In the interest of narrowing the gap of backlogged projects,

I thought I could at least report on the status of the projects I mentioned the last time I wrote.

I finished knitting Labyrinth a little over a week after I started, but I let it sit in the back of my closet for a really long time, because I didn't want to spend the time blocking it.  Also, I was living in very small spaces in Tokyo at the time, and I would have had to block it on my bed and sleep on the floor.  I blocked it a year after finishing knitting it.  In the end, I didn't like the way the gray looked against the maroon body color, so I ripped it out and re-did it with black.

Here it is as it was blocking:

Labyrinth - Blocking, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And here it is hot of the needles:

Finished Labyrinth, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Gir got stuffed and assembled, and I even worked on his dog suit. Now his dog suit is in the back of a drawer, waiting to be finished.

Finished Gir:

Gir - Finished!, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

and half-finished suit:

Dog suit in progress, empty, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Dog suit in progress with Gir, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Dog suit in progress, back, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Some notes on the suit:
I'm trying to make it with as few seams as possible (so far, none!).  I started at the feet, and worked up, then joined with green yarn and worked up the body.  I left holes for the arms, then picked up stitches and worked the arms from the shoulder down, in black.  For the tail, I simply picked up stitches, and worked a narrowing i-cord: four stitches, down to three.  I'm trying to imitate the way the suit works in the show as best as possible, so I left a slit down the belly of the suit, where I will later install a red zipper.  The head of the suit will work like a hood, with the zipper coming up the neck and across the bottom of the jaw, where it will stop at the snout and the zipper pull will be the "tongue".  I'll probably decorate the zipper pull, too, to make it more tongue-like.  I should also mention that Gir's dimensions in the suit and his dimensions out of the suit are completely different.  For one, his feet are much wider when he's not wearing the suit, and when he is, they narrow down to little points.  Possible in an animated series, but not in life.  I tried my best to compromise between the two images, although I was already limited by the fact that I made Gir without the suit first.  I had a lot of doubts about how big the head should be, because the way the suit is in the show, it wouldn't fit snugly on a real Gir.  I knit and ripped a few times, and I still wasn't confident it would look true to the show, and that's part of why I let the suit sit in my closet for so long.

The gap-duster Sahara still hasn't been blocked or seamed.  I hope to do that soon (read: someday).  The main reason why I haven't touched it is because I got a little over-zealous with the waist shaping, and I hope that I can fix that with blocking, and I don't want to rip and knit it over again.  Then again, if I block it and it's still too small, I'll be upset.  Either way, I'm tired of having it in my UFO pile, so I'll try one or the other soon.

Shedir also got finished within a few days, maybe a week.  When I got to the finishing stage, I thought of pulling out my tapestry needle and weaving in ends, and thought, "meh I'll do it later."  I only just finished it last night, a full year later.  I have no excuses.  Here it is, almost finished, in the state I left it for over a year:

Finished Shedir, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And here it is now, with the ends woven in.

Finished Shedir. I mean really finished., originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Shedir, top view, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

The gray yarn I originally intended for the contrast detail on Labyrinth went to good use, too.  I think I originally thought of using it to make Elijah, but considering it's soft, good wool, I decided to use it for something that goes against the skin.  I had two balls of DK weight yarn, so it seemed like a good idea to use it to make socks.  I made Spindle socks with them:

Spindle sock side view, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

The color is just about true to life in the first photo.

Finished Spindle Sox, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

There's not much to report about these socks, really.  I made them in about four days, so they were barely a blip on my radar.  However, to their credit, they kept my hands busy (always a plus) and I enjoyed watching them grow.  They fit well, and they're soft and warm, so overall a good and satisfying knit.  I would make them again, but I'm not particularly interested in making socks, and I usually prefer to make sweaters.

Coming up soon: I had what I called the summer of lace summer a year ago.  This was when I had a month off in August between semesters, and I used that time to make one shawl and two scarves.