A little stuffed lion.

I knit this little guy in about two evenings, seamed him in another, then put on his mane on. Four days from cast-on to finish. Not bad. Of course, now I have to figure out what I want to knit next. That's the trouble with finishing a project. I guess I'll start digging through my queue.

Until next time, Friends!

I'm having a little trouble finishing things.

On Saturday I got the mittens mostly finished - all I have left to do is the thumbs. (There's no photo, because I didn't think of it until it was dark. Next time. I promise.) It really isn't that much to do, but I'm not really feeling it just now. I'm hoping I'll feel like it this weekend - I have a day off because there are a few horse races coming up. One of them is described as "the most exciting two minutes in sports." Anyway, there will be plenty of leisure drinking time, so I'll definitely be getting some knitting in. But it might have to be something mindless, with endless stockinette.

Thank goodness I cast on for Raindance yesterday. My husband and I had to go to Indianapolis, so I had a good 90 minutes of knitting time each way. This sweater is short sleeved, with really interesting construction. I'm knitting it with the SMC Select that I picked up while I was there for my triathlon two weeks ago. What I'm most excited about, though, is that I'm making a size large for myself, rather than the XXL that my last two sweaters have been! I've already knit my way through a ball and a half of yarn, so it's moving right along.

The other thing I'm having trouble finishing is the giant stuffed bunny I started on a whim on Saturday after I got off work. I put in one movie, then another, and the next thing I knew, I'd knit up all of it except for the second ear. The next morning, I started the second ear, got halfway through and ran out of yarn. Luckily, a friend has some of the yarn, so I'll be purchasing half a ball from her. I did manage to get the pink bits duplicate stitched onto the first ear, which looks pretty good, so as soon as I have more yarn we'll be able to call this bunny finished. It'll probably only be a total of 7 hours of actual knitting on this project. Quick and easy with big yarn and big needles!

Well, that's about all I've got for tonight. Until next time, y'all.

Chugging along.

Last time I posted, I wrote about all the ends I was weaving in in anticipation of being able to felt them this weekend. Since my workweek is Tuesday through Saturday, my weekend starts tomorrow, which is when I expect to fire up the washer to get all those pieces whipped into shape. Once that's done and all the pieces are dry, I'll be able to start putting the bag together: I have to put on the handles, put in the plastic canvas reinforcements, attach the feet, then sew a liner and attach the zipper. The zipper will probably be the trickiest bit - I'm not especially confident sewing on zippers, but I guess there's a first time for everything.

Also since last time, I took some better photos of the Glacier gloves. They're not even blurry! I haven't done much more knitting on them because I made a mistake and I have to have my head in the right place to tackle fixing a messed up cable that I should have known better than to mess up. It's my own fault for not paying attention to the chart.

Since I had finished my commuting project, I decided that I wanted to cast on something easy, so on Wednesday evening I started another Little Owl baby hat. I'm making it out of the same yarn I used last time, Rowan Lima. It's such a lovely, soft yarn! What's surprising me about this project is how fast the knitting is going. All I have left to do is knit another inch of the hat, then I can do the ribbing around the face and add the eye and talon details. My friends at knit night suggested that it would be hysterical if the talons held a dead mouse, so I think I'm going to knit up one of Ysolda Teague's Mousies and consider it a baby toy. Maybe I can find some kind of rattle insert which might make it a little more fun for whichever baby gets this hat.

Well, that's all I have for now, next time I hope I'll have some photos of some felted hydrangeas as well as more progress on the gloves. It's beginning to get cold around here! Until next time, Friends.

It's Friday and I haven't really finished anything.

Unless you count the Kusha Kusha scarf that I got so sick of seeing unfinished that I knit another inch, then bound off. It's probably not quite long enough, but it'll just have to do. I expect that I'll felt it this weekend and decide after that what I'm going to do with it. I still have a whole cone of stainless steel yarn and about half the cone of merino left, so I might look around on the Rav to see if there's anything else to do with it. It might be a good, long while though.

In other news, the rest of the yarn for my Hydrangeas bag arrived this week. Three of the colors were exactly as called for in the pattern, and the fourth was a little darker. At first, I wasn't sure if it was going to work, but after seeing it in daylight this afternoon, I think it will be alright. I'll likely wind up the yarn so I can knit all the fidldy bits of flowers on my bus rides to and from work. I still have to get the bag handles and a zipper, but I have plenty of time for that.

As for the Snowy Owl, I've completed its ears and have closed the top. My friend, Mary, loaned me her size 15 double points, which made it easy to finish up. All I have left to do is knit the eyes and the beak and it will be ready to be loved by a special little kid. I think I have enough yarn left to make another one, so I might get to have one for myself!

I've also made a lot of progress on the Schmidt vest; the front shoulders are nearly done, which means I'll soon move on to the ribbing around the neck and the arm holes. The project continues to get admiring glances from folks on the bus, which is nice. I love that people show an interest in knitting as well as appreciation for hand knit goods. Most people mention that they had a grandmother or an aunt who knit and how they liked the stuff they made. Maybe they'll decide to pick up some needles themselves. It's possible.

Well, that's it for tonight. Until next time, friends.

This project-starting thing keeps happening to me.

I can't stop starting new projects. It seems that I'm compelled to make new stuff. In the past few days, I've started a felted bag and a stuffed owl. I've thought about starting some baby booties. I've also thought about starting a baby hat. I feel like I've exercised a great deal of restraint having begun only two new projects.

The felted bag is a Noni pattern by Nora J. Bellows, Hydrangeas. I bought the pattern at least two years ago, but probably more like three, when I was on vacation up in Michigan. Back then, I didn't have the skill level to complete the project, but I knew that I would definitely want to make it someday, so I shelled out $8 for it. Of course it called for 5 different colors of Cascade 220, none of which ever seemed to be available in any yarn shop I'd ever been in. I tried to buy the yarn for it at Broad Ripple Knits when I was there last weekend, but there was only one color that was even close to what was specified in the pattern, so that's what I bought. I ended up ordering the rest of the yarn from Webs, which should be arriving any day. It doesn't look like much, yet, but once it's felted and the flowers are added it will look awesome.

The stuffed owl is a total impulse start. I was goofing off, looking at my friends' activity on Ravelry, when I saw that one of them had favorited the Big Snowy Owl pattern from Purl Soho. The pattern called for Blue Sky Alpacas' Bulky yarn, but I happened to have a bunch of Cascade Lana Grande leftover from when I made Jared Flood's Umaro blanket last winter. I cast on yesterday afternoon, and by the time I realized it was bedtime, I had knit all the way to the top of the head. I stuffed it this afternoon and expect that I will do the ears tomorrow night at Stitch 'n' Bitch. This is a fast, easy project. I may even have enough yarn to make one more, which might take care of some of these baby projects.

The other projects I've considered starting are from Ysolda Teague's Whimsical Little Knits, which I bought last weekend. I've had Tiny Shoes in my queue for ages, and I've been thinking I might also want to make myself and Ishbel, since everybody (& their brother) on Ravelry seems to have made one. The baby hat I've been considering in another Little Owl Baby Hat by Irina Poludnenko. I made one last winter for my friend Kate's little girl and I think it's high time I made another. I think I'll make it in Rowan Lima again, but this time in brown & natural.

Well, that seems to be it for tonight. I hope to have a finished objects post soon, so keep your eyes peeled, y'all. Until next time.