Look! Knitting!

That's the first 5 repeats (100 rows total) of the Beehive Section of the Honeybee Stole. There's another 5 repeats of this, then 58 rows of the Bee Swarm Section and 66 rows of the Bee and Honeycomb Section (a.k.a. the Scary Section). Then it's finished off with a 16 row edging. Then, turn it around, remove the provisional cast-on, and do it all over again.

Will I get it done by Christmas? Ummmm....... maybe.....

On Tuesday, it will be 6 months since I arrived in Iowa City. Because my ca. 1984 fridge's freezer has a dire warning printed on the inside of the door about what will happen if you don't defrost at least every 6 months, I got that done today. I actually began the prep at least a week ago, by beginning to use up as much stuff as possible from the freezer. Here's it is, frost-free:

As you can see, there's not too much perishable there. That round, bucket-like object next to the ice bucket is the container for my ice-cream maker, ready in case I have a sudden urge. And the two ziplocs behind the orange mug (again, ready in case I have a sudden urge) contain shrimp frozen in water. I was most worried about them, but I put everything in an ice chest and put it on the balcony, where it was maybe 40 degrees. The shrimp was frozen solid three hours later when I reloaded the freezer! I have vowed, though, not to wait 6 months again.....

I did discover a handy implement in ice removal:

It's Pampered Chef's Handy Scraper. It worked great for dislodging ice and picking up said ice from the floor of the freezer.

Tomorrow -- soup!!!