It was a busy month chez nous.  My job got bigger and I had end-of-year craziness to deal with that was never my problem before.  Mr. D had to go to Pork Barrel University again.  We took a vacation for the first time in three years.  The old folks visited.  Football started, and so did both Champions League and Europa League, as well as qualifying matches for Euro 2012.  This year, this means more than just hours watching football and thinking unclean thoughts about football players because now I am writing about it for a online community of Serie A tifosi.  I'm responsible for covering Juventus, so I'm doing match reports after every match (one or two every week), and covering the transfer market and whatever other news may come up.  I love it, but it's a time commitment.  Aaaaaaand,  Kirby stopped walking, so he spent a few days in the hospital getting expensive tests, and his progress since then has been up and down.  When he's up, he can do pretty much everything, but his balance is tetchy and he's prone to falls.  When he's down, he can't walk, has to be carried everywhere, and has to be supported when he potties.  And no, we still don't know exactly what the cause of all this is, and yes there will be more vet trips (including tomorrow) so the doggie neurologist can assess his progress on his treatment plan.  The space bar on my laptop needs to be hitjust so, which means weird things happenwhen I write.  And there has been knitting.

I finished the pink cable hoodie and took photos on a day when Kirby was mobile.

It turned out very nicely, and now I know how a shawl collar works, so maybe we'll see one of those someday.

I finished the Riding on the Metro socks.  Man is that rug ugly.

I finished some striped mini-socks yesterday, and when I realized how close I was to finishing the Ruth socks....

...I finished those too.


I started two new sweaters.  One is a grey cardi knit in the round.  I am knitting a tube, and eventually I am going to steek it, which means I'm going to cut the tube into a big rectangle.

Thanks for asking.  I am actually quite concerned about it.  However, if I want to get better, I'm going to have to try some new techniques sometime, and this really isn't new because it's typical of Scandinavian knitting going back centuries, so they say.  I'm not sure I buy that either, but I have lots and lots of mindless monkey knitting to do before I get there, so I'll worry about it some other time.


The other is also a cardigan.

This one is going to be a plain cardigan with seed stitch bands where the ribbing usually is.  I did a sweater with seed stitch bands for The Bean when she was still on the inside and I liked it, so now I'm making one for me.

I've also started a ribbed scarf from the last of the Manos.  It's turning out really rustic and lovely so far, although I wish the color contrasts photographed better.

Oh yeah.  Remember the package of woolly love I got this spring?  I swatched it and I started a shawl.  I have taken a picture yet, because I'm not sure this patter is right for the texture of the yarn, but I got it out of the closet and started instead of pretending it wasn't there and fretting.

'Scuse me.  I have a football match to watch and report on.