A lot of blue in this post, it seems.

I haven't been knitting all that much this past week because I'm still working more or less monogamously on Mr. Rippley, my coffee friend. Remarkably, when you keep working on something, it tends to get closer to done. I'm probably two and a half pattern repeats (Four rows each of three colors) from being done, though I suspect some of my yarn has gone missing because I'm not using it up evenly. The persimmon (brown), which resembles no persimmon I've ever seen, is being used up faster than its paprika (red) and peapod (green) brethren and it's entirely possible that I'm using more of that one
or that there's a little ball of it under the couch somewhere. I would not rule out the latter. There's no telling what's under there. I'm a little afraid to look, actually.

Leto got a little bit of attention while I was at the doctor's office and I worked on the Fork in the Garbage Disposal socks last Thursday night while both children were dancing. Little Miss Bu, who is no more than two, wanted to go into the room where Fluffalo dances. The clogging teacher said it was okay for her to stay and the whole time, she tried to do what the big girls were doing. She had fun and I got some bonus sock-knitting time. Everyone wins!

Now that I have my new progressive lenses, I've been starting back to embroidery and hand-sewing. Miss Summer's handkerchief got some love and I can see/remember more or less what I've done on the first wing, but I'm afraid it's not going to be as symmetrical as I'd rather. Doing the same thing I did the first time, only in reverse, is about as easy as it sounds.

Privet soup: To dye for.

I even dipped my toe into some natural dyeing, but I seem to have wandered off from it and left the privet berries soaking in the pot in the garage. The thing is, I have one pot. I need to transfer the dye bath to another container so that I can mordant the fiber and then do another switcheroo when the mordanting is done. I got so distracted by the crochet and the silk hankies that I... forgot that I'd already started the dye bath. A good soaking won't hurt anything and may make the color deeper, but I don't want to leave them so long that they go rancid on me. Bleah. Nobody wants that. With any luck and if I'm paying any attention, I'll move the dyeing forward this coming week.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of the hand-rolled hem, which is:

This week's technique:

It's a long-ish video, about fifteen minutes, but Ms. Simms' voice is really very soothing and she does a good job of showing you the technique. I'm still having a little trouble on the corners, but it's going fairly well on the two dainty little hankies I'm working on for Project Make. Naturally, the second hanky went better than the first and practice will make success.

First one done, and a little bit of snow.

Both hems done. No snow.

They've since had a brief date with the iron and look a little bit neater. I decided that, because these are what you might call TARDIS blue, I'd do something a little bit special. I have one FO for this week:

A Rose by any other name...

100% silk hanky with hand-rolled hems and hand-stitched embroidery in Circular Gallifreyan that reads "Rose." Upcycled from a thrifted silk skirt.

I've been working on:

• Fork in the Road socks in Andey Originals sock yarn
• Neat Ripple Pattern in Knit Picks Brava
• Leto in Knit Picks Shadow and Misti Alpaca Lace
• Two dainty silk hankies 
• Miss Summer's hanky