Of space shuttles, rivers in Africa and socks

Ze cowl is finished:

A Noble Cowl; free from Ravelry. The shawl pin is an Ikea pencil. Ahh, the versatility of Ikea ware is endless... The cowl itself is about a third shorter than it's supposed to be, because I was getting overconfident thanks to all the encouraging comments you left on my previous post and I made a booboo, so I thought 'sod it, this cowl is finished', and it was. It is.

You kindly agreed that I can now knit, but there is no way I can call myself a knitter. I'm never relaxed when I knit. Seriously, I sit there clutching those needles as if they're the steering wheel of a space shuttle about to be shot into orbit. (Or, you know, the space shuttle equivalent of a steering wheel. I don't know what they use to navigate those things.)

So, not a knitter, me. That's actually why I prefer knitting to stitching right now, beacuse I have to concentrate so hard on knitting I forget everything else. Something to do with coping mechanisms and rivers in Africa, no doubt.

This, my dear readers, is a new cowl. It's huge, it's acrylic (!) and therefore cheap and non-scratchy, and I won't have any use for it unless I move to Siberia. What do you think? I added the purply pink lilacy colour for a little zing and pizazz, but I'm not sure if it's not a little too zingily pink.

I don't know why, but I have the feeling this is a seriously weird post. Just in case you made it this far, I have a stitchy finish to share as well. It's a gift for a very lovely lady who doesn't read my blog.

Next time, I promise a more stitchy post in the form of a framed (!) finish(!!).

I'm off to clutch my needles now,

Yours nobly,
Annemarie.

Short

Hoping to keep this short, as I have about 5 months of work to catch up on. If only life didn't offer so many distractions...

...like this one. Actually, this one distracts me about 20 hours of ever day, and still I can't bring myself to take him to the vivisectionist's. He has fallen into the habit of crawling into my discarded clothes and getting stuck there. He also treats me to his very special Concerto Pantufo in D (very) sharp at the most inconvenient times. Oh, and he uses my curtains as climbing ropes to reach higher and doubtlessly more interesting places.

Never mind, though, because I have the Blue Lady to keep me calm...ish.

The colours of the first picture are far more accurate, by the way. And just because I can hardly fathom the size of this lady myself, I always take a 'Look-at-how-HUGE-this-piece-is-I-can't-believe-I'm-still-working-on-it-and-not-getting-sick-of-it-AT-ALL' picture. Wanna see it?

There's another something going on here that is... Well. I really don't want to jinx anything, because this is PAST its early stages and it could all still go horribly wrong, but... ahem...

What do you think? Does this mean I can actually maybe, perhaps, possibly - shhhh - knit?
Whilst making this cowl/neckwarmer, I've also become extremely proficient in the surrealist art of TINKing (for all you non-knitters out there, that's knit-ese for frogging). Come on, that's not a craft, that's ART - to create nothing out of something. The thing is, I still don't know how to un-knit, so when I make a mistake, I just pull it all out and start from scratch. There must be an easier way, but hey, this is what I do best, so if - as the Americans among you say - it ain't broke, why fix it?

Well, I've done another excellent job of buggering up my workday. If only I could get paid to do this every day, I'd be SO rich.

Thanks for your continued support and comments, honeybuns. If it weren't for you... well.
I'd be working.

Yours distractedly,
Annemarie.

Sweet

How do you like them dahlias?

This one's for all of you, for being such a great support during the last couple of weeks and months. Thank you for all your comments, your e-mails and your cards, for your prayers and good vibes and positive thoughts and other things you may have done or sent to make life a little more bearable for me. I would have thanked you before if my computer hadn't been so kind as to crash on me - and I'm saying that without the slightest hint of sarcasm. Sometimes you just need to get yourself away from extraneous interferences, but it's not always easy to distract yourself from them - unless they crash and you are left with nothing better to do than to support your family, to think, reminisce and... stitch! Or failing that, picking up finished pieces from the framer's:

Silver Creek 's Dandy Dreams. Isn't it sweet?
And what about this one:

M Designs' Sampler Girls. Pelle was so taken with this one that he claimed it for himself :o) I was incredibly flattered and also a little touched that my six year old is so involved with my stitchy stuff. How sweet is that?

Speaking of sweet, one of the two girls among you who have been the best friend and the biggest support to me (for more than a few years, I might add), is Barbara. Barbara always manages to bring a smile to my face (and sometimes, admittedly, a sentimental tear to my eye) by sending me little cards and tokens and trifles from her (way too) faraway part of the world. A few weeks ago, she surpised me with this sweetest of ornaments:

This one as ME written all over it in big neon letters (well, not quite, as you can see). I don't know how Barbara managed to get the smell of all the woods in Maine into this lovely wee pillow, but she did it. Thank you, Barbara. You will never know how much this means to me.

I have been stitching up a storm, but I don't want to bore you too long with my presence here, so I will save progress pics for another day. It's good to be back though, so I hope to see you around here soon!

Yours gratefully,

Annemarie.