1:15 a.m.

I finished binding off Daedelus at 1:15 this morning. It's blocking right now.

I'm a really bad blocker...

Details: test-knit (incredibly slowly) for Helen
Yarn: almost 2 skeins (about 1200 yards) of JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk
Needles: Size 3 KnitPicks Harmonies
Beads: Lots of opalescent seed beads and not quite as many white seed beads
Measurements: About 6 1/2 feet by 3 feet, gently blocked -- bigger than I thought it would be.

Where did January go?

I can't believe it's February already! January just flew by, mostly because I was so, so busy with work. Our nursing librarian left for a job in Arizona at the end of December and, by default, I became the nursing liaison. This is a very natural fit for me, since I worked extensively with nurses, nursing students, and nursing faculty in San Antonio, but it does mean that I now have two full-time jobs. Luckily, I have people to help me out with teaching and consults, but I'm the one answering all the calls and emails!

Last week was really busy, not just during day but also in the evening. That wasn't really because of my new duties -- Tuesday evening I co-taught a class on information resources in global health and Thursday evening, I joined several hundred other middle-aged women (and about 4 men) at Menopause the Musical at the Englert Theatre. The four characters include a Professional Woman, an Earth Mother, a Soap Star, and an Iowa Housewife (wife of a funeral director), so it's possible that our Iowa City college-town crowd -- full of professional women, curnchy-granola types, and Iowans -- identified easily with most of the characters. If you are anywhere near menopause and have a chance to see this show, I would highly recommend it! It's full of funny songs about "the change," set to tunes from the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

Friday evening, I spent at the mall, although not really because I wanted to shop. You see, I LOVE my electric blanket and can't imagine life without it. A few weeks ago, I noticed that one of the controls was occasionally making an odd noise, and thought that I'd probably want to get a new blanket -- or maybe one of those heated mattress pads -- before next winter. Then around 4:00 a.m. Friday, I woke up just enough to yank the blanket up around my shoulders, and saw a little flash of light! I did it again, and the light flashed again! I didn't feel anything hot or smell anything burn, but I'm pretty sure I was seeing sparks. Around 5:00, I turned the blanket off, and by 6:30 I was cold. So that evening, off I went to the mall to find a new blanket. As I feared, despite the fact that we're in the depths of winter, electric blankets are hard to find in January. You were supposed to buy your blanket at the beginning of winter; the fact that your blanket might die at some other time is apparently not considered. I finally found one at the third department store I visited.

When I got home and pulled the blanket out of the bag, I saw that what I had was NOT an electric blanket, but a regular blanket that was supposed to be in the bin next to the electric blankets. So, happy that I had noticed this before 11:00 p.m., I headed back to the mall, where I realized that the queen-size electric blanket bin was full of regular blankets. All they had were king-sized electric blankets (five of them total). I considered getting a refund and continuing my search elsewhere, but considering that it was after 8:00 p.m. and I knew they were in short supply, I bought a king-sized one.

So - the bad news is that I have lots of extra blanket hanging out from under my quilt. The good news, though, is that my bed is nice and warm without actually being on fire, and that is a very good thing indeed!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Okay -- knitting. Up there at the top is a close-up of Daedelus. I am just five rows (two of them beaded) from binding off. I don't want to event think how many stitches are in each row -- one beaded row takes me close to an hour -- but I'm definitely almost done.

I think I mentioned before that I ran out of beads and couldn't get matching beads to finish. The original beads are sort of opalescent, while the new ones are more opaque. You can clearly see the difference below -- the new beads are at the top.

I'm not thrilled with the difference and wonder if I should have looked elsewhere for beads closer to the originals. However, the new beads are at the bottom of the shawl, so I think the heavier look will be okay, if not perfect.

As my carrying-around, knit-anywhere project, I started the Nereid Fingerless Gloves, based on Cookie A.'s Pomatomus sock pattern. I have to admit that I never particularly cared for this pattern until I saw it in a solid color. Even though this pattern is not particularly "busy," I think it just looks so much better in a solid color.

