Finishing the Fishies

I'm very, very close to finishing another project.

This is very nearly a finished set of Fiber Fish Mittens, a project I started last winter. All I have to do is weave in a whole bunch of ends, and embroider the fishy eyes.


Honestly, I'll be glad to see the end of this project. It hasn't been going so well lately. I had to re-do the thumb gusset three times to get it to where it would fit. And it's still not perfect. Then I had to rip out and re-do the decreases for the head, because it was crooked on my hand.


But it's worse than that. Right now I hate every single thing about this project, including the pattern, the yarn, the designer, the dyer, mittens, picking up stitches, the needles, weaving ends, the shop where I bought my supplies, and the color green. I'm almost to the point of hating fish - which would be crazy - Aaron points out that you can sit at any spot in our home and see at least three fishy things.

I'm not even sure why I hate it so much. It's a perfectly nice pattern, and a lovely yarn. I think I may be getting just a bit discouraged. At least it's almost finished.

And I have other knitting to distract me. This is Phaedra, the January-February sock for River Knits' Sock Club. Michelle says the design was inspired by the Kauni Cardigan I'm knitting, so I kind of have to make them. They're even a stashbuster - she wrote the pattern for the Kureyon Sock yarn, and I'd bought a skein on a whim awhile ago. They'll be somewhat of a finicky pattern, but I think they'll look neat when they're done.


I've also - finally - started my wedding shawl. I bought the yarn almost immediately after Aaron proposed, but it's taken me awhile to decide on a pattern. After hours, if not months, of browsing Ravelry, I decided on A Day in Venice. I like this pattern because you knit the center, and pick up stitches for he border - allowing me to tailor to the border to my wedding dress. I hadn't bought it at the time I chose and started the pattern, but that's changed now. You're not, however, going to see pictures of it!

Valentine's Day

I spent the weekend visiting Aaron and celebrating Valentine's day.

Look what he had for me when he got home!


And look what else he had waiting for me! I haven't started reading yet, since burying myself in a knitting book didn't seem like a romantic way to spend Valentine's Day. Not even if it's the Yarn Harlot.


There were goodies for Aaron, too. Here's the Secret Project, before felting...


...and after.

It's a Cat Bordhi Moebius Basket, made with Cascade 220.


I meant for it to be filled with goodies, but there were more goodies than basket. I bought some Mexican Hot Chocolate from K. Dees Coffee, and then I made some savory muffins. He has just 40 minutes for lunch two days a week, and I worry that he won't have time to eat. So I made him some Confetti Muffins and some Deviled Ham Muffins, so he'll have something to eat in a hurry.

He still gets the basket - it's fun to play with, even if it only holds a few muffins.

They Are Not Raccoons.

We're being invaded. My back yard is full of squirrels, who have been happily dining on all the seed that's fallen out of the bird feeder. I think they're cute, but Oscar thinks THEY ARE EVIL AND MUST BE BARKED AT! All day.


Today they knocked down the bird feeder and chewed a hole in it. And Oscar barked at them a lot more. It's a good think I'm a sucker for cute.

Apparently I'm also a sucker for starting new projects - I cast this one on yesterday, which makes two in three days. This is probably the last picture I'll show for awhile, because it's something of a surprise, but it's sufficiently unrecognizible in this picture that it's safe to post.


It's good to have some big, thick knitting. I've been plagued by migraines since Sunday, and haven't really been able to do anything that requires a lot of thought or dexterity. I hope that changes soon.

New Sock Club Year

I have, I think, been doing fairly well on my Winter WIP Workdown plan. So far I've only cast on one new project, and I've finished it. But that's about to change.

Last year, I did not finish a single Sock Club sock. I only started two. That makes me sad, because I've really wanted to keep up with Sock Club, so I can explore patterns and yarns that I might not pick up on my own.

But now it's a new year, and so it's a new set of socks. So I'm off to a racing start, with these Phaedra socks, designed by Michelle. She was inspired by the Kauni Cardigan, so I'll wind up with socks that look something like my sweater. Not that they'll match - she designed the pattern to use the Kureyon sock yarn, so I'm virtuously using stash, but I'm not going to color-coordinate.


The cardigan is inching its way towards being finished. I have a neckband now. I also picked out buttons yesterday, so as long as I'm able to get more (Jo-Ann's doesn't carry large quantites of any button, for some strange reason) I'll be able to button up the finished cardigan. Once it's finished, anyway.