A Southward Jaunt

What does it say about me that with an entire afternoon in Boston, this is the only photo I managed to take (On Dartmouth at Newbury, in case you were wondering)?



I feel I must point out, though, that David encouraged me to take this one. Is it any wonder I love him?

The trip wasn't all about dead things, though. I did manage to complete the heel on Sock #2 that I've been working on. Gusset finished just as we arrived at South Station, heel turned while we waited for the return bus, and heel completed just before we arrived back at the bus station in Portsmouth, which is pretty much exactly what I expected to accomplish.



I need to get this finished up quickly, as there will soon be sportweight sock yarn from Scout here that will be just begging to be made into socks.

We also made a visit to Woolcott & Co. while we were in Cambridge. Unfortunately, Sean wasn't working (as he had commented, though I kind of figured that would be the case), so we still have not managed to meet in person. I did, however, leave with a skein of Schaefer Yarns Lola and two skeins of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool - one green, one brown.

Of course, the shop staff all thought I was getting the Silky Wool to make a tam, as Sean has so recently done, but I actually got it to go with some other I've had for some time with the intent of making a scarf. I have some leftover grey Silky Tweed from this project and some Silky Wool in red & blue, but I've been concerned that it would end up just a bit too red & blue, so the green and brown should tone it down nicely.

As for the GLBT wedding expo thing that was our initial reason for making the trip, it was small and pretty much what I expected. Which is to say, I can't say I was disappointed because I wasn't really expecting much to begin with. It was good, though, to talk to some of the vendors and get a few ideas - not to mention to figure out how much we can save by not hiring them.

Miscellanea

Just to clarify, this is my 38th birthday. I am now in my middle-late-30's - next year will be the late-late-30's. Technically speaking, my 38th year will not be complete until 11:35PM Eastern Time Monday night. But despite being the timespan of a sitcom away from being an April 3rd birth, I have had to endure a lifetime of, "Born a day late, weren't you?" Because, yeah, nobody's ever said that to me before. At least I'm likely to age more slowly than most of the people who said that - a distinct advantage of not looking your age.

Anyway, we will be meeting my parents in Portland and going out for dinner, which will be a lot of fun. Despite the fact that we only live 2½ hours drive from each other, I don't see nearly enough of my folks. They're good people, and I feel very fortunate to have had them as my parents.

And a note to JJ: If you drop by here again, feel free to drop me an e-mail at mel dot vassey at gmail dot com. Since you're at Davis, I'm sure you know my friends Karl & Michael. Do be sure to tell them I said hello.

Hey, What Happened to Saturday?

Actually, Saturday was pretty much shot as of about 4:30PM on Friday. I left work Thursday morning with one patient in the hospital and returned Friday to a madhouse. And it all went downhill from there. As if the heavy caseload weren't enough, the news services started announcing that the FDA is doing testing on pet foods from another contract producer in the big pet food recall.

As you might imagine, this ratcheted up the general hysteria and our poor receptionist was nearly in tears trying to keep up with all the phone calls from panicked people who decided that we must have some special insider knowledge. Because we manufacture the foods ourselves in our spare time, of course. One woman called at least three times because she didn't want to believe that her cat's food hasn't yet been affected by the recall. No problems with her cat, mind you, just trying to get a head start on whipping herself into a frenzy. Because it's not like we have actual sick animals to take care of or anything (FWIW, so far we've seen three cats that probably were food-related cases - no deaths yet, but certainly life-threatening illness).

Then at 2AM, animal control from a nearby town brought us 5 dogs and a cat from an abandonment case they'd discovered that evening - pet hoarders who abandoned the farm when the couple split up. The lone surviving cat appears to have survived by cannibalizing the cats who died. The dogs were scared, thirsty, hungry, and all looked like hell, but appeared to need TLC more than anything. There are many times when my job gives me reason to hate people, and this is definitely in the top 2 or 3.

Then to top it all off, a major surgical case came in right as my shift was ending and the waiting room was once again filling up and the phones once again started ringing off the hook, so I stayed on a few hours extra to keep my replacement from having a huge backlog once he got out of surgery. With a lot of caffeine and a nap at the halfway point, I finally made it home around 1PM, then to bed just before 4.

Sunny Days

The weather has been quite nice this past week, and although the dry air of the last few days has been murder on my hands and lips, it's dried up the mud nicely (just in time for rain, according to the weather forecast). I'm not the only one who's been enjoying the spring weather. Rosa loves being able to nap in the yard again.



