Some proof that I do occasionally actually finish things:



These are the Target Wave Mittens. All done! Ready to go in the Dulaan box! Once I figured out how to attach the thumb-part properly, they actually go quite fast and are quite fun to make.

I made the "Child's medium" size and they fit me - snugly, and they're a tad short - but they fit me. I might make a pair for myself: I'd do the largest size but drop down a needle size (I like a tighter fabric that the recommended 8s made). And I have some brown and some pink Araucania Nature Wool that might be fun for them. And I have enough I could make another pair for the Dulaan box.

I made the second mitten yesterday afternoon. That's how fast they are.

I also have to show you one of the simple, if not-so-inexpensive, pleasures of my life:


This is the alpaca I indulged myself in earlier this week. (It came yesterday). The picture doesn't adequately show the beauty of the color: it is a very soft fog grey, with a heather overtone of pink and purple. Really, really lovely, and a color I don't have a sweater in yet.

I am going to make this hoodie out of it. I think once I finish the Hourglass pullover, the hoodie is going to be the next project. (Yes, Samus is still stalled out. And yes, I'm not quite half done with the edging on Hiawatha. They will get done, sometime).

I've also been working on the Barley Sugar Column socks. I'm up to the heel flap and have figured out how to deal with a few little complications of the pattern. I'm writing down everything I'm doing. I think I will type the instructions up after I finish the first sock (but before I start the second one) and beta-test them on the second sock.

I need to research free-site-hosting-sites (or low-cost, you-don't-need-to-be-a-programmer-to-make-pages-on-them sites) to put up this pattern and others I hope to eventually design. I don't want to open up just another Blogspot blog, because it seems that if you don't add to the blog regularly, the stuff on the page "drops off" the page, and then people open up a blank page. I think Diaryland keeps stuff up until you add new stuff, so that might be a possibility. What I'd really like would be a site where there'd be a welcome-page where I could put links to pages that would open up separately for each pattern. And maybe do the patterns, as I said, as .pdf files (if my old Adobe still works), because those tend to look slicker and work more uniformly than, say, Word does.

I also pulled out and began working on a prayer shawl again. Unfortunately. It was a shawl I started for someone who turned out not to need it. But this time - a good friend of mine, her adoptive father whom she loves VERY much (and I know him, and I can see why), has contracted leukemia, and because of his age and general health otherwise, the doctors are not sanguine about what they can do. So I think my friend needs a prayer shawl, and I need something to do with my hands while I pray for his comfort and her strength in this. I am going to try to work on it (and pray all the while) for at least 15 minutes a day until it is done and I can give it to her.