It is very easy and can be made by anyone who can knit in the round on double points. Gauge is not particularly important. It could be scaled up to make an ice-filled lumbar cushion or it could be stuffed with ordinary stuffing to make a travel pillow. 
Here's a picture of Tippy, a cormo lamb whose hoggett fleece was fine, soft, and very white. I spun up the yarn, then immersion dyed it, first blue, then (after removing half) overdyed it with yellow to make the emerald green that is one of the bride's favorite colors. 
I held two strands together as I knit to make a very cushy, warm blanket. To give the log cabin pattern a modern twist, I varied the thickness of the stripes as I went along, instead of doing the traditional balanced squares. 
I thought I could finish it by the end of April, but with a busy schedule I found myself still knitting away until the end of June, sweating under a heavy blanket in 90 degree temperatures. I think it was worth it. I am so pleased with how well it came out that I want to make another in purples for my trailer. Here's the happy couple with the blanket.
Just one skein of fancy purple oh-so-soft bamboo yarn. What's a girl to do? Set it on the coffee table and contemplate it for a month or two. Not enough for socks. Too nice to serve as a cat toy (thus we remove it from the cat and put it back on the coffee table). It came to me in a flash of pain. Really. Migraine pain. The perfect use of this super soft, but decadently priced yarn would be a neck pillow! One that can accommodate ice wrapped in a washcloth. I started with eyeleted rib for a ribbon drawstring at each end, then will pick up the cast-on and cast-off to add a little lace at each end. And if I have enough yarn left I can make an eye mask for the full anti-migraine experience.
OK, so it is not the Great Wall of China or the Pyramids of Egypt. Just the Minor Wall of My Front Yard. I have managed to put in an hour or so of shifting stones after work each night. Turns out I was absolutely right in my suspicion that dry stack walls are harder to pull off then they look. The problem is that you tend to quickly use up all the conveniently rectangular stones, then are faced with all the funny shaped ones. And one little knobby bit on a rock can leave it wobbling precariously or stubbornly refusing to fit into the space you just know it should fill admirably. 
Despite (and perhaps because of) my currently busy work schedule, I have managed to complete a carry-along project. Carry-along projects are necessary to keep one's sanity by allowing a little knitting between meetings and while toing and froing across campus to even more meetings. I have become quite adept at garter or stockinette stitching while walking without running into trees or cars. By the end of this summer I may even be tackling lace while walking. 
I liked the result so much that I actually dug out the sewing machine and made a lining, complete with 2 large pockets and a cell phone pocket. To continue the eco-friendly theme, I made the lining from cotton fabric scraps left over from the trailer curtains. Many thanks to Allison, who suggested I let the singles yarn unwind a bit as I went along to soften the resulting fabric.
My most treasured progress has been on the foundation ditch for my rock wall. It will be a low dry-stack wall, so I dug a ditch about 10 inches deep and spread sand in it. The sand is to give a nice level surface for the first rank of ledger stone. In a flash of inspiration I used the "car-weight" sand bags that were taking up space in my garage. I used to put these bags in the back of my pickup each winter to add traction. Now I have a heftier 4-wheel-drive, so the sand can go to a higher (or lower) purpose. And tada! I have more space in my garage! I need to pick up one more bag of sand, then I will be able to start moving rocks. I hope to place at least a ceremonial first stone this weekend. 
Meanwhile, with absolutely no help from me, the garden has sprung to life. The lavender has sent up bloom stalks, the curl-leaf mahogany have become proper willowy shrubs, and, after a severe pruning, the Perovskia have filled in with dense crops of new leaves. Every year since I bought the house the pink peony has given forth exactly 2 blossoms. Sure enough - 2 more this year. 
Well, if not gems, then items that are better living with you than with their last owner.
Yes, it did come with contents intact, but I am not brave enough to drink something I found at an antique mall. Perhaps Magnusmog can give me a critique on "Willsher's Black Bull Scottish Whiskey". 
This one expands to 72 inches and has a cool brass slidey bit for an unknown purpose (the numbers are worn off there). 
With a bit of trial and error I have been able to adjust the mechanism for the finer grind I prefer. 
Some of the pictures remind me of my Mom's high school and college pictures. I will probably never make the wool bathing suits (yikes), but the pattern for the "Swagger Coat" looks really interesting. The pattern for the Men's Swimming Trunks calls for 6 oz of 4-ply wool and a "bathing belt" - I wonder where you get one of those....