She's not so thrilled about having her naps disturbed, though.

And although last night was a bust for knitting, I've been able to get a bit more done tonight on the second sock to the one I started way back in December as my holiday travel sock.



I'm halfway through the gusset increases, so I hope to be able to get the heel completed by the time we get home tomorrow from Boston. We're going to be making a day trip down to go to a GLBT wedding expo. It doesn't look like it's going to be a huge affair, but we wanted to see if we could get any ideas for the wedding. I'm also hoping that we'll have time to stop in at Woolcott & Co. while we're in the neighborhood.

Then Monday is my birthday, and I actually have the day off. Last year I was scheduled to work on my birthday but I got out of it by getting the flu. Not recommended, really. Scout is making me think maybe it's a 37th birthday thing, but Cate wasn't sick as a dog for hers last fall, so perhaps it's only a problem for us Arieses. Anyway, I think my parents may come down or meet us in Portland for dinner to celebrate, which should be quite nice.

I Thought 2008 Wasn't Until Next Year

There's been some debate going on in the comments at Joe's blog this week. I've really stayed out of it, largely because it's too damn early to really start adequately assessing the candidates. I have been reading Glenn Greenwald's blog on Salon, though, and today's post articulates and puts a voice quite nicely to why I've felt a real unease about Hillary's candidacy. After all, what good does it do us to perpetuate a system that doesn't really work for the people the way it should?

First Flower!

I'm dead tired and about to go to bed. But I couldn't without sharing this photo of the first flower to open in my flower beds. I came home from work this morning to find it. It's not a crocus, as one might expect, but rather an Iris reticulata, a tiny, extremely early species iris that propagates by bulb rather than by rhizome.



I love these. They're very hardy - essentially zero care - and even though the blossoms are fairly short-lived, they're just gorgeous and such a welcome splash of color. You can see a second one coming up that will probably be open by tomorrow.

Spring really is here.

Hat #2

I finished it tonight with about 8 inches left of the darker color. It's now been washed and will be added to my Dulaan pile once it's dry.

As soon as I was finished I went through the Dulaan stash and dug out 5 skeins of Tahki yarns - 3 of Donegal Tweed and two of a very similar, though less tweedy, variegated yarn in colors that are complementary to the Donegal Tweed. There should be enough here for a child's vest, so that's what I've cast on for.



The plan in my head is to do most of the body with lice patterning using the pinkish yarn, then some other patterning in the greenish-purplish yarn over the chest & shoulders.

An Afternoon's Labour

The weather was quite nice this afternoon, so I decided to try to tackle some of our overgrown front yard. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you probably know that our front yard is a very steep little hill. Once upon a time, the landladies had it well mulched and planted in daylilies. The daylilies are still there, but not so much with the mulch these days. Last summer it got very jungley, and the daylilies were practically choked out by grass and weeds and evil, evil, evil, evil bittersweet (I don't think I can, in fact, convey how awful this vine is. Anyone who promotes it, whether as an ornamental or for use in floral arrangements, should be dragged out and quartered, then shot in non-vital places, then cut into little pieces and burned, with their souls being sent to the deepest level of hell. They probably deserve worse, but I'm just soft that way.).

So after four hours of raking, and pulling, and digging, and throwing, and hauling, I had this to show for it:



Unfortunately, there's nothing in this photo that really gives a good sense of scale, but this pile probably contains at least a couple hundred pounds of yard waste. This represents about a third of our front yard. There's still the flattish (by which I mean "less steep") part, which needs to be prepared for two apple trees I've ordered and will be picking up in a month, and the western side of the yard, which is overgrown with rambling rose and staghorn sumac. It was all I could manage in one afternoon, though, and the effort has left me quite sore.

The Latest Word Around Town

Bray House, the oldest house in town - and, consequently, the oldest house in the state - was put on the auction block this past weekend. It sold for $1.8M, which is fairly average for the high end homes (i.e., much, much nicer than our house) around here. Rumor has it that the winning bidder was 80's pop star Daryl Hall. Coincidentally, the other half of Hall & Oates is also an alpaca breeder. So who knows, maybe we can get them to come sing Maneater to the 'pacas.

Le Tricot Machine C'est Moi

My sleep schedule is a bit screwier than usual tonight, because I didn't get up in the evening and just kept right on sleeping, which meant I woke up at 3:30AM. So I sat down to do a bit of knitting until I got sleepy enough to go back to bed. As I often do, I opened up iTunes to catch up on my podcasts a bit, and it whined at me that I hadn't listened to the Bande à Part podcast for a while.

