I’ve been very busy with managing my home businesses. It’s extremely rewarding, but certainly doesn’t leave me with much personal time. The personal time I do get HAS been spent knitting, and the stress relief is incredible.

First off, some standard washcloths.

Knitting these for some friends who have recently had children, and a few new ones for me. I have way too much wash cotton sitting around, it’s time to use some!

Next, we’re up to 2 feet, unstretched, on the Doctor Who Season 15 scarf.

I’ve been knitting this between other projects. When I get tired of garter stitch, I move on to something else for awhile. It will eventually get done this way, no idea when! I like how it’s coming along.

Finally, I knit an anglerfish for the boyfriend.

He bought me the book Amigurumi Knits by Hansi Singh, and in exchange he asked for an anglerfish from the book. Happily obliged, and knit in his favorite colour, green.

More pics below, showing the bioluminescence along the back and other angles. The lure is bendable.

Next on my pattern list is a new pair of socks, a new summer hat, and possibly a hermit crab. Stay tuned!

Zoe by Emily Kausalik. Knit with Noro Kureyon Sock S164. Cast on three days into the Olympics, cast off as closing ceremonies ended. A bit past the torch extinguish.

A fun knit! Now back to socks. :)

I come bearing patterns. A pattern for a cute little ferret sweater. :D

Palom, my adorable, huge boy in the photos, was kind enough to model the sweater for me. In fact, he’s still wearing the Noro one. And napping. He loves his sweater.

I made two, a blue stripey one and one from leftover Noro sock. If you’ve got ferrets, it’s a great stash buster for leftover sock yarn!

Palom got a treat for being so photogenic, and to beg forgiveness for scruffing him for an underside shot in the second photo. Sorry, little man. Enjoy your peanut butter chew.

Pattern will be in my pattern list to the right momentarily! (Decided to do the post, first.)

I’m pretty positive it happened when everyone visited for Winterlude. My body has a tendency to incubate viruses for a long period of time, generally three weeks or so. Given that, this one’s right on the money. It also is no coincidence that the Pirate has it too. At least I have someone to commiserate with.

The housemates (Matt, the darling boyfriend, and Joel, our new roomie and pal from Scouts) are busy downstairs, playing Halo 3 with friends and otherwise being nerds. I came upstairs to get some of my freelance work done, and to have time alone with my DVD player and my blues.

…all that blue.

And the tissues, cannot forget the tissues. But seriously. It’s common knowledge that I have a general fascination for all things blue. I try to vary that as much as I can in my knitting, especially because when it comes to knitting, I -adore- a rainbow of colours. Still, though… I often fall back to at least some bit of blue.

Those are the projects-of-the-current-moment. But before that, I finished my Jaywalkers.

They were a fast, fun knit, and I would totally use Regia Canyon Color for another pair. Gorgeous yarn, gorgeous, simple colours. And, being such vividly-striped yarn, makes for GREAT Jaywalkers.

As soon as the second sock was cast off and the socks were put on my feet,  I cast on for the new pair of socks.

The first of a pair of Lighthouse Gansey socks, in the newest Knitty issue. I’ve waited for a basic, nicely-designed sock to use the Reynolds Soft Sea Wool I bought in Pittsburgh, and this sock fits the bill. Plus, Soft Sea Wool, Lighthouse Gansey… it all seems to fit well. In this case, the blue seems to be a good choice.

I should also mention that this yarn is so absolutely delicious to knit with. It’s extremely soft, has a beautiful amount of stretch, and, well, I adore it.  These will definitely be an enjoyable knit.

And yes, I -am- truly that pale. My skin white-contrasts right out of every closeup photo. I want to harness it as a talent, but have no idea how.

I made a small KnitPicks order last week, to get some Crayon for some toys I’m making. I decided to also pick up a skein of Wool of the Andes in the Mist colorway to swatch it for Rogue.

Rogue is going to be my first sweater attempt.  I’m nervous, because I’m fully aware that it’s not the easiest sweater to take on. However, I have done intricate cabling, and I have loved this hoodie ever since I first saw it. This yarn swatched up well for the in-the-round swatch, and I’m now knitting a flat swatch.

I also have to give mad love to Leanne for selling me an inexpensive set of Denise Interchangeables. I’ve been using them nonstop. They’re so comfortable and warm up really easily. <3  I’ve been using them to swatch for Rogue, as you can see.

I have the blues. But not entirely in a bad way.

Have an obligatory chinchilla.

Now, it would come to pass as mostly a coincidence, that five out of the seven people who came for AwesomeCon are knitters. Even odder still, two of those five people are straight males. The oddest part of all?

One of the two non-knitters, another straight male, was a convert by the end of the weekend.

Now, this wasn’t out of the blue. We were chatting on IRC several weeks before his arrival, and he had mentioned many times before that that he would like to learn to knit sometime. I mentioned that myself and the Pirate (who was another of the AwesomeCon attendees) would be more than happy to take time to teach him over the weekend, and maybe even get him started on a scarf that he wanted to make.

Sure enough, we had him addicted by Saturday night. He went home with nice bamboo circular needles, two skeins of Cascade 220 in a brown heathered shade, and an inch and a bit of a garter rib scarf. <3 He’s been knitting ever since! Happiness.

I should mention that this same friend (his name is Brandon) brought me a lovely gift of this shirt:

Be still my beating heart. This will have to do until there’s a Ninja equivalent.

I also got delicious gifts of yarn. Delicious, delicious yarn.

Blue Moon Fiber Arts’ “Socks That Rock” lightweight in Jail House Rock. A wonderful gift delivered to me from one of my best friends, Janis, by my bestest friend and her roommate, Dusty, who visited for the weekend and is one of the guy knitters I mentioned. <3 Janis also sent me a lovely thinking-of-you card, which is extremely thoughtful considering she’s been having health issues herself lately. <3 I’ve never knit with STR, so it’s exciting!

Noro Kureyon Sock, from my darling sis, the Pirate. Pirate also brought me some yarn with a more interesting backstory…

A delicious alpaca-wool blend in some of my favorite colours. She bought it while piss-drunk at Pennsic War this past August.

 I love my sister.

My darling bro got me some Lorna’s Laces at WEBS on the way up to visit here from CT. I adore the colorway. Not sure what to knit with any of this yet.

But it’s given me inspiration to motor through my second Jaywalker sock.

This photo is outdated. I’ve just finished the heel gusset decreases, and al knitting down the foot. :)

I also picked up a new amigurumi book, and pulled out my crappy acrylic yarn and crochet hooks. Just for a bit of getaway from knitting. I’m a crafter of all trades. :D