Proscastination

I don't know what it is, but lately I just have not felt like knitting much. I even procrastinated on this blog post--I started thinking about a few weeks ago. I mentioned this to my friend Brian, and told him that I could envision my dad bursting into song and him (Brian) coming up with some pun. He told me I was an amateur crastinator until I got paid for it.

I started working on the Celtic Knot Stole by Sarah Kendra Hughes on February 13, 2009. I am not an accomplished lace knitter, so it has been slow to progress. If I am lucky I can get 3 or 4 rows done in an hour.


It is also not a good project to work on at the pub. Yes, I have knit complicated stuff at the pub before, and I have worked on this there before. I did finish up a couple pairs of socks during this time, but one those it was just a matter of weaving in the ends. I also managed to make another pair of Maine Morning Mitts for my friend Sharon.

Socks in Regia with peasant heel:


Socks in Lane Cervinia with sturdy heel:


Sharon's second pair of fingerless mitts:

Loot

A few weeks ago I participated in The Little Yarn Shop Hop on the Prairie. Well, yesterday while I was at lunch my cell phone rang. Jennifer, the owner of Settlers Farm, called and told me that I had won the grand prize--The Great American Afghan Kit, a bottle of Soak, and some needles.



My friends Karen, Merry, Reaona, and Stepheny also won prizes. Karen won a bag of Cascade Lana D'Oro, Stepheny won a shawl kit, and Merry won some teal Cascade, and I am not sure what Reaona won.

I looked over the pattern for the Great American Afghan, and I am not really interested in making it. However, I now have 23 skeins of Cascade 220 Wool Heathers in my yarn stash.


I am not quite sure what I will do with all of it, but who knows, maybe I will find a good use for it.

Kung Fu Panda

This year my niece wanted a Kung Fu Panda themed cake. I have found that pattern transfer works pretty well for most cakes, especially if I use a black gel on the parchment paper instead of the piping gel I was taught to use. I have not had good luck with the piping gel transfering over, especially if the icing is not setting up due to high humidity. Besides, using the black gel skips a step--at least that way I do not have to go outline it with the black gel.

I backed a white cake on Thursday evening and then iced it Friday morning before going to work. I had previously printed out an coloring page from the Kung Fu Panda website. I printed out two versions--one the way it was on the site, and the other was a mirror image. I finally decided which way I wanted the picture to appear on the cake, and I ended up tracing the mirror image one on to the parchment paper. Since the parchment paper gets flipped over, it then looked like it did on the original one I printed out.

I made all the icing except for the black icing. Black icing is difficult to make, and it is just easier to go buy a tube of Wilton black icing. I pulled up the Kung Fu Panda website so I could color Po in the way he is supposed to be. I think I did not have his outfit beige enough, but it still worked.