As I said, this is supposed to be my mindless knitting, but even with mindless knitting, you really need to check the pattern occasionally! The Nereid pattern says to knit two repeats of Chart A from the sock pattern. The author assumes that you've also read the instructions, not just looked at the chart. I knew when I started the second repeat that something was wrong, but I convinced myself it was fine. Four rounds in, I said to the friends I was knitting with, "It almost looks like the pattern needs to be shifted over one stitch." Oops! That's exactly what the written instructions tell you to do. So I tinked back four rounds, shifted everything, and am back on track. I think....

Yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Solid in Pink Blossom.
I'm already planning on buying more of this color!

Cold-Weather Day

Yesterday afternoon, I decided this would be a "cold-weather day" for me -- like a snow day, but because it was so cold. The school districts in the area have been closed since Wednesday. The first day was because of the new 6 inches or more of snow, but the last two were because morning temperatures were -20F (-29C) or colder. Yesterday morning as I waited for the bus (luckily, the bus was on time, so I was outside for less than 15 minutes), the temperature was around 23 below. I was wearing tights, long underwear (upper and lower), wool socks, moleskin pants (no, not made from real moles, but really warm), sweater, long down coat, earflap hat with my coat hood over it, wool/mohair scarf over my face, and store-bought gloves under my mittens. I was almost warm enough, although it sort of hurt to breathe, and had to remove several layers once I got to work. Today was supposed to be colder (and was, by about 2 degrees) so I decided to take a day of vacation.

I started the day by watching a couple hours of the Today show's coverage of yesterday's miracle on the Hudson, which really does seem to have been miraculous. Then I talked to Helen about some updates to the Daedelus pattern, and promised to work on it extensively this weekend. And then -- well, then I spent a couple hours playing on Facebook. Facebook doesn't usually distract me like that (although Twitter does - I am, of course, jannabeth there, if you'd like to follow my riveting tweets), but I spent lots of time today checking out my friends' friends, to see who I had missed.

Finally, around noon, I got a little more productive!

I baked Chocolate Cranberry Sweet Buns, although, weirdly, I had no chocolate chips, so I chopped up five squares of semi-sweet chocolate (why do I have two boxes of this, and no chips?) and used that instead. I haven't tasted them yet, but they look pretty!

I also made snow

Throw a cup of boiling water into frigid air and see what happens!

because we don't have enough already! ;-)

That's my car, waiting to be dug out tomorrow, when the temperature is supposed to be a balmy 26ºF (-3ºC). I did get in and start it last night -- I didn't really expect it to start, so was thrilled when it did, with just a little cough.

And I worked on Daedelus. She really is going to be pretty if when I get her done!

I know Daedelus was a man, but, really, this shawl is awfully girly!

Catching Up (Again)

Well, it's a good thing I didn't resolve to blog more regularly!

(If you don't care about my non-knitting life, feel free to scroll past the next three paragraphs.)

It's been a busy week. We had a new librarian start on Monday, which of course disrupts the usual pattern, and another librarian left last week. I suddenly find myself acting as my library's Nursing librarian, and preparing to teach quite a bit later this month. Of course, at my old job, I taught all the time, and worked with Nursing students and faculty a lot, but I've been spoiled over the last year and a half -- I guess you could say I've had people who did this sort of thing for me! Plus, of course, they expected us to work 5 whole days this week! (This was only the second week since before Thanksgiving that I worked all 5 days.)

The highlight of the week for me was the fact that the library finally has almost-hot water. When I began here in May 2007, I was surprised to discover that the staff kitchenette had no hot water (at lunch time, we keep a tea kettle on, to supply hot water for washing dishes) and the ladies' room had only slightly-warm water. Rumor has it that the mens' room had no hot water. The public restroom also had only slightly-warm water. I was told that the building (built in 1974) had been plumbed wrong and had never had hot water. An investigation sometime in the 1990s had determined there was no way of fixing the problem. And apparently no one at the library protested that statement.

