Cool crochet pony

I find myself, for the first time in a long while, without a fiber project. I finished Dad's hat and Mason's hat and I don't feel like anyone else is in urgent need of a hat. Summer is coming, yo. I'll get a picture of Dad's hat before I send it off, I'll have to beg Carrie for a picture of Mason's.

Below is the current state of my stash:

 I want to turn the medium weight subset into this without, you know, a whole lot of effort.

London

Nick and I went to Europe to visit our far-flung friends. It was a hoot. First stop: London to see Raj and Vivek. Varun came out for a few days as well. We traipsed past the Victoria Memorial between stops on our culinary tour of London.

We visited the Sherlock Holmes museum and hiked all over London in search of fresh squeezed orange juice. Nick had miraculous international data on his tablet so we got lost less than you might expect. 

We rode the underground out to Richmond and hiked back along the Thames. To fortify ourselves, delicious chocolates and gelato were obtained from Danieli on the Green. THe original prime meridian was marked on the path. We had lunch in a bar where we confounded the waitress by asking if the cider was hard. Later, we played fetch with a Fox Terrier and talked with her very friendly owner for a while.

 
Our last day we spend in Oxford, visiting Balliol and punting. Nick got a haircut and I found a cute little game shop where we picked up Cthulu Gloom for Raj and Vivek and a book of goemtric quilt patterns for me.

 Not pictured: many games of Gloom, 7 Wonders, and Chrononauts. Delicious Indian curries and dosas. The space-age shower.

Pirate hat done

I finished the double knit pirate hat. Hopefully I'll have the good sense to do stranded colorwork from now on. Switching knit-side to purl-side and back was taxing my elbow. It did make the hat warm and reversible though. It takes two pictures to capture the bonefish:

Civil War quilt quilting

Progress continues on the Civil War table quilt... I've quilted the two "leaf" sections, acquired the velcro to connect the segments, and bought the binding material. Woot. It's a good thing it's almost done, I am running low on steam. It will be very nice to have it on the table though. And to start something new. :P To buck myself up I made a batch of caramel, which turned out delicious. 

Crisis averted

The helpful sewing machine woman helpfully pointed out that we had mine threaded wrong and it works just fine. Somewhere in the needle changing and oiling and lint cleaning we fixed the original problem, only to disguise it with a new problem. But now it's all better!

I celebrated by getting couple long seams done for the back of the Fibonacci quilt. It's coming together pretty well. The only picture I have is from before we sewed the top together. I don't want to unfold it just for a new one. It's big and unwieldy and Oliver always tries to stand on it. I'll get a shot before I send it to be quilted.

Sewing machine on strike

:(

My sewing machine has decided that sewing is not a thing it does anymore. It is now a needle-thread shredder and clumper. We tried coaxing, needle changing, oiling, begging, pouting, disassembly and reassembly, reminding it that it worked yesterday... all to no avail. So today it's going to the vet for some professional attention. Either they will fix it on the spot (and hopefully tell Brian what we should have done) or it will be gone for two weeks. I'm trying to look on the bright side: I can spend the time gluing little people together and getting all the fabric cut for the Civil War quilt backs. Or watching Veronica Mars...

Bon voyage little buddy!

Not a baby hat

I knit a hat over the holidays for my sister's impending baby. Unfortunately, it is not a baby hat. It will not stay folded up, it is wide enough (although not deep enough) for an adult. I fear the yarn is just too chunky for a baby head, which is a shame because it's all these great jewel tone colors and I love it.

I need to find another yarn to supplement it with so I can make the hat long enough for an adult. I've selected a more baby-appropriate yarn for my next attempt:

 On the topic of decision-making for minors, I leave you with my current favorite flowchart. Enjoy.