Yarn-y Goodness

On this drizzle-y day we have all yarn things to look at and talk about.

At work yesterday where all the "work" phone calls (the only kind there was) and "work" people (5 actual customers) clustered themselves between 4 and 5:15 PM, I finished the Elephant Pacifier Clip except for the tiny face embroidery stitches.  I think it's very cute.  We'll see what Miss LC thinks soon.

Then I plunged right into May Men's Chemo Hat #2.  After making that crazy lime and purple one I thought a sedate black and red one would be just the ticket.  The first Men's Chemo Hat I made this year I made with this same black yarn and I have to say I think I've discovered why that one was so big--the yarn seems way thicker than the red stuff.  Makes me glad I decided to make this one a size smaller with a bigger hook.  I'm planning to make it size large long though so that the hat is long enough to cover the wearer's ears.  I figure that way all of the head sans hair will be covered, or there'll be a better chance of it anyway.

Today is the deadline for the May Art Challenge, Ephemerol Mayfly, so after supper last night I wrangled around with wire and the wings I'd made, consulted with Durwood, and decided to just sew the darned things on and be done with it, and not worry about gluing walnuts together to make another bug at all.  (I think I'm suffering greatly from our pretty steady string of dreary and rainy days so my enthusiasm for bug-making waned.)  Here's the finished Winged Trilobite.  I like it.  The wings are small enough that you don't really believe that they could fly the body, just like I wanted it to be.  I wish the beads were bigger and flashier but that's what I had and I like them too.

I am trying to motivate myself to finish the sock I currently have OTN before I wind a different hank of sock yarn into a ball and cast on a shawl I've been mooning over for a year or so, maybe two.  It's one of those things that gets shoved aside for smaller, faster projects, and then there was all that coming grandbaby knitting that had to get done, but I think seeing the orioles the other day reminded me about it.  See, the skein of yarn is called Baltimore Oriole and it has all of the oriole colors, so who wouldn't want to get that knitted up to wear.  I want to do it RIGHT NOW, but I'll wait until I've got the sock done.  Really.  No, really, I put the sock bag in my knitting basket and it's all set to be grabbed on the way out the door.  I'm halfway through the heel, then need to do the foot and toe.  That won't take too long, she says, with a complete disregard for reality.

May 15--Emile Guillieron, Reproduction of the "Ladies in Blue" Fresco.  Kay sat hunched over the work table, her hands busy in the pool of light.  She was working on what could be the most important find of the season.  The fragments of painted plaster gave her the barest hint of what the entire wall had looked like.  There were two pieces with part of hands on them.  It would have been too simple for them to fit together.  Naturally they didn't.  Dr. Morgan's disinterest in her find and the reconstruction of the fresco had motivated her to search for a place at a different museum.

That's when I fell asleep.  Actually I fell asleep in the middle of the last sentence and finished it this morning.  Good thing I remembered what I meant to write before I conked off.  Time to shower and do all that getting ready for work stuff.
--Barbara