope’s. The owner has a bicycle in the front window with a knitted cover. If you’ve ever been to Amsterdam, you know how popular bikes are here:

Here’s the knitted version:

And here is the Holland Haul:

A better picture of the little snips I found:

And a better photo of that silk/wool blend:

Tomorrow we board the boat, though we don’t set sail until Monday evening, so you may see more Amsterdam photos!

*I’m pretty sure John has figured out that I don’t just “stumble in” to yarn shops without doing some research ahead of time. I think Humphrey was impressed though at my skill at sniffing them out. It’s the wool fumes, I suppose!

Little If Any Knitting

I could just stop right there and post the title. It’s been a busy month, between the Hawaii trip, and friends in town, and work. I think I’ve knit one or two rows on that Evenstar lace thing, and one or two rows on my poor neglected sock. I might have even done a few rows on that Faery Ring hood thing. But really, they look about the same, so I’m not dragging them all out and taking pictures of them just so you can snicker at what a lame knitter I am.

I did get an iPad, though, which has consumed countless hours of time playing around with it. I found the KnitCompanion app, which was worth the price of the device itself. It has the ability to import patterns and then lets you cut them up into manageable pieces, and import charts with row markers, highlighters, etc. You can even mark rows with lifelines, and add your own text or audio notes to sections. It is not a cheap app, but most definitely worth it, especially if you knit lace. The support from the software designers on Ravelry is tremendous. Here’s a photo.

Now if I would just spend more time knitting and less time playing goofy games.

That’s pretty much it for knitting news. I knew you’d be thrilled.

Oh wait, I forgot one BIG thing. I won the first ever Knitter’s Chick contest over at Kim’s, and won runner up for Knitter’s Hunk. I nominated Maggie Smith for “chick”, and she won quite handily. I nominated Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, anyone??) for Hunk, and he was narrowly defeated by Liam Neeson. I won some cool prizes, but I’m too lazy to get up and take one more photo.

Last but not exactly least, we’re off on vacation again.

This time it’s just for us. We’re leaving in the morning to fly to Europe. We spend a few days in Amsterdam, where our friends from Manchester are meeting us. Humphrey and John have every moment plotted, including dinner reservations for all four nights that we’re in Amsterdam. They have a detailed itinerary sketched out, so all I have to do is grab the camera and my neglected sock and head out. Then John and I get on the Ama Dolce river boat for a two week cruise of the Rhine, the Main, and the Danube, ending up in Budapest. Any recommendations on yarn shops along the way would be welcomed.

As usual, the house and the yarn stash are well guarded by our two vicious attack dogs, our house sitter, and Lucy, who hangs out in the stash closet just to make sure none of you sneak in. Here she is.

I’m sure there will be wi-fi along the way, so I’ll try to keep you posted!

Hawaii, Part One

I figured I’d better post something to prove we’re really here! I was scanning through my spam filter this morning before deleting, and found this comment:

Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with a few pics to drive the message home a little bit, but instead of that, this is magnificent blog.

So here are a few pics.

First up, the Aquarium:

This is one wired family. Here we are researching lunch possibilities. Huck is on the phone with somebody important, I think.

And…the decision was the Rainbow Drive-In, for some local plate lunches.

The Dole Plantation. I didn’t get any photos inside the maze. Just imagine standing in front of your hedge. This is the world’s largest maze. A couple of us conquered it. The rest of us needed a rum drink after about 2/3 of the maze.

Plantation garden shots:

Cousins solving the problems of the world:

Shrimp truck! This was the highlight of the north shore excursion. Garlic shrimp!

Luau!

Sunset!

Malaekahana beach! This isn’t the calmest beach here by far, but the kids (older and younger) had a blast riding the waves, and we almost had the whole beach to ourselves.

Shave ice!

The end, for now; today is a pool/relax day. Tomorrow we tour Pearl Harbor and the Missouri. More great big fun!

Is that enough pics?

Ravellenic Gold!

