Hand Outs

A few more hand knits were handed out last week. I had a handful of scarves and coffee cup snuggies. Alice picked a pink one; the color is perfect on her.

Christine picked a pretty lilac blue, and Katie liked the multicolor modular-knit one.

Felicia got a yellow green one scarf and I handed out a bunch of coffee cup snuggies but didn't get pictures of those recipients 'cuz my camera battery died.

ToolMan has been wearing his driving cap from last year, but we've been having high winds so he wanted a watch cap to keep his ears warm. I pulled out a skein my hand spun and whipped out a simple ribbed cap in just a couple of days.

It's 50/50 merino/yak, spun woolen long draw on the Lendrum; it's very soft so it won't irritate the skin graft on his ear but still has a lot of bounce so it shouldn't stretch out. It's also very warm; in fact, he said it was too hot to model for very long inside the house. There's just no pleasing some people!

I finished another watch cap out of scraps tonight; it's been washed and is drying now. And I did swatches tonight for more hats that are to be gifted but whether they're done in time for Christmas is anybody's guess.

I'm still spinning the pink/purple fluff; I'm on the third bobbin. It is a real joy to spin; very light and soft and still has just a touch of lanolin so it practically drafts itself. I think I know what I want to do with it, but can't say just yet. I'm hoping to have it finished in time for Christmas gifting. With just over a month until Christmas, I may have been just a tad optimistic in the knitted gift planning area. Or maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment. . . .

Cold hands, warm hearts

As requested by Duffy, I bring you co-workers in hand-knits.

From left to right: Lynn, Cindy, Lori, yours truly, Ashley, and Nic. Michelle was off this day, so she didn't get her baby blue mitts until later.

Git 'er done

That's what I'm trying to do - during breaks in Dancing With The Stars. This is my favorite part : when it's down to five couples and they're all great.

I got ToolMan to take a picture of the Swallowtail during one of the commercial breaks.

I LOVE this pattern! It's small enough to be very versatile to wear, knits up quickly, and is very elegant looking.

I've already worn mine several times, but not with the new shawl pin ToolMan finished for me last week.


I've done other knitting, but it's planned for Christmas gifts, so nothing to talk about on that front.

And I got a bunch of spinning done last week, too. I have some time off that has to be used by the end of the year or I lose it, so I've planned to take off some Wednesdays to join my Spinning Sisters at the Grange.

And some plying has been done, too. Again, this is planned for gifts to be made, so really can't talk about that, either.

These are some Barbara's Buns that she brought me when she came up for SOAR. It was such a delight to have her company for the afternoon, and even more fun when we all went out to dinner. The picture really does not do these justice; they are dark chocolate brown with lovely burgundy and lavendar bits, and some sparkle, too! I'm thinking this will become a laceweight for another triangle shawl for my wardrobe.


Enough about me; Toolman is doing much better. He's feeling better, getting his energy level back, and getting his medications all worked out. The only thing left to deal with now is the skin cancer, which is fairly minor, out-patient surgery. A cake walk, considering what we've already been through this year. In fact, he had one of the surgeries today, on the top of his left ear; he has a humongus bandage on the ear and on the back of it where they had to take skin for a graft. They said he would have some pain, so they gave him a prescription; he said it's worse than he expected. But he says what bothers him more is the intense desire to start painting sunflowers and starry nights.