Check check almost check!

I have dedicated quarter 1 of this year to finishing old projects.  So far I think I'm doing pretty well. So since the last post, I finished the pink Frankencardi and have even gotten to wear it twice!  I love it.  The sleeves are a bit big but whatever- I was not the most advanced knitter when I made it.  I'm still not, but I'm getting there.  Here are some of my favorite pictures of it.
*I don't normally wear pink tutus around the house.  I made the tutu on Saturday for my Princess Run- which is less than a month away! Yikes!  I may be exhausted and wheezing and crawling to the finish line, but I have pretty awesome tutu.

This button band to 6 years to make.  Okay, 6 years to actually get around to it, 2 days to make.  And I love the buttons!  I had 5 of them in the button box and managed to find some more- sheer luck!

And moving on....finished another project! I finally finished my mittens that I started in October 2011 after a breakup.  I really liked working on them, but they were very cabled (not my forte) and very charted (which means it wasn't social knitting).  So they took a long time, but they're worth it.  They're also fraternal twins- there were a few little oopsies that I didn't care enough to rip back and fix.

I have been making really great progress on my super secret Outlander Swap gift.  But I can't show you until my person confirms that she's gotten it in March.  I'm really hoping to finish it tonight during my dork show and my murder mystery show.  Here's some pretty flowers that Rob got me instead! 

And...the Mermaid.  I am really ready for this project to be over with, and I have been that way for a long time.  The beading is taking forever, and there's just so many little fixes that also take forever.  They all make a noticeable difference, but I keep thinking "oh, that will only take 10 minutes!" and an hour and a half later, I'm wondering why I thought the tail needed an applied I-cord.  It does look much better though.  Here's some of the progress... (The applied I-cord is on the right side, I think it looks a little more polished than where I switched yarns and added a whole lot of increases in the same row- which is easier to see on the left side.  It took about 2 hours, but it looks a little better)

She got stuffed before I split her tail in two and started working the two bottoms separately.  I've got one of them done and grafted together on the bottom.  For some reason I thought the very bottom needed to be extra sparkly so it's taking an extra long time to put all those beads on.  I think she's got about 3 POUNDS of beads in her tail so far. (My mom wasn't sure about adding pearl beads.  I argued that she is a sea creature and might as well have pearly scales.  Plus I'm making it and she's not.)

I ran out of blue yarn for her tail so I had to order some to finish it.  Meanwhile, I started her starfish boob holders.  Pasties if you will.  The yarn used here is Good For Ewe Sultry Steps in Pumpkin.  I tacked those on so she wasn't swimming around topless anymore. So as of this morning we had a slutty bald mermaid with a chunk of tail missing.  Hot. 

I decided that the hair wouldn't take that long so I'd just do it today while the power was out since I couldn't really do any work on the computer or anything like that.  So after 2 balls of stashed Crystal Palace Squiggle, she's looking a little better.  I think....

Unfortunately, the back of her head looks like this.  Apparently 200 yards of hair is not enough. More on the way thanks to someone who is also destashing on eBay.

And very lastly...some handspun that I've been playing with since Christmas! Rob's mom got me this llama batt and a couple llama rovings.  Here it is in singles and in the bath setting the twist.  2.5 ounces, 72 yards- worsted-ish weight.  Love it, haven't a clue what to make with it.  Will show it off again when it's dried and hanked up.