But I have an excuse! Really, I do, honest!
I've been busy ... KNITTING! Gasp! You don't believe me? Well, here's proof:
Pink Ruffles scarfPattern: Just enough ruffles
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted, color: Molly (about 1.2 skeins)
Needle: US size 9
Started: Dec. 29, 2008
Finished: Dec. 30, 2008 (which brings my total for 2008 to 20 finished objects)
Zig-zag scarfPattern: Malabrigo keyhole scarf (pdf file)
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, color: Happy Valley (about .85 skein)
Needle: US size 9
Started: Dec. 31, 2008
Finished: Jan. 1, 2009
Gretel hatPattern: Gretel by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Lion Brand Woolease
Needle: US size 7
Started: Jan. 5, 2009
Finished: Jan. 11, 2009
I was so cold, even inside my house, that I had to make myself a hat. Right. Now. So I pulled out some stash yarn (hooray for shopping within your stash) and immediately cast on. May I say, Ysolda's tubular cast-on technique is brilliant (even though I had to do it 3 times to get a reasonable looking piece). Of course, when I finished the hat a week later, the temperatures had shot up into the mid-70's during the day (in January...) - so much for being cold!
Here's a piece of charity knitting that made its recipient known to me, (ala Alison). I got the yarn (Lion Brand Watercolors - discontinued) at the latest yarn swap at Purlescence. It's super bulky and I cast on 15 stitches for a garter stitch, knit until all 3 balls are used type of scarf, figuring that there's always someone who needs a warm fuzzy scarf. Then I found out via Ravelry's Charity Knitting group about the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. The pancreatic cancer fundraising color is purple. A fellow Raveler is selling purple scarves to raise money to raise awareness and find a cure for this fast-moving disease. In honor of my sister-friend's mother, this scarf will be going towards this cause. And I think (wink, wink ;-) that I have just a little more purple yarn in the stash that can be used...
Oh yeah, there's another pair of vanilla toe-up socks on the needles in STR Peaseblossom. Yup, the one that I used for the failed Monkey socks back in June. See the difference? One needle size and fewer stitches totally changed the striping and I like it a lot better. The colors are truer in the left picture however.
Did I tell you about the Ju-san Luna shawl kit (Ravelry link)I won from Purlescence? No, I guess I didn't... In their end-of-year raffle, my Dork pulled my name out of the bowl to win this kit of Claudia mohair and ribbon yarns. It's so pretty and very warm! It is destined to be an auction item for a Winter Camp that The Hubby attends.I got about 15 rows of the Ju-san Luna done while at a fencing tournament yesterday. The Dork was, once again, thiiiis close to earning an epee rating, but lost his direct elimination bout by only a couple points. He placed 10th/37 (top 8 earned ratings). This particular competition was excruciatingly long; we were there from 2:30 until 9 pm so I got lots of knitting time. Just because I could, I took my new Mino and took some video of him (he's on the left). I really like the overall quality of the Mino, and love the fact that it's purse-sized and ready to whip out at a moment's notice! I also figured out how to upload videos to YouTube and embed them here.
The Dork asked me to mention that when the fencers get too close to each other, sometimes the referee calls a halt to reposition them on the strip. They actually have to poke each other and depress the tip of their weapon (in this case, epee; the entire body is considered a target) in order to register a touch/point. Sometimes they hit the wall or floor, which doesn't count.
Off to knit some more!