There are a few of you reading who can probably guess how this affected me. I was incensed! It's not like hot running water is some sort of new-fangled idea -- it's been found in even the most rural areas of the U.S. for the last 60 years and I would bet that most of the buildings on campus have had it for the last 100 years. I insisted that the situation be checked out again. Eventually, last week -- months after I started complaining -- real plumbers, as opposed to general handymen, appeared. They were as shocked as I that the building had never had hot water. They also agreed that the building was plumbed wrong, but that they could at least improve the situation.

So -- hurray! -- as of Thursday, the ladies' room has water hot enough that I considered adding some cold water to the mix. The kitchenette's water isn't quite as hot as the ladies' room, but is much improved. I don't think the plumbers are finished either. And you cannot imagine how happy warm water has made me!

Enough about work -- there has been knitting, too. In fact, I've knit a little on several projects.

• I worked a few rows on Daedelus (which doesn't sound like much, but at this stage, the rows are SO long that the beaded rows take me about an hour each), but it's now on hold while I wait for a revised pattern from Helen.

• I've worked a little on the Stonewall stole (this is an old photo -- imagine about twice this much done). I'm making the middle size, with some gorgeous merino/tencel sock yarn from Jessie at A Piece of Vermont. I just loved this squooshy yarn in not-quite-solid not-really-red/not-really-pink, and I think it's perfect for the pattern.
  

• I mailed off my brother's Jayne hat.

• I've done a couple rows on my Hedera socks.

• I decided that one skein of Malabrigo Sock Yarn wasn't enough for my Woodand Scarf (which I don't think I've blogged about), so I ordered another skein from SuperCrafty -- luckily, Allison still had one skein of the dye lot. The colorway is called Stonechat, and it's just gorgeous.

• And finally, a couple days ago, as I felt the wind whipping through my hand-knit mittens, I remembered that at the end of last winter, I had started a pair of Bird in Hand stranded mittens, which would be much warmer. I pulled them out and saw that I was just about at the start of the thumb on the first mitten. I've been working on them the last couple nights and I think I'll finish the first one tonight. Here it is so far:

It's really hard to take a picture of your own right hand!

The only problem is that the change in my tension is really obvious on the palm. I hope that a good soak will help even the stitches out, but I may end up frogging this one and reknitting it.

So -- I think I'm all caught up now! Maybe you'll hear from me again before next weekend!

Happy New Year!

A lot of bloggers have been announcing their resolutions for the year, many involving blogging and/or knitting. I'm not making any resolutions about either -- my blogging will continue to be rather sporadic and my knitting rather planless (is that a word? You know what I mean...)

The only resolution I'm making this year is to shred more regularly. Sad, huh? However, the truth is that I have months' worth of stuff that needs to be shredded waiting for me in a large wastebasket, and next to it. I got through maybe 25% of it this afternoon, and plan on working on it a little every evening. Then, at least once a week, I'll shred anything new. I'm also moving the shredder into the dining room, which is where I open the mail anyway.

So -- enough of that. There has been knitting!

Over the last couple of days, I've knit a Jayne hat for my brother. I ordered a kit from Heather Hill, which included a pre-made pompom. I don't know why I hate the idea of making pompoms (I'm not sure I've ever made one!) but having one come in the kit was a big plus! And the mailer she sent it in was covered with the most cunning stamps.

Mr. Swift isn't the best model.
I'll try to get my brother to send a picture of him wearing it.

Even for slow-knitter me, this was only a few hours work. Plus, of course, it's not supposed to be perfect -- Ma Cobb's wasn't, but Jayne loved it anyway. Fittingly, I knit most of it while watching the Firefly DVDs I got for Christmas by my brother. He also gave me the Serenity movie. Netflix will be happy, because it means they can stop sending them to me. (Actually, I'm pretty sure I've only gotten them twice from Netflix...)

I also attempted to buy more beads for Daedelus, with only partial success. The bead store where I bought the original beads a year and a half ago didn't have the exact beads, so the ones I bought were more white than translucent. I think they'll look fine. I'll show you a picutre once I've got a few rows with them.

