Brain Hat! Gotta make one.

The pattern is here. It will cost you $5 but it's for a good cause, or so the author says and I choose to believe her. She says this:
Jan 31, 2011
I do not have any hats for sale. Unfortunately medical school takes up enough of my time that I am unable to make any hats for sale at this point. My best recommendation is to find a friend or family member that knits and bribe them with some delicious cookies.

The wormy looking things are called gyri and the grooves they create are called sulci (or fissures). Explained clearly here.

I hope to make a hat but we'll see. I follow through on about 25% of the projects I start. And I'm more or less OK on that. Better than 20%.

Note: Thanks to Natalie F. for sending me this link. It's good, no it's great, to have so many thoughtful friends from my years at NIH.

First attempt at a baby's hat. Think it will fit sweet grand-niece Norah's head? Not so sure.

Done! They look like a flag but no country has these exact colors.

But if I'd used green and white they could be Dominican socks! I like the Dominican flag.
[thank you wikipedia for the image]

Sock No. 1 of Pair No. 4

Sock No. 1 of Pair No. 2. I learned something new about the heel on this pair. But I still need to be more careful--too many mistakes.

My first pair of socks won me this poem from Mr. H.

Oh my happy feet, so pampered with fun
I note the weave so exquisitely done
The color just right, with irregular toe
Adds a smile for none to know
For the sock is unseen and Oh what a shame
For Pam's deft fingers the socks cannot name
The socks on my feet and covers my toes
And where my feet travel so the socks goes

Nice, huh?

Done!

It would take a full page to summarize the mistakes I made. Starting with believing the salesperson who told me that I was buying enough yarn to make one pair of socks---hence the brown toe.

Pair No. 2 will be started tonight, while the extra 10-20 inches of snow is falling on the DC area. (Several friends hate me because I love the snow. Maybe if I give each one a pair of hand-made socks they'll forgive me.)

Sock update. It's going to have a blue stripe over the instep. Maybe a different color on the second sock.

Progress on sock.

Knitting socks.

I bought what I thought was a subdued yarn but now that sock No. 1 is beginning to take shape the color looks a bit too ... something. Not exactly zippy, not bright. Muddy. Dated. I hope not ugly.

To anyone who received one of my recent garter stitch scarves.... no, it's not your imagination. The scarf IS getting longer.

Sorry.

The zen of my knitting fixation.

I do the same stitch, knit, over and over and over. In different colors of either cotton or bamboo thread. Different lengths and widths, but all end up as a neck scarf. I've given away two (three?) but eventually I'll hand them out to all friends & family, until the fixation ends.

In progress.

New scarfs. A mini-obsession.

Black cotton Amish scarf.