Now, I don't really speak French. I've taught myself enough over the years that I can sort of almost understand it, though I'm sure there's a lot that gets lost in translation. Still, I live in a state with a large francophone community that shares more of its border with francophone Canadian provinces than it does with the one state it also borders (Québec and New/Nouveau Brunswick license plates are almost as common a sight as New Hampshire and Masshole ones). And one thing that I've learned from that proximity is that francophone Canada has a phenomenal music scene. Since corporate radio doesn't see fit to let us hear any more of that scene than Céline Dion (wailing at us en anglais, naturellement), I keep up with it via podcast.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see that last week's podcast, which I had yet to listen to, featured a duo who go by the name Tricot Machine. With a name like that, I was a little worried that I'd not like them and feel really, really cheated, but it turns out that I love their music - indie folk pop with a very sweet & whimsical, slightly melancholic feel. In fact, I loved it so much, I started looking for somewhere to buy the album, and I found it here. I can hardly wait.

Des Chapeaux

While listening to my brand new favorite band, I made some progress on the second hat for Dulaan in the lite lopi type yarn.



I did a 2x2 rib for the band of this hat, and I'm still working out in my head what I want to do with the decreases at the top. It looks like I'll have just barely enough of the darker yarn to finish it off. If not, there's enough of the lighter yarn that I can start working from the other end and maintain the thickness of the stranding and have a top that's finished off in one color.

At work, I have another hat-in-progress that is destined for Dulaan. This one is a Fair Isle that I'm doing in Limbo from Halcyon Yarn.



Anyone recognize the motif? Isn't it cuuuuuuute?


Questions Gladly, If Not Promptly, Answered

KnitNZu asked the other day, "Do you have a good way to catch the color you carry in two-color knitting?" She has a post with photos of one way to do it here.

My answer is that I try not to, if at all possible. Elizabeth Zimmermann addressed the reason for this in Knitting Around, I believe, but I had already discovered it on my own. If you catch up a float by wrapping the carried yarn around the yarn in use, the color being carried will tend to show through between the stitches where it is wrapped. A better option might be to use a singles from one of the yarns (or a finer thread) and a sharp needle and lightly tack the float down later, if necessary. Either that or I would probably do segments that would otherwise require long floats in intarsia instead (Priscilla Gibson-Roberts discusses methods for doing this in tubular garments in several of her books & articles).

The standard rule with Fair Isle knitting is to avoid floats longer than 5 stitches, and since a lot of EZ's designs were worked at 5st/inch, I will stretch that rule a little bit to floats of no more than an inch. In the bunny motif above, the space between the ears is 6 stitches. Since my gauge is around 6st/inch, I wouldn't want anything longer than that, but as it's not going on a part of the body where there are appendages that would be likely to snag those floats, it should be just fine. In a patterned sock, I'd probably try to avoid floats longer than 3-4 stitches, just to minimize the risk of snags.

That and I'd keep my toenails trimmed.

About Time!

I haven't done any Dulaan knitting for a bit, so I cast on for this hat last night and finished it tonight.



The pattern is extremely basic - a one inch band of twin rib, then two alternating colors - in this case, tone on tone - stranded for a thicker garment. The only thing I don't much care for about this one is the twin rib. I knew that it wouldn't pull in much and thought about frogging it, but I figured I'd keep going and see how I felt about it off the needles. I still think it'll make a nice hat for a toddler, but next time I think I will stick with regular ribbing for a snugger fit at the bottom.

The yarn is part of a big bag I got from Debbie Gremlitz at Nordic Fiber Arts. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but she had a bunch of stash yarns she had wanted to get rid of and offered them to me to pick through for Dulaan. This particular yarn is one of the lighter weight ones I picked up. Both skeins had been wound into balls, so I have no ball bands to identify the brand, but they're a lite lopi type yarn and the two colors were obviously meant to go together. I believe there is also enough yarn to make another hat, so I hope to do that soon.

Sheep Eyes

Knitnzu has tagged me for a meme to come up with several lists of sevens. Right now, though, I can barely keep my eyes open, let alone actually think about seven of anything, so it'll have to wait a bit. I do, however, owe her an answer about sheep's eyes and why they have horizontal pupils.