The Knitter's Lament

Alas and alack, The Knitter finds herself without knitting. She was sure that three projects would be enough, but neglected to realize that she would run out of beads for Daedelus. The Knitter sighs....

Yeah, that would be me. On vacation with no knitting. It's not like I haven't knitted -- I finished two projected between last Saturday and yesterday, but when I picked up Daedelus, I realized that I only had enough beads left for one more row. I need, oh, probably a couple hundred more! When I get back to Iowa City Sunday afternoon, I'll stop by the bead store, I guess.

Like I said, I have finished two projects. I finished the Golightly Gloves (Ravelry) that coordinate with the Toto (Rav) for my sister. When my sister and I lived together, she wouldn't even look at a sink full of dishes without rubber gloves, so I thought these rubber-gloves-with-cuffs were perfect for her!

As you can probably guess, I made these from Sugar'n Cream, on size 7 DPNs. If I were to knit these again, I'd go down a needle size, but really -- these are basically disposable, so perfection isn't necessary, although cuteness is!

I also frogged and reknit my Dolores Park Cowl, using the same yummy yarn (which Dream in Color has renamed Softy -- apparently, they thought that people were turned off by the name Fatty. Whatever you call it, it's lovely yarn!) but with 60 stitches in size 11 needles. It's much cozier now. It's also less drapey, and somewhat less attractive, I think, but it will be better at keeping the wind from wooshing down my collar!

Perhaps I can stop by Michael's tomorrow morning to buy some cheap needles. I've got yarn left over from the gloves that I could use for a matching warshrag....

Home Alone

No, not me -- Harley!

Saturday morning, I attempted to "pack up" the cats to bring them to Mom's for the week. With Harley, I have one chance to get her into the carrier, and then she's uncatchable for the rest of the day. She's a BIG, round cat, which makes it more difficult. Lately, she's been more cooperative, but Saturday morning, she slipped out of my hands and under the bed. If I really needed to, I could have chased her, and terrorized her, and eventually caught her, but it's really not worth it. She's such a scaredy cat, and I hate to make it worse. She also doesn't really mind being alone. A friend was coming by a couple times to pick up my mail anyway, so she's stopping in to check on Harley (who she won't actually see, of course). Dolly and I will return this weekend and we'll see if Harley even realized we were gone!


And I like Christmas!

Your Christmas Sprit Level: 75%

Your Christmas spirit is almost as big as Christmas itself. Christmas is definitely your thing. You celebrate Christmas with enthusiasm. You love every minute of the holidays. Your Christmas spirit is inspiring to everyone who runs into you during the holidays. You make everyone's day just a little bit brighter. And that's what the holidays are all about!

Do You Have the Christmas Spirit?

Toto IV

Apparently, I cannot stop knitting these! There are only 21 of these shown in Ravelry and 4 of them are mine. Why aren't you all knitting Toto, too?

This is (probably) the last one before Christmas.

Today was a non-typical day. We had our Holiday Luncheon at work, so I got up at 6:00 a.m. to start the Crockpot Creamed Corn. (Combine 2 lb. frozen corn, 8 oz cream cheese, 1/2 stick butter, 1/4 c. heavy cream or half-and-half, 3 T. sugar, and a little salt and pepper in your crockpot, and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours, stirring it every hour or so.) Then I watched a little news, where I heard that the parents of a co-worker were involved in an accident which totaled the 2008 Saturn Vue (the same car I drive, except 4 years newer) they've had for about 2 weeks. They're fine, but it was odd to hear about it on TV. And, finally, while washing my face, I managed to stab my upper lip, right there at the top of the bow, with a finger nail, and it bled like crazy! I now have a really stupid looking scab there -- it's so stupid looking that I tried to take a picture of it, but it really doesn't look like much in the photos.

All of this before 7:30 a.m.! And how was your day?

