What to send

I heard from D again this morning and he's scheduled for surgery this afternoon and probably will be again in a few days. So the answer on what to send, I think, turns out to be myself. I had tickets to go down for the last half of next week anyway, but I'm changing my departure to this Friday instead. This also means I'm going to end up missing knit night this week, but please say hi to everyone for me!

In knitting-related news, there was an article in the Bangor Daily News today about a LYS in Hancock that's all knitting dolls to send to African AIDS orphans through a nonprofit called Children Affected by HIV-AIDS. An excellent cause, and I went to the website and downloaded a pattern. They look really simple, and also excellent for stash-reduction (lots of colors, and they don't need to match). I expect I'll have lots of knitting time next week, and that seems like a good way to spend it!

D also doesn't get to argue, he's learning to play cribbage, like it or not. ;)

Being Mrs. Cratchit again

I said the new bag would be blue soon, right? Well here's what it looked like halfway:


sudsy because the dye package said to add a cup of salt and a tablespoon of laundry detergent (which I don't remember doing last time, I wonder if I was following directions carefully?)

and the most useful my pasta drainer has been since I've had it! :)

bad photo (no flash, and it's getting dark earlier now...) but still, look, it's me with a blue bag!

D called this afternoon from the hospital admissions waiting room. Poor guy. A random thing on his foot has turned out to be infected with this. I hate being 500 miles away. Any good ideas for stuff to send?

finished things

Cake pictures coming soon, I promise! In the meantime, though, check out the latest knitting accomplishments -

ruby slippers for my sister (she was having fun posing!):

and another string bag (it'll be blue soon) - oh and I liked how at the end of the handle it looks a little like a white heart:

A friend has been getting into crocheting dishcloths lately, and asked if I had plans for that spool of cotton. The answer is largely not, although I was going to make one more of the bags, so I've expedited the process and will be able to give her the remainder soon.

D came up for a long weekend last week, and we had a great time. Sunday afternoon's random adventure, which turned out to be gold, was the Rufus Porter Museum in Bridgton, ME. Have you heard of Rufus Porter? We hadn't. But he was a traveling mural-painter (for room and board plus like $1/room, he'd stay with a family for a few weeks and paint murals on their walls), an inventor (he invented, among other things, the revolving rifle, the patent of which he sold to Mr. Colt for $100; also he designed and created a working miniature of what was essentially a blimp - in the 1840s!), and founder of the Scientific American Magazine. There were old issues on the walls, and D and I stayed so long reading them that I think the docents were a little confused... :)