Secondly, perusing the Knitty.com archives I came across the pattern for a bag called "Unbiased". It calls for 11oz of recycled sari silk from Tibet. By happenstance I have 2 skeins (12oz) that I bought several years ago in a little imports store in Yachats, Oregon. I have many special memories of that trip, so a bag made from this yarn will be both a handy knitting bag and a treasured memento. For now the project is my carry-along knitting. When finished, I can use it to carry along other carry-along projects. 
Water-wise organic gardeners learn quickly that there is no such thing as too much mulch. It keeps the moisture in and the weeds out. Many desert gardeners use gravel between their plantings. I prefer cedar mulch for several reasons. As it breaks down it adds acid to the soil (something much needed in my neighborhood). It does not hold heat like gravel or reflect the heat onto the house. It holds moisture better than gravel. The cedar oils are naturally insect repellent. It is easier to change out should I change plantings. The color is warmer. And, importantly, it is far less likely to kill my back. The only down side is cedar mulch's defiance of the law of conservation of mass - it somehow disappears over time. (Yes, I know my front yard is not a closed system, but it doesn't appear to be piling up at the downwind neighbors either.)
I replenish the cedar twice a year. In the spring I add a thick layer and in the late fall I add some around the more sensitive of the plantings to give them a little insulation. This weekend was spring mulching time. I spread 40 2-cubic-feet bags of western red cedar. Since each bag had to be shifted onto a cart at Home Depot, then shifted into the truck, then shifted out of the truck, then moved to its end destination, I figure I have moved a cumulative of 320 cubic feet of cedar mulch this weekend. And I am not done. I need at least 6 more bags for the front yard, and a bunch for the back yard. Spreading mulch is labor intensive and sniffle producing, but it lends a fresh clean look to the yard. Sort of like a fresh coat of paint. 
In other garden news the lilac has started to bloom. Lilac experts say that a heavily overgrown lilac should be pruned back to its optimum over three years. Lilacs only bloom on new wood, so an overgrown lilac won't bloom very heavily. I started the 3-year pruning process last year and it looks like I will be rewarded already with lots of almost-purple flowers. In the front yard, the first green leaves of the Salvia reptens have appeared to quench my fears that they might not come back from the winter. Each year they die all the way back to the ground, so I anxiously await the first bits of green peeking through the mulch.
Most have been below 2.0, but last week we had several 3s and 4s, with the strongest at 4.7. The folks in Mogul, about 7-8 miles west of my house have been close to the epicenter and losing a lot of sleep. We are expected to have one over 6.0, but for now they have slacked off a bit. So far I have had only 2 casualties. This lovely little wooden sheep was grazing too close to the edge of a shelf and took a dive during the 4.7er. Splintered off both of her port-side limbs. The now-legless robot fell off my desk at work. Time to get out the superglue I used on the 10.5 needle. Meanwhile I have corralled the rest of my breakable sheep into a padded paddock.
Adding to all the earthquake fun, I had a home-repair speedbump that may adjust my home renovation priorities. The outgoing sewage decided to bubble up into my backyard. Not pleasant at all. The fine employees of Jet Plumbing managed to unstop the stoppage for now, but it looks like a portion of the outgoing sewer pipe has collapsed. There may be much digging and repiping in my backyard's future. Or my neighbor's backyard. I am hoping plumbing calamity will hold off until after the summer. To earn good-house karma, I stopped at Home Depot on the way home tonight and bought 34 cubic feet of cedar mulch to begin spreading in the morning.
My favorite dogwood tree is gloriously in bloom. OK, the iconic four petals are actually bracts, not petals, but who's counting? I have been watching this tree through every season for over a decade now. For the last few years I have made it my own little photography project. Here is a slide show of this wonderful tree through the seasons: The Dogwood Tree
I recently took a quick trip to Tucson, Arizona for a conference. I love Tucson. It was my home for many years, and living there contributed greatly to my love of saturated color and nature-inspired folk arts. This was a quick trip, but happily I had some of the final day to wander about the historic El Presidio neighborhood and take some pictures.
Houses in the El Presidio neighborhood primarily date back to 1900-1940 and include wonderful mission revival bungalows with wide front porches and courtyard gardens filled with colorful bougainvillea and orange and olive trees.
