slug-like

There's been a whole lotta relaxing going on around here the past few days. While Scott's making buttons (ooh, wait until you see the newest ones!) and the kids are engrossed in their books, I've been perfectly content to plop myself in a chair with a cozy blanket and my knitting. My mom, who almost done with the sleeveless sweater she started just before we went to Greece and she has another project on the needles now, stopped over one evening last week for help with her colorwork knitting and saw me in slug mode with my chair-blanket-knitting. Alarmed, she asked, "Are you sick?!" Nope, just r-e-l-a-x-i-n-g.

All that slug-like behavior of doing "nothing" does end up with some tangible results, though. Here are some skinny-looking socks that stretch nicely to human proportions, made of Reggia (I think) yarn bought on sale at Webs last spring. My standard sock pattern: toe-up, magic cast-on, Widdershins gusset, 60 stitches on size 2 circs, 2x2 ribbing. Pure luck that the heel stripes match. Nice for those of us who wear clogs and have heels showing.

This is a Dale of Norway baby hat knit for a relative who is expecting a son next month. Mostly Dalegarn oh-so-soft washable 100% wool yarn, but the variegated red is leftover Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn. Much of the blue top portion of the hat was knit during our flight to and layover in Milan last month, so it's been sitting on my desk since then, just waiting for the ear flaps and cords.

I started yet another baby hat on Thursday, while in the dentist's office, and put the finishing touches on last night (Sunday). Again, Dalegarn and sock yarn, but this time it's the leftover Sockotta from the socks Leah made a few weeks ago. The hats still need to be blocked, so I'll do that today because I want to get them both into the mail. I've made a few minor changes to the pattern with each hat, including the tiny variegated band above the stars and then knitting the top portion in a different color than the star background, and also doing ssk and k2tog on the ear flaps for better symmetry of the decreases.

Ever wonder how to get a 12-year-old boy interested in your knitting? Just add power tools. :-)

Reenactment of baby hat cordmaking with use of power drill and hook bit.

We saw Cellobop at Cheshire Library yesterday. This is the 5th or 6th time we've seen Gideon Freudmann's shows and they are truly fantastic. He played everything from Bach to the Brady Bunch to Jimi Hendrix to his own compositions. The demonstration of how he creates the layers of musical phrases is fascinating and you'd never expect quite so much laughter and fun for all ages at a cello performance.