Of course, in the time it's taken me to get to this question, she's gone off and done some of her own research. She cites a Wikipedia article - "Pupil" - which suggests that sheep and goats may have evolved the horizontal slit pupil the better to climb mountainous terrain. Of course, this doesn't adequately explain why all ungulates (hooved animals) have this type of pupil, since most of them evolved to inhabit plains and grasslands.

The two most basic explanations are a) this pupil shape is the result of a chance mutation that turned out to be benign in terms of survivabilty and managed to perpetuate itsef, or b) this particular pupil shape conferred some sort of survival advantage (better visual acuity, better depth perception, etc.) on ancestral prey animals with this sort of pupil. Because there's essentially no variation across this huge group of mammals, this suggests that b) is the most likely explanation, but I quite honestly couldn't answer with complete certainty as to what that advantage is (though I suspect it has something to do with ability to spot predators).

NC Photos

Even though I schlepped my fancy schmancy new camera down to North Carolina with me, I was doing so much running around while I was there that I didn't take very many photos. Here are my favorites, though:

Mary, my sister's 5-year-old, tries out a couple different smiles so I can tell her which one to use for her camera pose.





Brian hams it up with my sister's 3-year-old, Alison (aka Ash, because that's the closest approximation of "Alison" that Mary could muster when her sister was born).



Me with Bill's eldest daughter, Amy (While Amy is my dad's first cousin, she's far closer to me in age - only 4 or 5 years older, as I recall. This was the first time we'd seen each other in over 25 years.). And check out that stylin' sweater.



Sydney and myself with Bill



Bill's wife, Carol, has been keeping an online journal for family & friends to keep us updated on Bill's condition. Apparently his breathing has worsened in the past couple days, but not enough to keep him from talking, which is so very typical of Bill. In fact, I had to laugh when I read Carol's post about that, as I expect he'll keep on talking right up until the very end, if at all possible.

Me at the Neurologist's & a Visit with Bikram

Today was kind of a busy day, for all that I don't seem to have accomplished much. The first order of business was a visit to a neurologist to see what we could try for my Restless Legs Syndrome and associated Periodic Limb Movement Disorder. He sent me to the lab to have my iron levels checked, then home with some samples of Requip, so we'll see if that helps. I'm sure David hopes so at least as much as I do, since he's the one who's borne the brunt of my nighttime flailing.

Then this afternoon I hied myself on over to Portsmouth for my first Bikram yoga class. I was just pleased that I managed not to pass out in the heat. Considering that it's been a couple years since I've done any yoga at all, I think I did pretty well, but it really wiped me out for the rest of the evening. And now my back muscles have tightened up again. And my hamstrings were threatening to cramp on me just a bit ago. But I'll try to stick with it and see where it takes me.

NC Recap

I haven't had a chance yet to download photos from the trip, but some will be forthcoming. Although too brief by far, I had a very nice visit in North Carolina. The only hitch(es) in the entire trip were with Laguardia airport - a 1.5 hour delay leaving there on the way down and a one hour delay getting there (the flight had originated at Laguardia and was delayed coming from there to Raleigh) on the way home that caused me to miss my connection. I was, fortunately, able to get a seat on the very next flight and got home only an hour later than scheduled.

I don't think I really wrote much about this trip in advance. The nominal reason for my going was to represent LGVMA at a reception for lgbt veterinary students attending an annual student symposium that is held at a different veterinary school each year (this year at NC State). I didn't really have to do a whole lot for that aside from paying for the refreshments - the student organizers really did a phenomenal job. It was a far cry from the last Symposium I attended, which was in '92 at Auburn University. At that one, I put a little pink triangle on my nametag and had a few people surreptitiously say hello, and that was pretty much the extent of that.

Of course, the bigger reason for going was to visit family, which became a more urgent need over the past couple months because of two things - my great-uncle Bill, my paternal grandfather's baby brother, was diagnosed with a recurrence of his lung cancer and is now being cared for at home by Hospice; and my cousin Brian, whom I first introduced in this post, is shipping out to Afghanistan at the end of the month as part of the Provincial Reconstruction Team at Mehtar Lam and was on leave this weekend and in Wilmington, where our Aunt Kathe, her sons Rocky & Kevin, and Brian's brother, Spencer, all live.

