I have finally finished Karen's Gothic Leaf Stole. This was my first lace project, and it only took me nine months to complete. In my defense, I did have to start the project over since I dropped a stitch.

This past weekend Karen dyed some yarn that will be made into socks. The process was much easier than either one of us expected it to be. The yarn has dried and has been wound into skeins. All that is left to do now is to make the socks.

I finally finished a MST3K themed bag for Karen. I'd like to burn it, but she seems to like it.

I have finally managed to build a set of needle cases to hold my new interchangeable needle set. I also built one in the same style to hold my double pointed needles, and another bag for the incidental knitting items. It only took me 3 weeks and about 10 different versions (with varying degrees of success). Having to relearn how to use a sewing machine didn't make the task any easier. I'm fairly happy with the result, but I have a feeling I'll need to make a new pair since the internal fabric is a little thin (Another View). The entire set of cases could use some interfacing to help give them a little bit of backbone. This will also give me the opportunity to find something manly, like pink camouflage with little bunnies or some such.

Karen's latest pair of socks has been ripped out; the first one didn't fit correctly. So much for trying a new pattern, new yarn, and a different size needles. After I ripped the sock out, I picked up the Lace Stole that has been stalled on the end table for the last couple of months.

This sad little bear is modeling Karen's new winter cap, a Koolhaas, so you can see it. She didn't want to model it, so poor Mr. Sad Bear was rushed into service.

Mr. Sad Bear was my mother's when she was a child. According to the story, she went with her father to the local landfill in Iowa and rescued him from the pile. All of his fur was matted, and what wasn't matted was threadbare. He had seen better days, though I imagine Mr. Sad Bear would have been hard pressed to remember them. I inherited Mr. Sad Bear when I was little. He was unimpressed, and continued to be sad. (You'll also notice that I had a very sophisticated naming scheme for things as a child.)

Almost every time Mr. Sad Bear makes an appearance, Karen ends up crying a little about his rough life. I suppose he should have known it was going to be rough, being made with a built-in tear—which has long since lost all of its blue paint.

Finished some more wrist warmers to match Karen's new cape. Aside from that, the past couple weeks have been a bit hectic. Karen's friends came into town for a couple days, I had two big projects due, and just for fun, Karen got sick for Thanksgiving.

The last couple of days have slowed down a bit while nursing Karen back to health. Between runs to the store for comfort food and medicine, I finished another devil baby hat, the first sock in a pair, and made a bit of progress on an adult-sized hat.

Monday night I cast on Karen's Gothic Leaf Stole ... again. I had managed to get almost seven inches into the shawl, when I dropped a stitch in a very unhappy way sometime last month. This left me with a fairly large pile of tangled lace, and there wasn't much left to do except to frog the entire project and start again. This is when I learned why people place life lines in large lace projects.

Last night I finished the Michael Kors Cape (pictured above) for Karen. It wasn't a particularly difficult project to knit. Unlike the last project that I knit from a magazine, the pattern was almost entirely error-free. The only problem was with the collar shaping, and it wasn't an error so much as that I didn't like the way a purl stitch looked when wrapped in a short row.

When we were at the crafts store looking for buttons, I picked up the most amazing fabric from the waste bin. I found pirate and ghost camouflage fabric to make into needle cases. These will be manly needle cases, YAR!

Karen has also informed me that I will be making two new baby hats for some inbound rugrats.

If you haven't noticed--and I assume you have if you are here--the old site is being torn down to make way for the new site. This should give me a chance to do a bit of house cleaning, as well as refocus a bit. So the angrydwarf is dead; long live the photodwarf. All of the old content is still here and can be found by looking in the archive.

I received a Knit Picks Options needle set in the mail this past Wednesday. The needles feel like an interchangeable set of Addi Turbos (insert light saber sound here). As amazing as these needles are, the case that comes with them is a resounding disappointment. I also ordered the new clear bag case that comes with the Options Harmony set, and that one is not much better, although it's at least passable. So, I've decided to construct myself needle cases that don't suck. We'll have to see how that goes.

Well, it's not actually for Che — it's for the munchkin one of Karen's friends recently had. The pattern originally called for little ears and a face, but we thought that might look a bit odd with this yarn.

Update: Here is another one of these hats that was sent out to some of Karen's other friends.

The blue one is Karen's, she named it Annabelle.