Partial Hat and Supervising Cat

Evidently this is not the week for daily blogging, but every other day blogging. Sorry 'bout that. The two year old has caused all sorts of crisis this week, up to and including slugging his teacher at school! Not good. He got into a world of trouble, I went into embarrassment and depression and well, there you go.

But! All better now. I hope.

When a friend of mine requested a hat, I'm pretty sure he had no idea he would actually be getting it. I cast on two days ago and here's the results so far:

Oooo, String!

Have you ever noticed that when you try to take a picture of any woolly object, the cat comes out of the woodwork to help? Not the dogs, the cats. Why? What causes this? It's not like they're interested in helping, just supervising.

I tried to get her to smile in this one, but she wasn't having any of that "nonsense".

What can I say? She (along with the hubby) is a scrooge. Did I tell you that I got a whole lecture about how I shouldn't spend money on presents? That I spent too much on the kids and that he didn't want any presents himself 'cause we don't have any money? He does this every year. We've been married twelve years and I have gotten similar speeches every single year. Now wouldn't he be disappointed if Santa didn't bring him anything to unwrap this year!

Like I said, What a Scrooge.

Jewelry

Today was a day for making Christmas presents for both my sons' teachers as well as a little something for my best friend.

I packed the kids off to school and then hunkered down with a whole pile of beads and chains and these are the results:

First (and my favorite) is the BFF's necklace:

Glass Beads on antiqued findings - browns/blacks/bronzes

Second and Third: Bracelets for the Eldest's Teachers:



Fourth and Fifth: Bracelets for the Youngest's teachers. These two ladies actually deserve real gold for what they've had to put up with. But since I can't afford it, this will have to do.





Sorry for the blur in the last two. My camera hates me. But that's okay, it's being replaced on Christmas day. (A little Elf told me.)

State of the WIPs

Now that I've had a nice break knitting little things, it's time to get back to the two large projects on the needles.

First, the Zara Cabled Tunic:

This project is taking an eternity to knit. This pattern is not for the faint of heart. Really, I'm not kidding. There are a quadrillion cables to work through and it becomes quite tedious at time. Oh, and the gauge/pattern issues are not so good either. I'm working on it, albeit slowly. I have finished one whole sleeve:

In order to combat boredom (since for all intents and purposes is the third sleeve I've completed even if it is the only one I haven't frogged) I'm going to work on the Horizontal yoke section next. I'll get back to the other sleeve later when I have the stomach for it.

Edited to Add: I forgot to mention that the wrist pain that this project was causing me has been greatly reduced by finding a new way to hold/tension my yarn. I'll try and demonstrate it soon.

Second, The Thermal Vest:


This has also become tedious. Waffle stitch, even if it is done in dk weight instead of fingering, is still boring. The color is killing me now too. Winter is not the time to work with dark gray. However, the alpaca is so soft! This is coming along fairly well now, thanks to school car pool line knitting. I'll be sitting around on every monday night during my son's basketball practices from now until March, so I'm expecting this project to really take off (although I really shouldn't jinx myself by saying that.)



The good news is that a friend of mine has requested a hat, so before Christmas, that will have to get done. That means, whichever of the two projects above are bugging me most will be put down very soon. I suppose that's good news.

The bad news is that I've got Rogue waiting in the wings, but can't start it until one of these two big projects is finished. sigh.