So excited!

So I went to knitting last night thinking it was going to be a regular night.  I was wrong.  Tom has returned!  He was part of that group before I was, but had to stop coming.  He had perfectly good reasons; he was stuck at work, he was out of town...those kinds of things.  It has been a few years since he was able to come!  I'm so glad he did.  I know some people might be afraid that they have become an outsider to the group after so long.  I'm pretty sure he didn't feel that way, especially since everyone who knew him gave him a hug the minute we spotted him.

Now back to the other part of the blog.  This is the day in year past (I know the expression is 'years past' but this blog isn't that old) I spent this day frantically finishing things.  It's my very last chance to get things done to count for this year.
I'm not sure I'm going to be doing that this time.  I have a plan to have a nice relaxing lunch, do some stuff around the house.  Though after saying that, there is no guarantee that at some point today I won't have a part of my brain realize that this really is the last day of this year.  The last day before things will count for next year.  The last chance to make it look like I wasn't slacking all this year.

Here are some more things I did get finished though.

I've started calling this "That Hat" since it popped in my head.  A few people have been really interested in the pattern and stitch pattern.  If I ever did release it as a pattern I thought it would be really cool to hear someone say:

Person 1: "What are you knitting?"

Person 2: "Oh, just That Hat"

Why, yes, I am easily amused.  Why do you ask?

Here is a closer look at the stitch pattern.  It is a 16 row repeat.  I thought of it after a Mon knit-night a while ago.  I saw someone working on a really cool hat pattern.  I watched her and tried to see what she was doing.  I thought I had it down.  I got home and realized that I only had a vague idea of what she was doing.  I made a swatch with all the combinations she might have been using.  I liked all of them.

This is a cute beret.  That is also my lunch in the background.  I'm odd, I love hummus on my salad.

Here is a top view.  It is a fast crochet, even though parts seem like they take forever.  I had started one of these in orange as a sample for work.  It started showing progress so quickly.

I had to do a bit of digging, but the pattern is Bridgette Beret.  This picture shows the color a bit better.

Where I work has some sort of deal with Lion Brand so that we get free supplies for the 101 classes and get to use their patterns.  Odds are that if I mention a pattern that I'm making a sample of for work but can't find the pattern, it is somewhere on the Lion Brand page.

 

I've also been house-sitting a bird.  "His" name is Mercedes (they aren't sure if it is a boy or girl) and loves to make noise.  I was awoken today by a mini concert.  I'm pretty sure he was going through all the songs and sounds he knows.  I even got to hear a wolf whistle and "pretty birdy".  I got a video the other day of him singing all pretty like.

 

(I've not done this before, I hope it works)

 Something new I just learn is that if you play a sound clip of him singing, he will try to sing back to "himself" from the other room.  Too cute.  Silly Twiddle-bird.