A flower & an FO.

After all those boring pictureless posts, I bring you something pretty:

That's the amaryllis plant my family got for Christmas from my wonderful Aunt Andrea. At the time it didn't even look like a plant, just like something weird & ugly & spherical, but since then it's grown at crazy speed and that's one of its blossoms just the other day! I need to take some more pictures soon, since almost all the flowers are in bloom now and it's absolutely stunning.

I don't have any pictures of that cardigan but I've been working away at it. I finished the body in just a day but the sleeves are taking longer, primarily because they're boring. Also I really hate size 15 needles!

I finally made myself a Calorimetry! I cast on the other night so I would have something to work on at school, should the need arise, since the cardigan was getting too big to carry around & I have to do some math before I continue with the hat. Then I woke up yesterday morning and our power was out thanks to the wind. It was something like 15 degrees outside, with a wind chill closer to ten below zero, and I instantly started cursing myself for (a) having abandoned the hat I'm working on for so long and (b) giving away so many of the warm, woolen, wintry things I've made. And so I spent the morning standing in front of our gas stove, all 4 burners on, with a ball of yarn under my arm that quickly turned into this:



Ok, I really didn't finish it until after school yesterday evening, but it was still the quickest project I've ever done. I really like it, too! The yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes and I'd ordered a skein just to test it out & see if it really was as good a deal as it seemed. My verdict is that it is! It's not the softest thing but it's not very itchy, either. I had no problems working with it and isn't that color (Sapphire Heather) gorgeous? The photo doesn't quite do it justice but it's the prettiest blue I've seen. And, well, at $2 for 110 yards, I can definitely see this yarn becoming a mainstay in my stash.

I'll be doing that pattern a few more times, too. I want to make some for gifts and probably more for me, too. If/when I do find a self-striping yarn I actually like, it'll be great. Actually, I think I did find one I like: Berocco Jasper. Look at those colors! People on Ravelry have made some truly gorgeous things with it, so here's hoping I see it in an LYS sometime soon!

I do have an LYS trip planned for Saturday. I'll be going back to Knit A Round with my beloved Aunt Andrea to return that last skein of Ironstone Harmony & spend the gift card my equally beloved Aunt Amy got me for Christmas. I actually want to talk yarn some more here but this has gotten long already, so I'll make that another post in the near future.

Before I go, though, I do want to make a note of just how hip my family is: my Aunt Amy now has a blog, too! It's The Alphabetical Vegetarian and there's not much there yet but I'm looking forward to reading more. Both of my aunts are witty & brilliant so of course I'm glad to see them sharing some of their genius with the world. If only we could get my mom blogging...we'd have to teach her how to use the internet first, though!