Proof of actual knitting (and crochet)

Did you all really think I'd given up the yarn? Now, come on.

In truth, I haven't had all that much time to knit. And I diverged a little into crochet...because, you know, it's fast...

Some time ago my classmate and partner in crime PenguinShrink (or as I am sometimes wont to call her, Wet Armadillo Girl, given her propensity to say things like "50 lashes with a wet armadillo." She's from Texas, what can you say) and I made the very silly commitment to hand craft thank you gifts for all of the donors who gave money for the intern retreat. We were told there are usually about 7 or 8 donors, and that this year they'd had more trouble recruiting people to donate because the retreat, um, wasn't well attended last year (again, I tell you, it's a weekend off, at a beach house, all expenses paid. What's the conflict??).

There were 15 donors.

We had a lot of fiber work to do...

Penguin's a much more accomplished crocheter than I (you should see the blanket on their bed!), so she tackled the more complicated items, for the higher-amount donors - i.e., a moebius scarf and shawl, a very cool ribbed newsboy hat, etc. This is my contribution:

What you see here, from left to right, are three scarves at the top - in Encore (from my stash), Red Heart (I know, but, dude, it was cheap) and Malabrigo Chunky (also from the stash, and, for the program director). The left two are just some combination or another of sc-dc rows; the one on the right is the infamous Potato Chip Scarf, or at least my crocheted version.

Down in front (here's a close-up):

are two washcloths in Bernat Organic Cotton (the pink - and can I say, $3 for 84 y and AMAZING. Seriously, I'm in love) and the old standby Sugar 'n' Cream, which is also what that square thing is made of (it's a washcloth-bag thing that you put your soap right into, whatever the hell that's called, and it has a bar of soap in it, in a box, which is why it's square). Then that little thing next to the washcloths is a coffee cup cozy in the custom-dyed Lorna's Laces that Sarah sent, for one of the State Hospital attendings who, well, drinks a lot of coffee. In truth, it started out as a sock, but, I didn't like the way it was turning out, decided I needed to do a slip-stitch pattern of some sort, blah, blah, but I didn't frog it, so I just ribbed a few rows, bound off, and *poof*, instant java cozy (incidentally, I made one of those for my uncle, for Christmas, and he raved about the silly thing). Anyway, next to that are two gift bags, one knit, one crocheted, out of the Encore again (which were going to be filled with chocolates), and then finally, also for chocolate-filling, is a little bowl on the end there made out of some icky Paton's Canadiana that was in the stash, don't ask me why (the color actually turns out sort of cool, but blech, it feels so..acrylic). And there you have it.

Then, the past few days, I've been working on a little baby beanie (not to be confused with a Beanie Baby) for one of the nurses at work, who's having a shower tomorrow.

Here's Maggie, modeling the hat with all the enthusiasm Sarah's Worfy (PS - happy birthday, Sarah!) usually shows as well....

And, perhaps a better view, on the couch:

It's made out of RYC Cashsoft, a machine-washable merino-cashmere-microfiber blend, and possibly my all-time-favorite baby yarn.

So that's what's off the needles/hook these days. I need to start something else...I've got a couple of socks going that just aren't calling to me these days....any suggestions?