It's OK, Nancy! It's done!

During my long blog hiatus this fall, a picture of the baby bunny sweater (looking a little demonic with pink cheeks that, at the time, seemed like eyes). Nancy complained (and rightfully so!) that she was sick of seeing that bunny when she check for a new entry. And so, Nancy, I hope you'll forgive me for posting...

the finished product!

Click for big, and really cute!

Here are some stats:

• Lanet pattern (details to be inserted here soon)
• Lang Bebe, 100% superwash wool in fingering weight from theknitter.com (it's not on the website, but these colors (and a few more) are in stock and are available by request)
• but the carrot tops are in some leftover sock yarn (probably Lang Jawoll)
• Body knit in the round to the armholes, then flat with intarsia bunny. Sleeves knit in the round. (The green-and-white fair isle pattern is at the top of the sleeves, too, but putting the sleeves out straight would have put them through the shadow from the window panes.)
• Size zero needles! Love those little needles!
• There might have been more pictures, but the camera battery ran out of juice after just two shots.
• For Jake, born in August, son of a postdoc in our lab. They've been living in California but are slated to move to Boulder in the next couple months.

And more finishing!

I also finished my second alpaca hat, adding in about 8 rows in total. Everyone says it looks a lot better than the old one, and hoepfully I can show you tomorrow after the battery recharges. That old one is going to the orphanage in Kazakhstan where my friends will be adopting the baby that gets the castle sweater. I started a fair isle hat in Classic Elite Bazic (once destined for girly fair isle mittens, now ripped for a new lease on life) for the orphanage and probably have enough of that yarn to squeeze out another after that. At knitting group on Saturday I gave some of that yarn to Debbie, who has been knitting a crazy number of hats for Kazakhstan. She hadn't planned on staying at knitting very long, so she didn't bring a lot to do. So when she ran out but wasn't ready to go home, I offered yarn, Nancy had the right size needle, and another hat was born. I'm sure you can read about it and see it in a couple days over at Debbie's blog.

Upcoming Angst

I've seen posts for a number of teams for the Knitting Olympics. I thought about joining in (maybe a fancy lace shawl? the Dale sweater I'm going to make for my mom?) but I'm facing...

Me in a room with three professors who can ask me whatever they want. The exam is usually focused on general chemistry knowledge and the student's thesis proposal, while making them think on their feet about something they don't quite know. (Fun, huh?) My exam will likely be the week of February 20, so I need to write that proposal and figure out how to read these prof's minds so that I know what to study without studying everything in the world. This does not seem like the time to train for the Olympics! I'll also be going to Mexico City for a week for a research campaign (much like Riverside last summer, but dirtier, and only for one week) around March 4, but I'll be expected to work data during the full campaign for the entire month of March. So those are all of my excuses. I'm out.

Maybe I'll be ready for the next go in four years, if I'm not too old, haven't grown too tall, lost my girlish figure, pulled a muscle, etc. Of course, that may be the time to write my thesis...