I was able to visit Bill twice - once Friday before the reception and then for about an hour before I had to leave for the airport. Despite requiring oxygen to breathe reasonably well and some mobility problems that sound like they're related to his last round of radiation therapy, he is still the garrulous man I've always known. Just shifting himself around on his hospital bed takes his breath away, but his spirits are good and he isn't in any significant pain. Amy, the eldest of his three daughters - whom I hadn't seen in over 25 years, since the summer before my sister was born - was visiting from Atlanta with her husband Richard, so I also got to see them for a bit before they had to leave (shortly before my own leaving) and sister Sydney got to meet one of her cousins for the first time.

Brian was very happy about the cabled rib beanie. He remarked that he could probably wear it under his helmet, which something I had taken into consideration with the design. And then he wore it when we all went out for pizza. I felt good that I had pretty much nailed the styling on that one - it's so very him. He also loved the four pairs of RedMaple alpaca socks I took him. Hopefully they'll help keep him warm, and maybe serve as good luck talismans to bring him home safely.

Travel Knitting, Travel Reading

I finished the sweater just a couple hours before I left to catch the bus to the airport and it served me well, particularly since they dropped the forecasted temperatures by several degrees after I got there (which also prompted a trip to the clearance rack at the REI store). For the trip, I took along the socks which have languished since our holiday trip to the Midwest.

On the return, though, I paid a visit to the secondhand bookstore in the Raleigh-Durham airport, where I've made some good finds in the past, and found a copy of friend & knitsib Melissa Scott's book A Choice of Destinies - a "what if" look at what might have happened if Alexander the Great had turned his attentions back to the West instead of pressing on into India. It's a really well-done book and just the right length for me on this trip. I finished it in about 7 hours - just a few minutes before the bus arrived back in Portsmouth - but for pleasure reading I've figured that I average somewhere around 500 words per minute. If you can find it (check with your local library), I highly recommend it.

A Non-Jackass Photo?

So I was chatting with my sister online the other night, and we got to talking about my travel plans, since I'm going to be staying with her and the girls while I'm in North Carolina. She asked me to send her a photo of myself, since I'll be arriving before she gets off work, so that the babysitter "doesn't think you're some crazy jackass." I promised to work on tracking down a non-jackass photo to send her, then promptly got busy taking the lasagna out of the oven and trekking upstairs with David to watch 9 to 5, followed by some mad knitting on the sweater. I even grafted one of the underarms - the first time I have ever done Kitchener stitch completely from memory, no crib notes at all, and it turned out just fine.

So I just decided to try to kill the proverbial two birds and get a progress photo of the sweater with me wearing it. I'm far enough along with the raglan decreases that I thought it would be good to gauge how much farther I should go, particularly since I plan on leaving the neck a little more open than a traditional crew neck (no ribbing, for my comfort).It has been a serious insomnia week so far - we're talking separate beds so I don't kick David in the nose with all my thrashing around - so I'm not sure I totally avoided that crazed jackass look (though I think I did manage non-assbeagle), but at least I had an easier time removing my sweater-in-progress than a certain someone I know.



Yoga, Inc.

Speaking of contortions, Norma has gotten me thinking about trying out Bikram yoga. There's a studio in Portsmouth, and they have classes seven days a week plus multiple payment options to fit most any budget. I did Ashtanga yoga for several years while I lived in North Carolina, and it did wonders for my fibromyalgia pain, general flexibility, and muscle tone. After I moved to Pittsburgh to be with S, though, I didn't have very many good options for practice, and then I developed wrist problems. Now I can't do vinyasa at all - my wrists just won't support my weight.

I've known about Bikram yoga, of course, for several years, but Bikram himself always struck me as rather egotistical, which I find very off-putting. I also don't particularly care for his whole franchising scheme and his legal wrangling to lock down the market on "true hatha" yoga. In fact, while looking into his yoga a bit more, I found some clips from this documentary, which will be released this spring. The clips are definitely worth a look-see, and I very much want to see the complete film.

Still, I got to thinking maybe I was taking too much of a baby-with-the-bath approach to it and started looking into the poses. As it turns out, none of the basic poses should require me to bear full weight on my wrists. In fact, most of them don't require any weight-bearing with the hands, so I should be in good shape. Once I start doing it, that is. I asked David for his opinion on it. His response was, "Will it make your ass firmer? If it makes your ass firmer, I'm all for it."*

So I'll be getting my ass over there after I get back from my trip.



*I asked for clarification. He was not implying in any way that my ass is not already firm. Just in case you were wondering.

