Blue Whale

I got an email from a friend, T, yesterday asking me to knit a whale for another friend, P, as an inside joke for P's birthday. In my mind-melting-panicked-dissertation-writing haste I immediately replied, "No, there's not enough time." If you're a regular reader or know me in person, you may have guessed I don't have much love for my dissertation. "Quit your whining," you're probably thinking. But no, when I say I don't have much love I mean, I stuck it out this far because I was stupid; and I'm only still in it because I'm SO close to finishing it would be a shame not to. As soon as I get the degree I'm fleeing research and never looking back. I don't want to say hate, (queue the sentimental music) because hate is such a strong word. But actually, I do see the value in the work. I just don't want to be the one doing it. I want to be the one encouraging others to do this work and helping them develop the skills to do it well...and have a better experience than I had.

But I digress. After taking a break, all I could think about was this whale, how it would be a cool challenge, how I could use all the techniques in my arsenal, which yarn I should use, how big it would be. And the more I thought about it the more I decided this was totally do-able. After all I've been making balls for the Christmas Tree and for the dog for a while now and they only take one to 4 hours depending on their size.

Christmas Ornaments for 2012 - the one on the left and last two on the right each took 1 hour to knit, are felted, and will have more embellishments added via needle felting when Partner and I finally have some free time. The one in the middle too 4 hours, the second to the left took about 3 hours, but it was made from several pieces each about one yard long while I was visiting my in-laws.