… the finished cropped cardigan. Yes, I’m shamelessly proud of it. I think it’s the first garment I’ve planned and designed on my own — mostly, anyway. There was a pattern from the 1940s I used for guidance. And, obviously, my buddy Linster was invaluable in helping me pick out the buttons. Thanks!

Otherwise, the best thing about this little piece is that it actually fits. So, hopefully, I will get to wear it when the weather gets cooler. I think I’m in love.

The lovely case my SP sent me ages ago, and that I’d completely forgotten to post a picture of. She made it herself, along with two other similar items — I absolutely loved the little cowboys on this one:

And then, of course, there was the double pointed needles, that particular size (4.5mm) in which I own only one needle.  I think there used to be a pair of them, but not anymore, it seems. My SP sent me these gorgeous (and not at all splinter-y) needles:

I really have to try them out soon.  Very, very soon.  Thanks so much, SP! (I still call you my ’secret’ pal even though I know who you are now ;))

Well, it’s been official for a while now, but I just wanted to say I’m counting the days until Baby #2 makes his or her appearance.

120 days to go, as of today. And, having spent practically all of last year and this in one stage of pregnancy or another, I’m pretty sick of it. It’s going to be such a relief when it’s all over (and I can wear normal clothes again).

Ah, well. December 14 is the date, but I hope to God (or any other higher power), that baby decides to be a little early. As they say, time will tell, and I intend to spend that time studying and knitting things exclusively for myself. What can I say, pregnancy makes me egocentric

with knitting.

I got through the back, the right front and the left front of the Fair Isle-y cardigan; I even managed to knit the first sleeve without throwing the damn thing into the wall and screaming, but now…

I’m a measly two inches, and hardly that, in to sleeve #2, and I’m sort of hating it. So far, I’ve managed not to tuck away all the green, white and mint yarn in a box somewhere far, far away together with the half-finished cardigan, but I’ve gotten very, very close to starting another project — I’ve even started drawing it, choosing the yarn, etc. etc. I’m a very, very bad knitter.

Also, fall semester is only two weeks away, and I can’t wait to start. Which means I really should get a lot of knitting done now, before the mayhem of scheduling studies and babies begins, but I just… can’t. I’m bored.

UPDATE: If you’re wondering how that picture got in there, I found the camera’s USB cable. Which reminds me, I keep forgetting to post the pictures of my last SP package. Aaargh!

Check it out.

Isn’t the red one just adorable?

Yes, I’m pretty late in posting this… but here goes, anyway.  I think the package reached me last week, when I was on vacation and unable to pick it up.

Anyway… I will post pictures very soon (when my camera has decided Fedora is a friendly system), but until then, let me just say that I was very pleasantly surprised (as always, dear Pal) when I opened the package and found a needlecase, and another case, and a bag full of seven CDs (that I absolutely must listen to; they looked really great) — all homemade by my Pal (I presume) in these absolutely madly patterned fabrics.  I love them.  The little cowboys are so cute!

(I think I’ll go off and look for a USB cable for my camera now.  I suspect my blog needs some pictures of cowboys.)

and since I can see this post, it means my silly Linux blogging client thingy is working. More later.

It’s been far too long since my last post. Again. You see, my computer crashed…

It really did! Last Monday there was a lovely bluescreen waiting for me when I got up to say good morning to my darling laptop, and it turned out the hard drive was, well, indisponiert. Then we went on a mini-vacation… and returned this Monday, at which time the hard drive decided to work again. I don’t get computers.

Anyway, to make a long story slightly shorter, there was something wrong with the hard drive, and some tech guy from Dell was here yesterday and replaced it. (I have a next business day warranty thing. They replace stuff for me.) I even got more storage space (well, 40Gb instead of 30, but what the heck).

There was only one thing left to do when the tech guy had left — reinstall Windows. That’s when I realized I have absolutely no idea where the Dell/XP restoration CD that came with the laptop is. It’s vanished. So, after trying out Debian for a while and not quite liking it, I am now running Fedora Core 5. (Everything works but the SD card reader, if anyone’s interested.)

Oh, and I didn’t knit one stitch during our tiny vacation, but instead managed to almost finish the left front of the green patterned thing as soon as I got home.

That’s when I realized I had misplaced the pattern by one stitch. One. Lousy. Stitch. I’m so glad the baby was asleep when I discovered it, or he would have gotten some very unwelcome additions to his vocabulary. (Not that he’s talking or anything, I just don’t want him to get the wrong idea of his Loving Mother.)