Day 59: my many projects

As promised, here's a picture of the two completed wristwarmers. Aren't they cute?


Detail close-up of the picot bind-off.


And here's the same for the ruffles.


And my new knitting project!
I'm knitting a rug. Knitting needles are not like wire gauge; as the number goes up, the circumference of the needle gets bigger. So, the pattern called for #19 needles. My tension is pretty loose, anyway, I could have gotten away with #18 or possibly #17 needles and still gotten about the same size finished piece as someone else using #19 needles. Unfortunately, the largest size I have #15. I know it's hard to tell, maybe I'll take a picture of my holding the needles, so you can see it next to a person, but #15 are huge. And still not big enough.
But I'm doing it anyway, because I need a rug in the kitchen. So I got sheets from DI, and I've been ripping them up, and knitting with them. So, you can see the beginnings of the rug, the needles, the ball of "yarn", and the sheets, which I need to continue ripping ...


And one last project, a new project: I gathered willow branches (by picking them up from where the tree had shed them like a pine sheds needles), and I want to weave them into a basket. I want to make a basket for my bike. It would make my bike ten times more useful than it already is, if I could pack things on it. I figure, if this project goes well, I'll be able to weave a couple more baskets for use as panniers (saddlebags), and then I'll have three baskets.
But for now, I have a bunch of willow branches on my floor.


end-of-the-month edit: This month, I posted 63 pictures (I only fell short of the-end-of-January's prediction by 7 pictures!), which makes 143 pictures so far this year. Also, this month holds the record so far: on Day 49 I posted 15 pictures, which beats last month's record of 11 pictures on Day 19. Both of these days were really good camera-days for me, not just for number of pictures, but just getting really good shots, so yay for record days!
So, my goal for March is to not have any no-picture days. That's it. I may take a picture of my carpet, or something, but I will have a picture per day.

Day 58: spring flowers

Yay, spring! Yay flowers!

These ones I did not plant, they just started growing out front near our door. I don't know what kind of flower they are.


And these are the flowers I planted last year. I believe this picture represents all three of the bulbs I planted: the daffodils, the crocuses, and the other ones that I thought were bluebells, but maybe aren't.


Closer-up.


First we forgot where we planted those bulbs last year
And then we forgot that we planted at all
Then we forgot what plants are altogether
And I blamed you for my freezing and forgetting and
The nights were long and cold and scary
Can we live through February?
February, Dar Williams

Day 57: bushy

This did not turn out the way I wanted it to: I was aiming for sharp front leaves, and blurry background. I tried several times to achieve this, and somehow failed to.

Day 56: no pictures

Still no pictures, and still feeling a bit better.
Actually, I should have had pictures. I finished the pair of wristwarmers on Tuesday, and I remember taking a picture.
I don't know what happened to it! Oh, well, I'll take a picture soon, and put it up ...

Day 55: no pictures

Yet again, no pictures today, and I have no real excuse, because I was starting to feel a little better by this time. But oh, well.

Day 54: panda & bear (cavies)

So, here's the first time I took them out of the cage for an extended time period (read: I was up and about and out of bed long enough to turn on my computer, and do some of my other normal activities). I needed to sex them.
My mom had told me on the day she dropped them off, that she was "still pretty sure they were both females". I had looked a little bit before this, but with my computer on, I was able to check out the website that details how to properly sex your cavies (cavyspirit.com).
I was able to get the penis to extrude on both of them, plus I felt it (as a little ridge) beneath their fur in both cases. They are officially both male.

So, here's their introduction:
This is Panda, so-named for the black panda-like circles around his eyes. He's kind of shy; he hides more than his brother does, and he hates being taken out of his cage. When I take him out, if there's not someplace immediately available to curl up in, he just sits out in the open, frozen like a deer in headlights.


And this is Bear. He's bigger than Panda, and also more adventurous. He'll explore. I think he's actually looking for a place to hide, but he at least LOOKS for a place to hide, instead of just standing there.


They are both ridiculously adorable. My favorite thing about cavies, and the thing that made me fall in love with them, back when I first met my sister's piggies, is the noises they make. It's a sort of cooing, completely foreign to people who are used to mice (as I was, since I'd had a few growing up). They only make the sound when they are relaxed, and so they didn't for the first few days, at least when I was around. They've gotten used to me by now, and they'll coo around me now, and it's adorable.
I officially love cavies.

Day 53: fancy knitting

So, I've been anticipating making these for a while, practicing with yarn I didn't care so much about, and then when I finally started the actual pair, I'd work on it for a bit, and then rip it out and start over, etc.

So, I started, from scratch, on the bus ride over to Magna on Sunday at about noonish, maybe a little earlier. I finished one wristwarmer sometime before the end of game, which was about 11pm.


Here's a close-up of the cables:


They're ruffley, the bind-off is cool and not a straight line (the instructions called it a picot bind-off), and it's allover cables, which is my new favorite thing to do with knitting. It is fancy knitting at its finest.