Minor projects

These are the projects I've been working on around the larger projects so far this year. They are all "purse tidies" made with various techniques. Top left-to-right is an entrelac business card holder made with two types of handspun, a self-striping bag for brush and comb, and bottom left is a notebook sleeve in a slip-stitch twill pattern. The first two are finished and the last needs only the final repeat completed and the end sewn.

I got roses!

My parents are so sweet. These were on my front porch this afternoon. They smell really nice and I'm very glad Eldest Kidlet brought them in before they froze!

A comedy ?! of, well..something

The colorful additions to my last couple of posts show that everything did eventually work out all right. It was just 48 hours of *head/desk* moments to get there.

Sunday I decided that I would indeed get pictures of the various projects before mailing them on Monday. To this end I got up and went to get the camera, which is where I met my first roadblock. The camera wasn't where I was sure it would be. In fact, I spent the entire rest of the day looking in one place or another as possibilities came to mind. At about 11:00 p.m. I found a camera, but I didn't recognize it and it wasn't in the camera case I was looking for.

The next day I asked my son if he had any ideas where the camera had gotten to, not that I thought he'd taken it, and he showed me the digital that was in the game cabinet. I recognized that one even less, which meant that the one I'd found earlier was indeed the one I'd been looking for. Yes, somehow a person who hates cameras has ended up with two digitals, both gifts (I suppose in the hope that I would take pictures for the grandparents).

What might next have been an obstacle wasn't, I guess something went right in the process after all. I had gotten a big package of new batteries even though I couldn't find the camera. Son and I had a bad moment after putting the batteries in though, as the camera wouldn't turn on until we opened and closed the battery holder multiple times (possibly due to visible corrosion from the former batteries). There was finally a beep and we were able to see the pictures from our last family trip to Yellowstone so I was feeling optimistic.

I was feeling so optimistic that I decided to have Son help me get pictures of items before he went to school this morning. To get started I wanted to upload and check a couple of the older pictures so I sat at the computer and got out the connector cable. I felt physically ill as I realized that what I had was an adapter cable not the one belonging to the camera.

After a bit of muttering and general grumpiness I decided to go ahead and take the pictures, and even let Son take a few of the critters, and just hope that I would remember where the cable could be. Failing a flash of insight I hoped that Radio Shack might carry cables for six-year-old cameras since otherwise our Yellowstone photos were probably toast which did make me sort of sad.

At about 2:00 p.m. today I decided to try the box where I'd found the camera, which is less obvious than it seems since the camera wasn't supposed to have been in a cardboard packing box to start with. To my partial surprise the cable was indeed there mixed in with some of John's old pens and general what-do-I-do-with-this sort of stuff.

Now we'll see what sort of picture taking monster AVI's challenge has created as I use the links between my project page on Ravelry and this blog to let the world know the wonders that are my projects. Bwhahahaha...um..yeah.

Done again

I was able to finish Judy's scarf today. Staying up until 2:00 a.m. this morning working on it certainly gave me a jump-start. I ended up using a lacy entrelac/modular square pattern that was a combination of my various failed attempts at Peggy's scarf and a pattern from an entrelac book I ordered from Amazon after Christmas. I thought I might need to block this one but it seems open enough, as well as large enough, and the crochet edge seems to hold the shape well. I also don't know if it would be dry in time to mail on Monday with everyone else's items if I were to block it now.

The kids just recently finished their "thank you" cards for Christmas and I'm thinking about just adding them into the various packages instead of stamping them individually. The people getting packages represent 3/5ths of the people getting thank you cards so it certainly seems more efficient to send the cards with the knitting. My only concern is if it would seem rude.

Next up is a side-to-side knitted vest for Peggy based, loosely, on a pattern from Knit Kimono . I've never done a sideways garment before so this will be interesting. Particularly since pretty much everything about the pattern but the general shape has been changed. I need to call and get measurements before I start because I have the feeling that a couple of swatches are going to be needed. Fortunately, the vest isn't a tailored fit but it still needs the length and width to be pretty close to right if it's going to be comfortable to wear.

I was wrong. Yay!

I did finish knitting Peggy's scarf today and, since I'm not going to block it, I'm done. This is the first time I've made a dove-tail style scarf but, since that's pretty much just a key-hole scarf with two holes in a line instead of just one, it was a pretty basic change.

I'm hoping to mail both mom and Peggy's packages on Monday if it doesn't snow too much. If I were a wise blogger I would have my son get pictures of both the scarf and vest before sending them on. In the highly unlikely event I actually do that, I'll add the pictures to these two posts.

My next main project is a handspun scarf for one of Peggy's sisters who is always very kind and generous to us at Christmas even though she has little of her own. I'm hoping to put all my false starts from the last scarf to use in this one. A savy marketer would also take a picture of this scarf once it's finished. I just need to get my desire to show off to be stronger than my intense dislike of our cameras. Would a rum and cola be appropriate in this situation as well? Somehow it seems unlikely.

One down

I finished mom's Christmas vest although I am cheating a little as I'm sending her three crocheted buttons and she can choose how many she wants to use and where exactly to place them. Now I'm on to my MIL's B-day scarf which I think I've finally decided on a pattern for. The two ounces of mohair and wool fiber didn't spin up in to nearly as much yarn as I was expecting so I've been trying to figure out ways to add in another yarn, much as I did with mom's vest. Unfortunately, this has led to about half a dozen false-starts and has put me rather behind my hoped-to-be-done deadline, IOW there's no way I'm going to have it finished for her birthday, two days from now, much less sent. I think I've found a lace pattern though that will accomodate the original yarn and still make a significant sized scarf.

Shadow?

Well, it was sunny here when I woke up. I don't know if Missouri has an official groundhog but I read on I-can't-remember-which-blog that the results for the country was no shadow.

For some reason my attempts to cut/paste the url for this picture are failing. I found it at Bing but the origin is blamcast.net