big photo dump

Or, evidence of some of the things I've been doing (including two forgotten finished-over-break things).

First off, though, as promised: a photo of my Tiny Bean Army - these are all the G1 Baby Ponies I have (with special guest star customized G3 pony "Callisto")



This is my favorite of the photos - I was lying on the floor (under my piano) to take it, and I figured I could set the camera on the floor to steady it, and therefore use the "extreme night setting" without flash - this has a long exposure time. It's a little more atmospheric than the one with flash:



Here's an overhead shot where you can see them bette:



Let me see if I can get all the names, left to right:

Back rank:
Baby Surprise, Baby Glory (barely visible), Baby Softsteps, Baby Tic-Tac-Toe, Baby Bouncy, Baby North Star (she is the newest one I have), Baby Sparkle North Star, Baby Sparkle Firefly, Baby Sparkle Starflower, Baby Sparkle Gusty, Baby Snippy, Baby Ember.

Front rank:

Newborn Baby Sticky*, Newborn Baby Tappy, G3 custom Callisto.

(*Her cutie mark is a stick horse, but yeah, the name is pretty funny).

I love these things. Probably more than I should but they do make me so happy. I am not even going to declare a favorite because I love them all.

And I also changed out my toenail polish today. I did have an Essie polish on there ("Angora Cardi") but swapped it out for a very deep red by Pacifica, called Red Red Wine:



It's even a more  intense red than the photo shows. I really like it, and it seems a good color since Valentine's Day is coming.

Also, a couple of finished things I never photographed:

This is Winnie the Whale. I made her off of a kit that came free with a back issue of UK Simply Knitting - there were three possible patterns, a starfish, an octopus, and a whale. Starfish are kind of boring so I knew I wanted to do either the octopus or the whale. Finally, I settled on the whale (mammal solidarity, yo). Also, later, in a more recent issue there was a letter from someone who had trouble with the octopus legs, so I guess it was good I chose the whale:



She's little and a nice size to hold in your hand. Right now she lives on my sofa with Basil the Basset and my Aurora Pinkie Pie I got at Five Below.

Another finished item - this is from Stash Busting Knits, a bulky weight earwarmer. I saw the Wool-Ease Thick and Quick in the candycane sort of color and decided I wanted to make something out of it, and this seemed logical



It fastens with buttons in the back. After about six failed attempts to take a picture of it on (it's very hard to photograph the back of your head), here it is on my chair:



And finally, progress on Raven! I'm really glad the other day when I was cleaning up and saw the 3 x 5 card where I had written out the pattern of increases for the sleeve that I didn't throw it away - I almost did, thinking, "This has to be something from a project I finished," but then I was driving home after church today and realized - hey, wait, that's the stuff for the second sleeve.



I have about 40 rounds left on the second sleeve. I'm playing a bit of yarn chicken here because I'm almost at the point of starting the last ball, and there's also a small (few rounds) collar to be knit. I hope I have enough. (This is a discontinued yarn: Cascade's "Greenland")