Drive-by Post

I promise a better post, with pictures and everything, soon. In the last 10 days I've:

• knit a third Toto
• knit most of a second Mitered Hanging Towel
• put up and decorated my Christmas tree
• decided to send store-bought cards instead of hand-made ones
• done about half my Christmas shopping
• loaded a whole bunch of Christmas songs onto my iPod
• convinced my cats that they could both sleep in the bed with me
• survived our first real snowfall and minor ice storm of the season -- although I did fall down twice on the way to bus the morning after the ice storm
• replaced my worn-out YakTrax (this was directly related to the previous point)
  
• slept through the "you're truly old" medical procedure (in other words, I had a colonoscopy. I slept through it -- yay for Demerol! -- and my colon's good to go for the next 10 years.)
• been thrilled that the jerk governor -- I'd call him worse, but this is a G rated blog -- of my home state was arrested. According to the latest poll, his approval rating is at 8%. Even before this, about a month ago, it was 13%. He's been despised for quite some time, and I doubt many people are surprised that he was this corrupt. I think lots are amazed that he actually got caught though. And they've named a drink after him!
• oh -- and I went to work practically every day!
  

Recap

There was family (and eating).



There was knitting.

I finished the second Toto....


and began a matching Mitered Hanging Towel.

• Both are from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines and use Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton yarn. It's softer than Peaches'n Cream or Sugar'n Cream -- nice for baby clothes, I think, but possibly too soft for the towel.

There was new yarn.

Noro Silk Garden Lite in 2014 (left) and 2032 (right). Purchased at KnitWit in Springfield, IL. I think I might want to make one of those two-row scarves.

There was, and still is, snow. I guess it wasn't a fluke after all....

Things I've Done

I'm sitting here waiting for my pumpkin pie to bake, and could be doing lots of other more productive things, but instead, I stole this Top 100 Things I've Done meme from Bezzie.

Things I've Done (In Bold)

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (I doubt they mean the high school band, but I'm going to count this one anyway.)
4. Visited Hawaii (Not yet -- but I've got a ticket to go in May for a conference, plus an extra couple days)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo (oh, good lord, no!)
11. Bungee jumped (also, good lord, no!)
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightening at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables (never very successfully)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (what about an overnight bus?)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language (not that I remember the German I used to know but I did learn on my own, mostly from listening to people around me)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (but they won't take my blood anymore)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (Ted, the Bear)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt (a tiny one)
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (but I've watched my mom and grandma kill turkeys and chickens)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person (repeatedly!)
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Rode an elephant (as a child at the Illinois State Fair)

Where'd that hat come from?

Yes, between the time I posted yesterday and bedtime, I knit a hat to match the cowl!

Pattern: Foliage (version 1) from the Fall 2007 Knitty
Yarn: You have to ask? About half a skein of the same Dream in Color Fatty in Ruby River!
Notes: I followed the pattern exactly. This is an incredibly quick, easy pattern. You need one, too!

I have a little less than half a skein of this yarn left. I'm wondering if I could get a pair of fingerless gloves out of it....

Stop Me Before I Cast On Again!

Since I last blogged I have knit a warshrag to match the Toto for my mother

and a cowl for me!!!

Did you know that cowls are the new scarves?
And does anyone know if that Strivectin stuff works?

I love this and am looking forward to wearing it tomorrow morning while waiting for the bus! I'm now looking for a hat pattern to make use of the remaining 90ish yards of yarn.

Pattern: Dolores Park Cowl
Yarn: just a little over one skein of Dream in Color Fatty (a sort of slightly-thinner-than-bulky yarn, which is apparently no longer produced) in Ruby River

• I cast on 70 stitches instead of 60, but really, probably would have been fine with 60.
• Because I was hoping to only use 1 skein, I skipped one plain knit row in the middle, but I still needed to dip into the second skein for the last round and a half and the bind-off.
• I used the Russian Bind-off, which I think is just as beautiful as it is stretchy. It takes longer to do, but I think it may be my new bind-off.
  
• This picture doesn't do justice to the yarn's color, which actually has a lot of purple in it.
• The yarn is wonderful -- soft and squooshy and gorgeous!

I'm not sure why but small projects on big needles really attract me at the moment, which is totally, totally not usually me! But really I think this cowl needs a matching hat of some sort... (Sorry, Helen, I promise to get back to Daedelus soon!!!)

