Riffing on patterns

This is my version of the Parallelograms scarf from Knitting New Scarves. It's for my daughter, the scarf queen. This was a fun, easy knit; perfect for BART knitting or while watching over the caramel pot (I made caramels on Saturday). I used two skeins of Noro Silk Garden on US 8s. It is about 4 inches wide and 6 feet long. Perfect for the child who believes that one must wrap your scarf about your neck multiple times.

I used the Tweed Beret pattern from IK Winter 2006 as the basis for this beret. I used an aran weight blue face leicester yarn I bought from Kristine earlier this month. This took one skein plus a little bit that was left over from knitting the Maine Morning Mitts. I started with a four stitch i-cord; increased to eight stitches and then increased 8 stitches every other round until it was the diameter I wanted. In the next round, I knit 2 together all around. I finished it off with 1x1 ribbing, knitting the last two rounds in the contrasting color.

Late last night I cast on for the Architectural Rib Pullover from The Natural Knitter. I'm using some Alice Starmore Dunedin I've had in my stash forever. I haven't gotten very far, so I haven't taken a progress photo yet. Besides it's black and I'm not sure a photo would show all that much detail.

Dying fridge

Last night I returned from the Thanksgiving weekend to find that my fridge started dying sometime during the past four days. The freezer wasn't freezing and the fridge wasn't chilling. And the motor kept coming on about every three minutes, whining for about a minute and then going silent. I checked the fusebox to made sure the fuse hadn't tripped; I fiddled with the temperature settings; I discovered melted juice bars from earlier this summer that had completely melted. I also discovered that I can't move my fridge by myself to check the plug. Before the night was through, I'd turned the freezer off, which in turn stopped the motor from whining every three minutes. This morning the stuff in the fridge wasn't even a little chilled. Now, I'm waiting for the repair man to show up to tell whether or not I need to replace the thing. I bought this fridge six years ago and will be very disappointed if it can't be repaired.

I did get some knitting done over the weekend, which I did not photograph. I made the Purl Beret out of some Claudia Hand Painted and donated it to Caps for Kids in my hometown. This was a fun, quick knit and I will most likely make it again.

Added later: The repair man made my day--I don't have to replace the fridge. It needs a new compressor and something else. The parts and the repair man will be here tomorrow. I'm so relieved!