Provisional Government

I fooled around with my first ever provisional cast on, also known as a tubular cast on. I had always shied away from projects that called for this technique and I could just kick myself now because it is a really useful and easy trick to have up your sleeve when knitting. Mom gave me this pattern for a hot water bottle cozy and I finally got around to making one with some souvenir stash from Helsinki as well as buttons from the harbor market. I didn't follow the pattern exactly so that I could fit the dimensions of my bottle, but this is a really simple and easy to follow/adjust pattern.

I just love yucky shades of green and this yarn was no exception: Naturwolle-Ingeborg Michels Gernsbach handspun 100g/100m. It's kind of a blurry picture but if I took a focused picture with a flash, the cables disappeared. This is kind of a busy yarn for cables but I just love it and it makes such a difference when the bottle is filled.

First of the season

I've been waiting for it to cool down and dry up around here to make the first frosted sugar cookies of the year. However, the day I'd set aside to bake these it was raining and they were in fact baked in 100% humidity. I had to let them sit out a bit longer after they were frosted but they behaved for me. I'm working a three night stretch and taking a few dozen every night. Oh how I love festive sprinkles!

Scrub Scrub Here...

Melissa and I had Crafty Fun Night over at Brenda's house the other day because Brenda is an invalid this week ;) I cut out 6 scrubs that night and have made a couple of those and a couple that I already had cut out.

We also hit Jo-Ann Fabrics and I got this sweet little pumpkin kitchen timer!

Overdue Commissions

About a thousand years ago, a co-worker of mine asked me to make a blanket for her granddaughter. Before I got around to making it for her, she left our floor but I ran into her and got her mailing address. I've had this fabric sitting in my living room where I've had to look at it every day for literally months...and this week finally put it together and mailed it this morning. The man at the Post Office said he'd quick get it to the mail carrier so she'll get it today!

My poor Aunt Mary Jo asked me a while back to knit a hat and mittens for her granddaughter to go with her new navy blue snow suit. They were meant to be for her birthday...in August. Once again, better late than never. This is Lion Brand Wool knit on size 4 needles. The hat was a smaller gauge version of the Le'Slouch hat pattern that I just love and the mittens came from my favorite source book Homespun, Handknit.

And of course the whole time I'm finishing up obligations, I'm getting impatient and want to start the next project. I was finishing up that hat and sitting there coveting this ball of yarn from my chair. It was a skein of Boku from Plymouth Yarn that I got up in Rochester because it looked like Noro and came with a free felted bag pattern. I'm a sucker for anything that comes with a free pattern! I was working on a Le'Slouch hat and couldn't help but think what a great hat that Boku would make. I knit it as long as I could and had maybe a yard or 2 left over but I think I'll give it to my niece because it isn't quite slouchy enough for an adult. That pattern with that yarn was just addictive.