Craft Day Saturday

Lovely, Lovely Lavender

First off, thanks for all the well wishes for my aching head! Headache ceased as of Friday morning, and I'm left with a sore throat and swollen glands...but other than that don't feel bad at all. So something is going on in there but nothing major to take notice of!

As is becoming tradition on Saturdays now, hubby takes the day off to dig (continuing work on our back yard landscaping which turned into a bigger job than either of us planned), and I take the day off to 'craft'. I can't show a picture of the main thing I worked on today cuz it is the second part of S's birthday gift...all will go in the mail Monday so should be able to post pictures later in the week. But I do have pictures of a finished object as promised (normal picture and then I was feeling in an arty mood so I posed with gloves for hubby which is not something I do often...love being behind the camera, hate being in front). My fingerless gloves...again, probably not everyone's style but these were intended to be functional and warm...just classed up a bit to be stylish (which again, being stylish is not really my thing but I liked the gloves okay?). And a note to Mom...don't look too close at the hat.
The specs:
Pattern: Lace-Up Fingerless Gloves from AlterKnits
Yarn: Jo Sharp Aran Tweed (Wool/Silk/Cashmere) in Tartan; used 1.25 skeins (~120 yrds).
Modifications: None

I also did what I warned you about...I cast on for the Surplice Lace Top...I had a bit of a problem the first time I cast on but now I'm straight and moving right along. I think though that there is no way I'll get this done for this season...I really like the pattern and I'm sure I'll stay interested but on the other hand, I think it may drive me a little bit insane. That on top of the fact that I don't knit near as fast as some of you (like the Yarn Harlot who can knit a freakin sweater in half a day...geez!), don't expect a finished shot any time soon!

Otherwise, I will say two things...I MUST get some better needles (like bamboo or something). Right now I'm knitting on the junky metal ones that paint comes off of after knitting about 2 rows. My LYS is actually a quilt store with a little corner of yarn and they carry no straight needles at all, nor even bamboo circulars. So next time I head to a big city, I'm at least picking up a pair for this lace top. Second thing is the 'lace' picture in the last post is going to be a shawl. I'll post more soon on it as I continue to progress but I found another reason I really like the shawl. First line of directions:
CAST ON 5 STITCHES. 5!!!!! stitches.
First line of Surplice Lace Top:
CAST ON 116 STITCHES!!!!. That is just for the back piece by the way. So shawl is very cool yarn, very pretty pattern, very addicting pattern...and you only have to cast on 5 stitches!! So nice.

Back to work tomorrow. Good thing about a holiday week...everybody else takes the week (or a portion of it) off so I'm pretty much 'left alone' to do my own work which I desperately need to do! A meeting Monday am, a few hours Tuesday to help finish up a project and otherwise, I am bound and determined to get the rest of this data entered finally and move on to bigger and better things (supposed to have a draft manuscript of a decade's worth of body condition on wild elk herds across the west done before fall...ha. funny, funny. but I have to get it done as quickly as possible).

I leave you with some shots I took a few weeks ago...I broke out my film camera (oh, how I love my film camera) and took some pictures of a red-tailed hawk hanging around...a bit grainy going through the scanning process but she's a pretty one eh?