My apologies for the somewhat more than two week's absence - just haven't had much of anything to say, outside of "When is this **^&^%$^$^&%*(O)*( rain going to STOP???" It finally has, and today was filled with sunshine! Remember back on the 17th of September I was talking about it was raining? It's BEEN raining, with one short day's respite, ever since! My backyard rain gauge filled and was emptied and refilled, etc. until I finally quit bothering, at 16", several days ago. It has been WET, people! Local creeks and rivers are expected to crest just below flood stage day after tomorrow, though there has been much localized and "urban" flooding. Getting out of my neighborhood via car has been interesting, as we're on a low ridge above the Big river valley, which is to the east and north of us, and has been flooded, off and on, for days at a time. We have to go about two miles west, then north, then east for several miles before we can turn south again to get across the river to DS's work.

My shoulder is improving, and in the last few days I've been able to do some knitting. Stitching returned several days before that, and I have an entire cupboard shelf once again filled with clean coffee mugs! MS3 has now progressed to row 136 of the second side. I've almost reached the point of the first chevron. I may actually get the thing finished before Christmas, o frabjous day!

The Historic Countries Sampler is advancing slowly, but is looking pretty decent. The pic below shows the progress I had made up to about a week ago, and since then, I have finished the barely started floral motif on the upper left, and made a good start on the 18th century couple under them. I'll try and remember to get a picture again tomorrow.

Sharp eyes will notice there's an error in that floral motif. The leftmost 'lollipop' somehow acquired an extra stitch in the stem. Yes, I frogged and restitched it to remove the extra one.



I also noticed, looking at the picture and comparing it to the real object, that I have an error in the first half of the MS3! However, I have no intention whatsoever of frogging and reknitting it! The guy on horseback speeding by isn't going to notice it, and I bet y'all haven't either. *I* didn't, until just last week!

Whilst dear friends are in a tizzy getting ready for Rhinebeck (and Oh, how I wish I were with them!), I'm going to try to get my Ravelry stuff together. I've been aboard for almost a month, now, and have barely started. Shame on me!

AND - I ordered a pair of the Harmony tips from KnitPicks - and am eagerly awaiting their arrival. Everyone who has gotten them so far that I've been reading is madly in love with them, and I can hardly wait to play! Mine are in US 7, for the Mystery Arterial Blood project. I don't normally knit with anything that large.

I also ordered a set of their nickel-plated DPNs, in 2.25mm. I finally found a pattern I like for the Sherbet FlockSock yarn I've been drooling over. It's funny, because I had something VERY similar to this pattern about half-way charted and written down, having given up finding it already done, when I ran across this pattern, and it's even a freebie! I'll post more about this project later, along with a pic of the scrumptious yarn.