Toto

I managed to miss my Mom's birthday earlier this month. I mean, I knew it was happening, and saw her the previous weekend, but the cookbook I wanted to get her wasn't published until the next week. I'll take her the cookbook at Thanksgiving, but figured I should add something else. She really likes warshrags, so I've started one (no picture!). On Monday, though, I was suddenly overwhelmed to knit her a Toto the Extremely Useful and Cute Potholder (Ravelry link) from the new(ish) Mason-Dixon book. Although it was a rocky start -- my size 8 DPNs are metal and extra long and heavy (and I have no idea how I came to own them!), so midway through, I switched to two circs. However, all of my shorter Harmony cables were in use, so I ended up using a really long cable on one side. Those needles swinging around were almost as annoying as the DPNs! This afternoon (before a dental appointment), I stopped by my LYS and picked up some normal, short, bamboo size 8 DPNs, and finished it this afternoon.

Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream in Red, Sage, and Warm Brown

I'm so please with it that I started another!

Settling in for the Winter

I know winter is coming. We've gotten a couple of snow flurries, although no accumulation, and just today I put the flannel sheets and electric blanket on my bed. (I also sealed my drafty bedroom windows with the trailer-trash plastic film, but I'd prefer not to think about that.)

But the real sign, I think, is how much I've been cooking, especially with the crockpot. This weekend, I used it to make risotto. I don't know about you, but I've always thought of risotto as something you ordered in a restaurant, because it's such a pain to make at home -- all that stirring! I was a little skeptical about this recipe, but tried it anyway. The only change I made was to add some sliced mushrooms with the parmesan.

It wasn't exactly perfect risotto, with those separate but creamy grains of rice, but it was pretty close and incredibly easy!

I made focaccia bread, using my favorite pizza crust recipe, with a little olive oil and Italian herbs.

I had a glass of this with it.

Yum!

Stonewall

I was in Chicago yesterday and today for eight hours of meetings. Part of that time was knitter-friendly, so I got through two repeats of Stonewall. I love this pattern, I love this yarn (although Jessie apparently out of the Merino/Tencel) and I love the color, which is actually pretty close to what I see on my monitor -- maybe just a little deeper in real life.

ETA: And over the weekend, I took Bezzie's suggestion and finished the second Illini sock. Yay, FO!!!

Startitis

I have a serious case of startitis. This despite the fact that I've finally started the last chart of Daedelus and am back to beading fun:

You might remember that I've recently started a pair of socks, and a Christmas stocking.

Red Velvet kit from Judy's Colors
Nail polish: Boris & Natasha by OPI

Apparently, though, that wasn't enough.

A couple days ago, I cast on another beautiful Anne Hanson design, Stonewall, using Jessie's A Piece of Vermont Merino/Tencel in Long Time Gone.

I love Anne's designs and Jessie's yarns -- together, they're even better!

Last night, while digging through the knitting bin next to my chair, I pulled these out.

These are my Illini socks, begun over a year ago, right after I moved here, when I thought I'd be able to knit on the bus (nope, too crowded). It's Wendy's generic toe-up sock, knit from Scout's hand-dyed sock yarn in the Illini colorway. All that's left is a couple of inches of stockinette leg, a little ribbing, and a bind-off. So.... I knit a few rounds tonight.

And all the time, there are four skeins of Malabrigo Silky Merino, begging to be knit into a hat and small scarf....

Really more of a blue-green...

FO: Homemade Caramel Sauce

Ever since I read this post about homemade caramel sauce, I've been obsessed with the idea of making some. Even though I bake a lot and am a decent cook, I avoid candy making, because of some sort of candy-thermometer-fear. Well, despite the fact that homemade caramel sauce involves melting sugar, it doesn't use a thermometer. In fact, the melted sugar can apparently also melt thermometers!

So - tonight I did it!

I melted sugar, which isn't pretty at first

but smoothes out quickly.

