Where have I been?

It's been a while since I posted. Sorry about that. All last week I was working on my test for the Viking class. One of the items on the test was to identify artifacts from pictures. Some of them were a challenge and I'm not sure how many I got right. Are you interested in some current excavations of Viking sites? If so, you will like these links:
Fröjel (This site is about the excavation project the Viking Society class teachers are working on.)
Kaupang (In Norwegian, but you will find the pictures interesting.)
Uppåkra (A Swedish site, in English, mostly.)

Of course, I have been knitting. Vigdis will be finished tonight and I promise that I will post pictures tomorrow. When I got to the sleeves I abandoned the directions, which had the sleeves knitted flat and sewn on, and instead picked up stitches and knitted in the round. You might think that this is an awfully big sweater to be dragging around the kneedles while working on attached sleeves, but it really wasn't a big deal and I much prefer the result - seamless sleeves with a neat row of decreases along the bottom edge instead. I know the length is correct because I could try it on as I went, and when I finish knitting the second sleeve I have no sewing to do - just a couple of ends to weave in. The only scary part was knowing how long to knit at the top of the sleeve before starting the decreases. I could have estimated it on the basis of the stitch gauge, but actually, since I was talking to somebody while knitting that part of the sleeve, I just knitted until it looked right to me. I overestimated by about an inch, but since I could try on the sweater in progress I just ended the sleeve when it fit the way I wanted it to, and I am quite pleased with it. Well, you will see it tomorrow.

Now that I should finally have some time, I will be adding some pages here also. There will be a links page (I have so many more links that I would like to share with you than I could cram onto my main page), and a finished objects gallery, and some patterns, and even some recipes. I get a sourdough culture going usually every summer (it doesn't always keep going through the winter, unfortunately), and so I'm turning out some nice whole grain sourdough breads, even developing some of my own recipes. Sourdough doesn't need to be intimidating - all it takes is a little patience. I bake a lot more when I have sourdough because the culture needs to be used, and because it isn't that hard to start the bread before bedtime (just put some sourdough, flour, and water in a bowl), so then I am committed to baking bread the next morning (otherwise I spend all day thinking I am going to get around to it, but usually don't quite get there). We are entering the cheese making season also, and I will share some cheese recipes as well.

Okay, so don't give up on me - I'll be posting more often, so keep checking this space!