Yes, I’ve actually finished something. More on that later. It will probably be the ONLY thing I finish for the Ravellenic Games, though. It got a bit nutty at work the past two weeks, with two partners out unexpectedly, so mostly I’ve just worked. But there are a lot of good parts to that. I get paid to work extra, which means I get a little less of the stink eye when the ~~Yarn Truck~~ UPS Man comes to the door.

OK, ok. I’ll show you the shopping first. I need more yarn like I need bedbugs.

I showed you the lace stuff a few posts ago. What came this week is Peace Fleece. I couldn’t help it, a bunch of their colors were on sale. They still are, if you are in need of stash enhancement.

Who knows what that will be. The color is Violet Vyehchyeerom (Russian for “evening” per the PF site). There is enough for a nice winter sweater. My other PF sweater is getting a bit beat up, since I wear it a lot.

Now on to the finish line. The Lacy Baktus is done done done.

It’s hard to tell much from that. It was a big foggy this morning when I took the photo, so it’s an inside photo with flash, and I’m too lazy to photoshop it. I’ll try to get an outside modeling shot later.

Project Details:

Yarn: My own handspun! The fiber is a 50/50 merino-bombyx blend, color name Aubergine. Here was the original fiber, from Anna at Corgi Hill Farm, to give you a better idea of the color.

Pattern: Lacy Baktus

Needles: 4 1/2 mm plastic straights, from my huge collection of plastic straight needles. I love them to pieces. Here’s a photo. I also have a set of the Knit picks Harmony 14 inch straights.

Started: July 27 2012

Finished: August 9 2012

For: Me!

What I learned: Knitting with my own handspun is an extra big kick!

What’s next around here? I have one more Ravellenic project, a tea cosy, that is just not going to get finished by tomorrow evening. I have a bunch of WIPS that need some serious work. Most importantly, we’re headed to Hawaii tomorrow! We try to plan a summer week-long vacation with John’s kids and grandkids every other year, and this year we have 3 condo units on Oahu for plenty of knitting and reading time. I’m taking sock knitting, and that Evenstar Shawl, and that’s it. We’ll have internet access there, so I’ll try to show photos.

Knit on! I’m off on Baycation*, as one of the grandsons calls it!

* Just as a reminder, the stash is very well guarded by a bunch of attack dogs minded by our house sitter, so don’t even THINK about it!

Knitters’ Hunk Contest

Just a quick public service announcement here.

Kim is starting the 5th Knitters’ Hunk contest over at hand eye crafts. Nominations are still open, but close soon. Go over and comment on this post with your three choices. She’s also holding a Babe contest, so you can nominate three women as well.

Go! Nominate! She always comes up with terrific photos of the contestants, so it’s worth watching just for the eye candy.

I’ll be back soon with a “real” post, maybe even with a finished project.

When In Doubt, Shop!

First up…I hope you all noticed the change of scenery around here. I liked the old theme I was using, but it hasn’t been updated for awhile, and the old version was a bit twitchy with the newer version of WordPress. So I found one that let me insert my own photo in the header. That’s a picture of our lake at sunset a few nights ago. Here’s the original.

Next up is the pre-Olympic event of Stash Enhancement. I know, I know. I need more yarn like I need termites. So?

That is from the Verdant Gryphon, Eidos sock yarn in Medusa, Jade Emperor, and Wen Chang. Though I’m sure they would make lovely socks, my plan is to make a Color Affection shawl with them.

That is Mithril lace weight yarn, from the same shop. It will be a spectacular shawl someday. The color is Alice In The Rabbit’s House, and it is a true Tardis blue. I have my eye on perhaps this shawl. We’ll see. I have a few other lace things to get off the needles before I start something new. Note that the “yarn backdrop” was mildly curious for the first photo, and then she promptly went back to sleep. Ho hum. Just more yarn.

Last but not least, my beloved drug dealer’s scale bit the dust this week. It just died with no warning. Off to Amazon I went, and the replacement came by that famous brown truck earlier today.

