I've been doing stuff. Mostly knitting. (I'll spare you the food poisoning story. Be glad.)
The main pieces of Bias are knit. I need to weave endless ends, block, seam a shoulder, pick up and knit the neck, seam the rest of the sweater.
I also finished Mom's latest pair of socks:
Nothing particularly spectacular about them - pretty much identical (the upper cuff is off by a bit, because the first half of the yarn had a knot in it, making everything after the middle upper of the heel a titch off.) I used Kim Salazar's figure-8 toe and short-row heel instructions, then just did a 3x1 rib up the sock with about an inch of 1x1 rib for the cuff, and did the usual decrease for mom's socks (k1, p1, m1, repeat until out of stitches, binding off as I go.)
Then I finished up the Ruana Thingie:
Essentially my own pattern. The friend I knit this for gave me a poncho pattern that was similar to what she wanted, and other than square ends and a vague use of dimension, I totally ignored the pattern. I changed the yarn, the gauge, the number of stitches cast on, the stripe pattern, the border pattern, added a border to the bottom edge, changed it from two pieces seamed to one piece, etc. Would I wear it? No, but she loves it.
You may have noticed that the edge of the ruana is cut off in both pictures. I tried to remedy the issue, but my camera chose to start taking pictures like this while I was attempting to take more ruana pictures. I had it on 2 shot timer and only the first picture worked. After checking HP's website (a total blank, ha ha ha) and communicating with HP's customer service (rapid and extremely helpful), the camera is now back at Best Buy for service. We actually bought the extended warranty protection, so the repair/replacement is covered. Mind you, this means no pictures for the foreseeable future, because I have no clue when I will have camera again.
Which means I can't show you pictures of my birthday presents. (Yes, the odometer ticked over another year on Saturday.) As I said back in 2005 sometime, I bought a Battle-Scarred Puppet Angel replica, which arrived in December (hey, they SAID it was scheduled to ship in March.) Then, I ordered some Socks that Rock - a skein of Cobalt Bloom for me, and a skein of Lapis for Mom. They arrived yesterday, the same day we bought my other birthday present: a bright shiny white iPod, which I am in the process of cramming with my music collection, along with a few from Mom and Dad's (Beth Orton's first album, the original Broadway recording of "Chicago" and "Once More with Feeling", otherwise known as the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" musical episode.) I just pulled the second stack off of the storage rack, so I've got a way to go before everything is in. (If you look at the picture of the back of the ruana, you can see one of the racks peeking over my shoulder. I love IKEA.) It's so much fun to dance around the house bopping to the music. I love my parents, and they spoil me rotten.
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