Zhinka dinka doo

Echo Lake hat: FO!

Thank you for the words of encouragment yesterday. I'm glad to say that the dripping has stopped and has not returned. We've both resolved to do more with prevention and hopefully less with running around trying to fix what happened due to lack of prevention.

Now, on to some knitting.

Hat: done. I finished the Echo Lake hat. Actually, this is the second time I've finished it. The first time was Saturday night, but it was too short so I ripped back and made it longer.

It's quite nice, but the recipient does not want his picture taken in it, and certainly would never want to see his picture posted. Hmph. I considered never knitting him anything again, if I can't post a picture of him wearing it. But I decided that was just pouting. (And you notice that I'm not offering my head for a photo.) So here's the hat, headless.

Now I can start on the cardigan!

A cold, wet afternoon

Pink bird aloft

This is a felt bird made by Max for a friend's birthday. I suggested he might make something himself for a present, and he was very enthusiastic about it! Yay! He chose the pattern (from Felt Craft) and did almost all of the stitching.

They've been sewing quite a bit in his kindergarten class. At first it was just running stitch into pre-made holes, then without the holes, now recently they've moved to blanket stitch.

Echo Lake hat

This is the beginning of the gauge swatch for hubby's Echo Lake cardigan. He just lost his beloved green hat, and he picked green for the cardigan, so rather than doing a boring swatch, I'm knitting a hat. It's a 2x2 rib, so the exact sizing won't matter too much if I'm off on my gauge.

The pattern is from Interweave Knits Summer 2003. The ribs do this little cable twist thing at the bottom hem and then continue straight up the body. I'll try to remember to scan the picture from IK. In the meantime, if you're on Ravelry, you can see it there. (And if you are, add me, zhinkadinkadoo, to your friends! I'm just getting started there, I'm amazed at how much there is!)

I'm using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes for this, not the called-for yarn, Plymouth Silk Merino. Because (1) it's not available anymore, and (2) the closest Plymouth silk blend replacement would make this a $180 sweater. While I dearly love my hubby, this will be my first adult-sized sweater (unless I finish my Sweet Mary Jane first), and I just can't commit those great sums of $$, at least until I can prove than I can knit something wearable for an adult. (Even then, $180 is a lot!) I've done kids' sweaters, but those are so much easier, you just wait for the child to grow into it. Plus kids look cute in anything, even misshapen hand knits.

p.s. How have I missed the blog-from-flickr phenomenon before? So easy!

It came from the deep

Hi there! Here's a little visitor from the ocean...

...and he even brought his own snack with him!

This is a wonderful knit pattern from hansigurumi. It was a quick knit, an easy-to-follow pattern complete with pictures to help you through the tricky bits. I love how he turned out! Details on my interpretation are here.

I've mostly been working on the endless Sweet Mary Jane cardigan, so there's not much to show there. Last week I decided I really needed to finish something, anything. You know how that is? So I got this pattern, grabbed some Wool of the Andes, and a few days later I was done.

In case you're wondering what's with the shark? I googled "octopus" to see what real octopus tentacles do, and I came across this movie. Apparently the Seattle Aquarium kept losing their sharks to the new octopus in the tank. Pretty tricky eight-leggers, aren't they?

Comet and nothing

We had lots more snow last week and school was cancelled on both Monday and Tuesday. Max had a great time body-sledding in the front yard on the giant mound of snow that was removed from our driveway. While I was watching Max play--I was inside and warm--I found Comet doing a common cat thing and staring at nothing. Or perhaps they were fairies that are invisible to humans. In any case, she seemed content to just stare.

Look at the ruff on that cat. I know it's hard to see, being white on a background of white, but take my word for it, it's huge.

One minute later, she tired of keeping watch over the fairies and let out a huge cat-yawn. No, she's not trying to eat them.

Looking at Comet's ruff made me want to knit a neck warmer to keep my neck as warm as hers. I tried something, but it didn't work out as planned. I think it would work with a modification, but I don't think I'll get to it because in the meantime I discovered that my Calorimetry works pretty well, I just tie it to fasten behind my neck (I've long ago given up on the button, I just tie it now), and then I can pull the front part up as high as I want. It keeps my chin and nose warm during my sunrise walks in the frigid air. I don't think I ever posted a picture of it here, but I did make one, as did almost everyone else. I make it out of Noro something or other. As for everyone else, it's kinda big and I keep thinking of felting it, but with this new use as a neck warmer I think I'll keep it as is.

Happy new year!

I wish I could invite everyone over for some homemade cinnamon sweet rolls! These are glazed and ready to go on an outing with us today, a playdate for Max with a friend from school.

Yesterday, I promised Max a "surprise" for breakfast today, and I had these in mind. They're a yeasted dough recipe from my old Betty Crocker cookbook, and they require two risings. Last night around 11:30pm as I was getting ready for bed, I suddenly remembered my promised surprise and reluctantly mixed, kneaded, and set the dough out to rise. This morning I shaped, let rise again, and baked. Although I was reluctant to get these going last night, I must say they were worth it. Yum!

I wish a sweet, full new year for everyone!