I got a 500 g weight to use to calibrate it. Clever! This one is actually better than the old one. The LED thingee swings out so you can see it better, and it weighs up to 1 kg.

I needed this ASAP so I could weigh my Ravellenics yarn. I’m knitting a Lacy Baktus, which starts with a few stitches, increases until the yarn is half gone, then decreases back down. The last time I did this I didn’t weigh the yarn first, and ended up with this:

I ended up ripping about 300 rows back. Not this time.

For the record, the skein weighs 116 grams. Somebody remind me to start decreasing at the halfway mark.

I recorded a tiny bit of progress on this:

Right after I posted about six weeks ago that I could finish this by late September if I “just knit one row a day”, I put it away and didn’t touch it again. I seriously doubt that I will get it done by that due date, but I am working on it slowly. It requires a pretty high level of concentration, and preferably in the absence of vodka or whisky.

Finally, a photo of the lake I took this morning.

The daisies are going to town! It’s hard to be in a crabby mood when I have such cheerful daisies staring at me.

Spinning & Knitting

The Tour de Fleece is nearly over, and the ~~Ravelympi~~ Ravellenic Games are about to begin! I have been doing a bit of spinning for the Tour. Here you go.

The first three photos are closer to the correct color, but I couldn’t resist the last one. This one was “properly” started and finished during the tour. Even better, I have plans to knit it up into something for the Games. I think it will be a Lacy Baktus. The fiber is a merino/bombyx silk blend from Corgi Hill Farms.

Next up is silk, pure silk, from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. The color is Ghillie Dhu, and it is almost but not quite white, with a tiny cast of pale green. I won’t finish this by the end of the Tour, but will get about half way through it (I have 8 oz total). If you’re looking for this on the website, it’s the bombyx silk roving. It is purely divine to spin. If I win the lottery, I’m buying a pound of this in every color she dyes.

I have no idea what this will be eventually. I’m thinking a shawl. I haven’t quite decided, but I might leave it as a single instead of plying it.

Click on that if you dare, but try to keep from drooling on your keyboard.

If the sun keeps shining today, I might try to photograph that outside to get a better color estimate. It was pretty grey and icky yesterday when I took photos, and I’m too lazy to photoshop it to get the right color.

Then there are spindles! Primarily I’m working on a very old project. This is also from Anna at Corgi Hill Farms, when she was still doing batts. This one is merino, silk, and firestar for sparkle, color named True Blood.

That’s what I’ve gotten done so far. Here’s what I have left.

Yes, I know. I probably won’t finish that by Saturday either.

I have been knitting a bit, if nothing else just to give my spinning muscles a rest. Drop spindling a million yards a day can be hard on the hands. Here’s a blast from the past, just one of many things I’m working on.

Finally, for the Games! I do have some projects lined up. My major project will be in the category of WIP wrestling, since there is no way I’m starting another big project just for Ravellenics. I am going to work on, and try to finish the True Blood Faery Ring sweater. I “just” have part of the hood and the never ending button band to go and it’s done done done. I think I can actually get the hood done, the button band might require mass quantities of whisky to accomplish. It goes up and down both fronts, of course, but also around the hood, all in one continuous band. Here’s a reminder of where I am.

That’s the hood, so far.

I do plan on starting two things for the Games. One is the Lacy Baktus mentioned above. The other will be a Tea Cosy, since my team is Team Sherlocked, and I needed to knit something at least vaguely British-inspired. Here’s the pattern:

It’s the Crown Tea Cosy, and here’s my yarn, from the stash, no less.

I just need to get my butt out and buy sequins or beads for the thing. Those two projects are small enough that I might actually have some hope of finishing.

It’s time to get my butt in gear and get something accomplished today. There is apparently an airshow at McChord this weekend, which is ten blocks and across the freeway from where we live. They are out in full force today, practicing, and as usual, the turn around zone is right over my house. It’s a good thing that I wasn’t counting on peace and quiet!