the laziness of holidays

Unfortunately, a lot of my craftiness has screeched to a halt as I'm still trying to find my footholding after not being in school for a while. I forgot how much time and work was involved!

So this is a rather lazy post, lazy in how little I have done. Most of the pictures are of yarn I bought during winter break and have yet to do anything with.

But as promised, here is an arctic fox.

I know it doesn't look that cute in that photo, but omg looking at it playing around the cage with its sibling (they're brother and sister) is so fricking aw-worthy it hurts. They should put more money in researching how to domesticate foxes more quickly.

Here's a wip I started in winter, raveled here. I was 2/3 done with the righty mitten before I realized I had read the cable pattern wrong and in typical me fashion, ripped it, ripped it. 

After some defeated frogging.

The other wip is the rag rug, which has also hit a wall of sorts, with my school work being the wall. It's about a foot and a half in diameter now, big enough for a rug for a mouse.

These are a few skeins I picked up from Jo Ann's before returning to Davis:

Sock yarn! 

After closer inspection, they do seem of the same color dye, I guess I was put off by the variegated color's chameleon-like character. They look so comfy and soft mmm. Sadly they probably won't be hitting the needles any time soon. 

Yarn for my dear friend, Laura's, scarf. 

I've worked with this yarn before and while pleasantly soft and of a nice light sport yarn weight, it's hell to keep track of when knitting into lace, as I found when I tried to make the Gwen Slouch beret with the free skein I was given during Caron's yarn giveaway. I made about 10 attempts, and that skein is still sitting in my stash, all frogged into yarn again. Maybe a scarf will be more forgiving.

A few other things...

Attempts at using the nail stamper.* 

It's a floral pattern, a bit messy. I need to practice more. But I'm excited to get the hang of it and try out more patterns (especially the houndstooth and chevron, the hipster in me just died from so much pretty).

*Sorry for the dirty nails. Just a part of being a low-maintenance college student.

Oyster mushrooms peaking out.

Another one of Erik's presents, this one from my birthday. They were very reluctant to give out a second harvest, but with all that mycelium inoculated in there, I couldn't help but think there was a second chance near the surface.

I hope everyone had a great MLK day and relished in how much the world has striven for racial equality, and the long path ahead for what still needs to be done. I tip my cup of tea to all of you.