Elizabethan Comfort

I finally got around to taking some pictures the other night, to catch you up on my knitting. Although there's been so little of that lately that it's not a whole lot to catch up on. Anyway, herewith some pictures, and minimal commentary:



Note the totally chaotic state of my knitting basket. The whole point of this basket was to only have one project at a time in it. Ha.



The long-promised shot of the BSJ from behind. It does have a very samurai look to it, doesn't it?



Some simple wristies and a neck warmer that I made for Hubbster at his request out of some leftovers of his very favorite alpaca. I finished them a long time ago, actually, but forgot all about them since they've been on Hubbster's neck and wrists ever since. It's still really, really cold here, especially in our apartment by the computer, which seems to be located in a drafty vortext of some sort.



So, since I kept borrowing his wristies and neck warmer, I made my own. I got the stitch pattern from Charlene Schurch's sock book. I like how it has a kind of Elizabethan look. It's made from my one skein of Debbie Bliss's cashmerino that I had been saving for fetching wristwarmers (now I think I'll make those out of something else...I wanted this softness for my neck...)



But lo and behold! After wearing this thing for the last two evenings, look what I found when I laid it out to be photographed! This is the VERY FIRST TIME that I've dropped a stitch and not actually noticed it in time to pick it up again. Damn!



I'm taking everybody's advice about the 3-ply Canadian Buffalo yarn and making a plain EPS sweater for Hubbster. Not much progress so far, though. Disregard the ribbed hem. I had started that way, but decided it was too bulky. I was too lazy or dishearted to rip it out right away so I just switched immediately to stockinette. Once I finish the body (or whenever I'm inclined) I'll snip and rip out the hem, then knit a turn row and knit the underside of the hem with a thinner yarn in a contrast color. This yarn is just too thick for *anything* but stockinette stitch I think...



Melon stitch scarf is somewhat longer than it was before. It's still the same color though - don't let this picture fool you.



And this is the current state of the EZ moccasin sock in handspun on US#1 needles. Yes, I know what it looks like. Stitch pattern is from Pepperknits' Anastasia socks.

The skirt is also going along, but miles of stockinette don't photograph well. Other stuff was too far buried in the basket or hasn't changed since you last saw it. Yes, don't laugh, of course there are more WIPs in there.

I'm meeting with my two main advisors at the end of this week. Unless they tell me to make major changes, I'm down to just polishing and fixing footnotes and bibliography, appendices, etc. ("just" - ha!). Finished the intro, wrote new beginnings and endings to everything, fixed the crappy parts, added topic sentences, etc. Should be feeling good right now except I'm too tired and dizzy to feel anything. Besides, nothing means anything until the profs say something nice, along the lines of "you're almost done." Which may not happen this week, or even soon. I'm really, really looking forward to hearing that, though.