Smørgasbord for øyene

Lots of photos here today, since I've not been good about keeping up with posting this week. First of all, I owe a couple of tattoo photos for Scout's tattoo meme. This is the first tattoo I got, on my right ankle. As you can see, it's a Celtic knot design, and I got it just over 13 years ago in Minneapolis by Koré, when I was in my final year of vet school.



My second tattoo is one I got on my upper left arm in 1998 when I was living in North Carolina. It's a Scottish thistle design, and I knew around the time I got the first tattoo that this was what I wanted for the second one. It took me over four years of searching before I found just the right design, though. Curiously enough, Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie has a thistle tattoo in the exact same location, and hers is very similar to a 17th century woodcut that I liked and considered very strongly. Mine is one I found in a clipart book of Victorian wallpaper designs. The flower head and the leaf were separate elements, so I had to scan and Photoshop to assemble everything and color it in, then Errol at Blue Flame Tattoo in Raleigh did a bang-up job of reproducing it.



On To the Flower Show

Yesterday, David and I, along with farmsitter & good company Katherine, went to the Portland Flower Show, mostly looking to find ideas for arrangements for our wedding next year. There were a lot of vendors, many of whom had nothing to do with flowers or landscaping, and then there were companies that had set up big design displays. Those ranged from pukingly horrid:



To both horrid and creepy (This particular display was set up as a "Scottish croft" and also had the disembodied papier mâché head of what was supposed to be a Scottish Highland cow emerging from the dark, painted-on doorway of the "croft house", while a loop tape played a recording of bagpipes playing "Amazing Grace" over and over and over):



To, well, veeerrryy interesting:



I wonder why the sculptor chose pink granite for that one?

There were a few decent ones, to be honest. One called "A Walk in the Scottish Countryside" (not the "croft" one), actually, was quite nice and the source of this photo, which is just what we want our wedding to look like:



We also talked to one of the vendors - a greenhouse just up the coast from us who do a lot of potted topiaries and was selling these cute little baby ferns, which may be a jumping-off point for developing table centerpieces for the reception:



Knitting Progress

After we got home last night, we ate, David dragged himself off to bed, and I sat down to groove to unlistened-to episodes of the CBC Radio 3 podcast and really rocked myself into the knitting zone, getting this far on the comfy sweater:



That's right, sleeve #2 is finished and attached, and I made the first of the raglan decreases before I dragged my own self off to bed. I may actually be able to wear this thing before the weather gets too hot.

Signs of Spring

I may have to hurry, though, because there were definite signs today that spring may not be far away.




























I finally took down our exterior holiday lights - two sets of solar-powered "icicles" - this afternoon, too, and David put them away (because he's better at it). Tolo decided that he wanted to be Daddy's Little Helper with that particular task.



I also uploaded the pattern for the cabled rib beanie to The Knitting Vault. It's really a very simple, uncomplicated pattern, but I couldn't see that anyone else had written up anything similar and I figure there are probably a few people out there who like to have it spelled out for them. Besides that, I wouldn't mind making a little bit of money from my designs, though I expect it'll only be that - a little bit. Soon I hope to sit down and write up the pattern for the cabled headband that I made my sister for her birthday.

But right now I've got some raglanning to do.

Finished Hat

I stayed up last night until I had finished the hat for my cousin Brian and wove in the ends after I got to work (hence the photo was done with the clinic camera, rather than my fancy schmancy one). He'll be on leave when I'm in North Carolina next week, so I'll get to give it to him before he ships out for Afghanistan.



The design is my own, but fairly basic & based on a 2 x 1 rib. I did a baby cable in the black, which adds some visual interest and makes a thicker fabric, 'cause it's going to be cold in Afghanistan. The shaping is roughly based on the London Beanie, so it's nice and snug to be able to fit under a helmet. The yarn is Berocco Pure Merino, which is a cabled, worsted weight superwash yarn and very soft. And as with pretty much anything I make, there's a little bit of cat hair thrown in - just for good luck.

I picked the colors because a) they're basic guy colors that I knew Brian would like, and b) they fit the guidelines for the Ships Project.

A Quickie

Not much battery power left on the laptop at the moment, so this'll be quick. I managed to get in a little nap at work and got out to see Juliette & Madelyn for a bit. Juliette's first show is coming up in a few weeks and I'm planning on putting her on the sales list (not easy, I'll admit, but I did do this as an investment). She's lovely, as always.



And I blame Elemmaciltur for this one.





Find your Celestial Choir

I also owe Scout some tattoo photos for her tattoo meme, but I don't think the laptop will stay up and running long enough for that tonight.