Ladies and Gentlemen...

Well, all right, mostly ladies (Dave? Are you out there?), we have a winner! But I'm holding out on you until I have a bit more mitten done, so I can show you instead of telling you. Since way more than ten of you guessed, there will be a random drawing, and you can still enter before midnight Saturday. All of the guesses have been good, and some have given me ideas, so if you still want to enter, tell me what motif I should use on my next pair of mittens. (Please use the previous post so I can keep track of all the entries in one place.)

Who Knows Where the Time Goes

So I've been a bit quiet lately, to the point where people are starting to wonder if I still exist. I am fine, we are all fine, even the cats are fine, as well as feline. And I was starting to write a fairly whiny post about my work crunch and how it keeps being winter, which I may pick back up at some point (you can hardly wait, right?), but at the moment I have some business to take care of, and before I do that I will show you a picture of an actual FO. Yes, I have been knitting, and I've finally managed to make something for my husband, who doesn't wear sweaters because they keep him too warm and likes the white athletic socks they sell at CVS.


It's an earwarmer in the Sunday Brunch stitch pattern. If it's not actively snowing, earwarmers work for him, because he is always warm — he will lounge on the bed in his underwear while I huddle in flannel pj's under three or four layers of bedding — and this way he can lose heat through the top of his head without freezing his ears.

Pattern: cast on a multiple of 4 sts to fit the relevant head (take a gauge swatch first: Sunday Brunch pulls in a lot), join into a round, work Sunday Brunch stitch pattern for 4-5 inches or however wide you want it, bind off. There is, alas, no perfect bind-off for 2x2 rib afaik — if you know of one, for heaven's sake speak up — I used the tubular bind-off for 2x2 rib given in Priscilla Gibson-Roberts's Simple Socks Plain and Fancy.

Now, about that other business... you'll never guess what I just noticed: it's my third blogiversary today. Yay! I managed to miss my first two, and almost missed this one as well, but looked at the calendar in time.

I'm trying to think of something either witty or deep to write about What Blogging Means to Me, and my mind is a blank. It does not help that I've read several excellent posts on the topic lately. I may try again later, but I'd be remiss not to mention what lovely readers and commenters I have. Couldn't have done it without you. Well, I could have, but I wouldn't have: being a voice crying in the wilderness is not my idea of a good time. So much do I appreciate you that I'm celebrating my blogiversary in traditional fashion by having a contest. (Entrants are warned that I can be extremely slow about sending out prizes, as Abigail could tell you, but I do get to it eventually.)

Here's the gimmick: I'm working right now on designing a pair of mittens. They're going to be stranded in two colors, I've already picked a motif, and I want you to guess what it is. (It's not reindeer. Reindeer mittens are lovely, but reindeer live where it's even colder than it is here.) Leave a comment with your guess before midnight Saturday; the first correct guesser who didn't get inside information (sorry, Ruth) will win a prize, and if I get at least ten guesses I will do a random drawing for another prize.

Ten on Tuesday: Special Blogslacker Edition

Hello again, everyone! No, I did not leave the planet, but that sure went fast: I thought I'd blog again in a day or two, and next thing I know almost two weeks have flowed by. About 20 minutes ago I looked up, noted the time, and said to Grant, "Crud, I missed spinning." Sorry about that, ladies: maybe in another two weeks I'll have my head on straight. Herewith, therefore, my own spin, as it were, on Ten on Tuesday.

Ten Things I Didn't Blog About Since I Last Blogged

1. We said goodbye to the Ohio crew. We had a great time, and we were sorry to leave, but we did discover that flying with Taz is a lot easier than we'd feared — so we're already thinking about going back next year.
   
   
   
2. We flew home.
   
   
   

   my son the pack mule
   
   
   

   flying high
   
   
   

   just a plane knitter
   
   
   

   welcome home
   
   

3. I spun at St. Distaff's Day.
   
   
   

   my friend Debbie and her lovely pin
   
   
   

   my other friend Debbi and her sherpa
   
   

   Crystal, newly aspinnilated
   
   
   

   Penny and friend
   
   

4. We shoveled snow.
   
5. I finished Miss B's scarf. One of these days I will get her to model it.
   
6. We shoveled more snow.
   
7. We celebrated Grant's birthday. Happy birthday, honey!
   
8. I discovered that my fatter jeans (my fat jeans having been retired long ago) don't fit.
   
9. I went on a diet. Sort of. I am being aware of what I eat, and I have desisted from snarfing up all the available pie, cake, cookies, candy, and other assorted carbolicious treats. For the last six months I don't know what was with me, but, not to mince words, I ate like a pig. I am setting a modest goal: get back into my fatter jeans. Then we'll see.
   
10. I am still working on the top-down hat that I started, yikes, before Christmas.
    
    
    I'm afraid it might be still a bit too big, but it's now within the realm of fitting a human head. I may decrease a bit before starting the ribbing, which could give it a slightly fungoid appearance, but this is the joy of making things up as you go.

Whew. I think that's everything, more or less.

That Didn't Last Long

Sometime soon I will take a break, really, but I can't resist the opportunity to do a post with actual knitting content. Before I get to that, however, in the life's-little-ironies department: I decided a couple of weeks ago what my Z would be and that I would post it on the last day of the year. Ever since we arrived at Ellen's I've been trying to get a picture of a sleeping dog to go with all the sleeping-cat pix I already had. I didn't think it would be hard, since there are three dogs and all of them like to curl up and snuggle, but every time I got the camera near them they would perk up and look at me alertly.


This was the scene that greeted me this morning. Apparently the dogs held New Year's Eve revels of their own while no humans were looking.



I finally finished Miro and gave it to my niece G, who seems quite taken with it, judging from the fact that she hasn't taken it off since I gave it to her six hours ago. (Technically G is Grant's niece, but I'm happy to claim as a relative anyone who accepts knitted gifts so graciously.)


And I've started a new scarf for Miss B. The pattern is my best approximation of one we saw in the LYS; it's not exactly right, but it's close.