Knitting and a Temari ball

A couple of weeks ago I finished this mitten:



I had to do quite a bit of fussing to get the mitten to fit me, but I really liked the knitting pattern.

The mittens turned out to be fraternal twins, and the color jump at the thumbs was not too drastic, so that was fine. DD2 is making me a pair of fingerless mitts to go under them; the combination is so wonderful in the wintertime! My fingers were the warmest and toastiest they have ever been with my red and white mittens this past year!



These mittens are made from the same yarn I used for my window pane scarf and the tam.

I also followed the tutorial by Joan Z on the Temari Challenge group, and made this temari:



I am very pleased with how it turned out! In the first two steps you add more and more detail, and then in the 3rd step you cover over a bunch of the stitching and leave only what you want to show. I have admired this temari in one of the Japanese books (Kii Temari) for a long time, and couldn't even imagine how it was stitched. With Joan's explanations I think this one was successful. The variegated thread I used make it even more confusing to figure out, because it looks like I used a green and a coral/purple.

I am always taken aback when I use this color pink for a temari. I always feel like the thread is a brighter pink, but when I go to match it, it turns out to be a more mauve pink.

I am going to try this one again with more contrast. Do you like the negative space flowers?

I was doing quite well, with only a couple of started projects, but... I fell in love with a shawl pattern, I found the yarn for a reasonable amount (wool and silk laceweight!) and couldn't resist casting it on. It is mostly stockinette stitch, but with enough complications to keep it interesting to look at, and interesting to knit. I will get a picture for you soon.

Another day at the Zoo

The nice thing about a zoo membership is that you can go whenever you want to, and it doesn't have to be a killer day, because you can always go back to see what you missed. We went on Monday, the first full day without school. Of course, we were not the only ones with that idea, so the zoo was a little crowded.

The kids were a little excited:



We got free tickets to the dinosaur exhibit with our membership. The exhibit was a lot of fun. Here are DD2, P & C making the dinosaur roar, breath, and move his head and tail.



These things were so scary looking, I was really glad they were only fake.



Here's our primates playing with another primate:



Near the wading birds pool they were showing off a Red-tail hawk. I was interested to see jesses; I have read about them in many books, but it was interesting to see how they actually worked. They are small leather anklets around the bird's feet with leather straps hanging down which the keeper holds on to. This bird is a little upset because it kept getting dive-bombed by the resident grackles, who of course were not happy with this predator in their neighborhood.



We had lunch in a different restaurant, one we had never been to before. In the dining room they had several weavings hanging up that were absolutely gorgeous. This one is birds and bugs; there was another that was birds and fish. I just love the color progression on this one, from darker gray around the outside, through gradual color changes to light at the center. The butterflies in the corner are really beautiful.



We had a wonderful day, and got home without even feeling complete exhaustion. We still have our tickets for the Dolphin show too, so we will have reasons to visit again soon.