What? Wait, where did all the time go?

Woosh. I'm not sure how more than a week has passed without me really noticing it. Some knitting has naturally occurred. A little spinning too. Not enough though. Of either. Nothing much to photograph because of that.

In not really knitting or spinning or anything related: I did some more work on my chair but forgot to take the camera. Next time maybe. And the studio has now had most of the joint compound stuff dealt with. I'm not making anymore predictions though about when things will be done because the project stalled a bit this last week and I blame that completely on my boastful statement about when I'd be able to paint.

Knitting-wise: I got through the increases on the French Market Bag and am at the color change point. There's days and days of knitting ahead of me on that before it will merit another photo. I started yet another sock but won't show that either. It's only 2 inches of 2x2 ribbing. Boooooring.

The Sidewinders stalled because the dog ate my knitting needle. No really, she did. I had switched to a pair of rosewood straights because that was all I could find that I liked in the 2.25mm size 1 size in any lys. Anyone who wants a Crystal Palace bamboo in size 1 feel free to ask and I'll send it off to you. I don't like the join. So anyway, I knit a few rows of Act two on these straights and they were working fine. And I go away for a while and when I next go to pick them up I discover the end missing off one of the needles. It turned up with the unmistakable marks of dog teeth on it about two days later. So I couldn't work on my Sidewinders because of the dog. Also, because I was too stupid at first to figure out that by wrapping a rubber band around the needle near the end I could easily render it useable again. And partly because I couldn't figure out how to write the pattern out for myself so even after the doh! moment I didn't start right up again. I think I have got it now though. But since they still look just about the same as last time - no photo of that either.

More rows done on the Feb RSC socks too but again, not enough of a change since last time to be worth a photo. And I started a Barbie(tm) dress for my daughter's dolls but since it still isn't long enough to be decent, let alone finished I'm not gonna photo that either right now*. Those skinny yarn things take forever to show progress. Worsted weight things go much more quickly. Well, as long as they are small things like hats they do anyway.

I did manage to knit a couple of little hats for Sheri's Loopy Q2 Challenge (baby hats for an orphanage in China) and got them sent off in the nick of time (I hope - I don't really trust the post office). They were a fairly fast knit actually (worsted weight and small = fast), and I had fun with them.

I used Knitting Pure and Simple's basic children's hat pattern and then did a little tiny bit of futzing at the top for decoration. On the plain peach I just did an i-cord long enough to make a little loop and then sewed it down. On the multi-color (knit out of the crock pot dye experiment that involved shaking three flavors of KoolAid over the yarn and water to see what would happen) hat I used the method for making decorative little yarn twists that Annie Modesitt showed on Knitty Gritty. I thought they looked kind of cute like that. And better than a pompom because no yarn ends can be pulled through and then eaten by the hat wearer.

I've started on a third one as a present for next Christmas for the neighbor's baby girl. I'm just going to get it going so I can remember the plan and then I'm going to shelve it for a bit. If I remember to take good enough notes (or look here) I'll do a matching one for her older sister and something similar but not too cute for their middle brother. And then I'll be in clover with my own daughter who's the same age as the older girl which is always a good place to be.

I find myself puzzled by something I noticed when my June Rockin' Sock Club yarn arrived the other day. I'm really not a big fan of oranges or yellows or even reds. I do like wine/burgundy and the occasional black cherry or even maybe once in a very long while, maroon. But mostly I tend to stay in the cool color half of the color wheel. So why does my "currently easily accessible" yarn pile look like this?

I don't know, either. I know some of them were bought/dyed for the orphanage hats and the colors were chosen partly deliberately to make them look "happy" and partly because there's not a lot of color choice in the KoolAid stash. And my daughter does like those colors so they won't go to waste even if I didn't manage to use them up for orphanage hats this time around. And two of them (the June RSC - that's the one in the front, 2nd from the right, and June Zen String - the one that's still in a skein instead of a yarn cake ) are club yarns where I had no control over the color that arrived. Only I actually like them all - in at least the abstract, even if not for me. And I think the June club yarns will stay mine no matter what.

Does this mean I'm finally getting over that orange outfit I wore when I was twelve that I thought had scarred me for life?

Probably not.


* Actually, I did. It's the thing on the needles in the yarn pile photo.