Once it's dark and smells a little like burnt sugar (but not too burnt!) you add butter, which makes it foam up,

before you remove it from the heat and add the cream, which makes it foam up even more. I was a little bit busy stirring, so I didn't get a picture of that step.

The entire process took about 15 minutes!

The final product is very yummy -- I'll try to remember to take a picture of it when I put it to use!

Yes, I do still knit (and blog!)

Details on Ravelry

The Red Scarf is finished, soaked, and blocked. It ended up about 65 inches long. I really love it. I can definitely recommend the Cascade 220 Paints. It hasn't been mailed yet, since I found out that the deadline has been changed to December 15. (So, if you haven't finished your scarf, you still have time!)

I also cast on for my Christmas stocking but haven't really gotten far enough for a good photo. Did I tell y'all how last Christmas when I got to my mom's, I discovered that the stocking I had had for years had disappeared and been replaced with one of those tiny miniature stockings? It was the same size as the dog's stocking! Mom didn't know what had happened to mine, so I decided to knit one just for me. The good news is that there will be no Second Sock Syndrome. The bad news is that it's at least three times larger than a real sock!

I've also been working on Daedelus. I'm at the beginning of Chart 6, which means more beads. While I enjoy the beads, it really makes for poor travel/work knitting!

Back Home

In the last 10 days, I've driven to Mom's, then to St. Louis, where I got on a plane to Dallas. Coming back to St. Louis four days later, I drove to Iowa City, and 36 hours later, got into a car with two co-workers and drove eight hours to Troy, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Three days later (last night), we came back home. This weekend, I'll drive to Mom's again because the kitties have spent the last 10 days there, at "camp."

And I finished Shifting Sands (except for the blocking and mailing) and knit half a sock.

Leg of Hedera, in Socks that Rocks Mediumweight in Gypsum

The pattern is a little pattern-y for the colorway, I guess, but I like it anyway.

I had so much knitting time because both trips were for knitting-friendly conferences. The first, in Dallas, was for the annual conference of the South Central Chapter (SCC) of the Medical Library Association (MLA), and the Troy conference was for the Midwest Chapter of MLA. The first is my "old" chapter -- these are regional groups of MLA, so when you move, you may find yourself in a new chapter. However, I just can't quite let go of my old chapter -- it's full of good friends and good memories. My new chapter is good, too, and I even know some people in it, through work in "big" MLA. But so far, it doesn't feel like home, so I decided to attend both.

I wish I had taken decent pictures at either meeting. Although I don't have any good photos of people, this picture is indicative of the good time we had at SCC!

My new chapter had an event at the Detroit Institute of Arts, which is really impressive.

Diego Rivera mural


Amazing ceiling in the Main Hall

And don't worry -- we drank a little at this party, too!

I also returned from SCC believing I desperately need an iPhone. All that's stopping me is the knowledge that AT&T's service is really lousy on my side of town!

Pictures

I promised pictures yesterday so here they are:


My version of Shifting Sands, not quite done

And the same, up close. I love this pattern, and the yarn, too.

And here's Daedelus, up close. From a distance, it still looks like boiled ass, but up close, it's so pretty. Of course, it would have been prettier, if I'd taken out that pink lifeline....

Hallelujah!

For some reason, as I sat here watching the Illinois-Michigan game (Oskee-wow-wow!) and frantically working on my Red Scarf, I decided to visit their site, to make sure I was right in thinking the scarf needed to be mailed by October 15. And -- hallelujah! -- I was wrong! I have until October 31!

Over th last two weeks, work has infringed a lot on my personal time, including time actually at work last Saturday and tomorrow. Plus, I will be gone to back-to-back conferences from October 10-20. Well, I'll be back for about 36 hours around October 16, but that's just enough time to do laundry! So I thought I really needed to get this scarf done, including washing and blocking, by Friday, and I just didn't see how it would happen.

Now, I'm still aiming to have the knitting done, or very nearly so, by Friday, but I won't have to wash, block, and mail until after I'm back from my travels to Dallas, Texas and Troy, Michigan.

(And hopefully, there will be pictures tomorrow....)