These are not the best pictures, but will give you an idea of what has been happening in my knitting world.  On the left is a picture of Halcyon laid out for seaming – more seaming will happen today, with any luck, I will finish. 

And on the right is a Raglan Hat from JenLa.  They have uninvented a terrific pattern – it’s a keeper!  This picture is not nearly as nice as the one on their site – but there is something very, very special about this hat.  It is made from my very own handspun!  The fiber comes from an alpaca named Melissa and I bought it from a fellow spinning guild member.  It spun like a dream – was a pleasure to work with from beginning to end.  I have more fiber from this lady and am anxious to get started on it. 

I consider this the first item I have knitted from my own handspun – the fuzzy feet were techinically the first, but I felted them, and it was just a crazy experience from the awkward spinning straight through to the felting.  Even wearing those slippers was ill advised.  Subsequent handspun has been given away to my knitting niece and other has found its way into my stash.  There was something magical about working with fiber that I spun myself and I will be on the lookout for more opportunities to use my handspun.

**that ever so creepy hat model is in fact a snowman cookie jar that was given to me by a girlfriend.  it’s freaking me out! 

So Vicki and Cara are doing this 10 things meme.  Since I am too lazy to take a picture of that sweater (I promised Snowball that I would post a pic, lucky she is a plucky gal and has dealt with far more crushing disappointments) I have put together a five little known things about Vicki and Cara list.  These are observations made as their traveling companion to Rhinebeck ……

Cara:

1. she will mock your giant bowl of french fries – and then help herself
2. she is fussy about her vanilla milkshakes
3. she knows and will sing words to Barry Manilow songs
4. she will apologize for things beyond her control
5. she will go to a Starbucks in the morning and not order coffee

Vicki:

1. she sleeps in vintage looking nightgowns and takes Little House comparisons with good grace
2. even after terrible traveling delays – nightmarish really, she will maintain a good mood
3. her voice is deep and gravely – not at all like she sounds on her blog
4. she has never had funnel cake!  wtf??
5. she doesn’t curse —– too much.  (meaning, as much as me)

when you are knitting, do you ever pause in your work and scratch yourself with your needle?

your head!  good grief people!

well, I am here to tell you   Knock it Off!!

Last week, I had my usual hair appointment.  Not only is Luanne a hairdresser extrodinarre, but she is a friend too – which means we can speak to each other in a certain way.  When Luanne noticed the gigantic red lump on my head she said —- "WTF??!!"  and then freaked me out with crazy talk about ringworm.  eeeeewwwwww!  Of course, I had noticed this lump.  I had wondered about it mildly and had scratched at it with my knitting needle!

I came home with a great cut and color, but a wicked case of the heeby geebies.  I called and made a Dr’s appointment and proceeded to look at my lump in every mirror in our house and show my lump to anyone who would look at it.  The reaction was one of universal horror. I spent the next couple of days trying not to touch up, but being perversly unable to.

I looked up ringworm on the computer —– eeeewwwww, does it look like that?  check every mirror again ……. well, maybe…….. as a way of trying to make me feel better and divert my attention, Boar said maybe it was cancer.  (I love him, but he’s a moron).  My former best-friend-in-the-world-for-as-long-as-I’ve-lived said that finally my horns were emerging.  biatch.

While waiting for the dr’s appointment, I cleverly managed to also get a head cold so I could present a complete picture of miserable health.  So there you have me in the dr’s office with the whole pi shawl and unnoticed socks.

On Monday the Dr. said she thought it was a wart and that I should see a dermatologist.  Slightly better than ringworm, but still a big eeeewwwww.  How the hell did I get a head wart?  I have never even heard of such a thing!!

I saw the dermatologist on Tuesday.  I have never been to a dermatologist before.  This one seemed very competent, but a bit at a loss for words.  She took one look and said I had a keratosis.

To me, this sounds highly terrible and I say, what is that??

she hmmms and haws, says it’s nothing, just a common thing as we age …..

I said – are you telling me I have a barnacle????

and she said – pretty much.

I’ve been scraped – and put into dry dock.

wonder what the gyno will find —- probably a vast expanse of moss or something…… mushrooms perhaps?

Guess what??!!  Halcyon is blocking!  it’s true, it’s true – the sweater is almost done – only seaming and the neck edge to go!

So I have been thinking about this Pi Shawl.  It occurs to me that the knitter lady might not have heard of a Pi Shawl.  That unless her pattern specifically stated Pi Shawl, she would think she was simply knitting a circular shawl.  Furthermore, when she runs into me at the Dr’s office and I ask her about Pi, she might not have thought I was a knitter, but instead thought I was a mathematician!  who knows ….. but the end of the story is that no matter how I contorted myself, she never noticed my socks. 

Also the other end of the story is that seeing this Pi Shawl in person has confirmed what I always suspected — those things are weird looking.  I just don’t understand the point of it — you go to the trouble of knitting a gigantic circle but to wear it you have to double it over.  Why not just knit a triangular shawl?

Furthermore, I think it only looks good on Pre-raphealite models posing in field of larkspur.  On post-raphealite ladies wearing velour tracksuits in dr’s offices – not so good.

and babies, I am only a tracksuit away……