Someone stop me. For some reason my ambition in my graduation gift knitting seems to have grown in direct proportion to the number of deadlines I am under at the moment. I should realize by now that sensible people operate under an inverse ratio.
As if work deadlines aren’t enough (by May 24 I have to finish converting my 4th and 5th grade school library to Grades K-5 and pack away 10,000+ books for the summer construction project), I’ve two (male) cousins for whom to create gifts by their open house on May 28, plus an honorary niece with an open house on June 3.
For the cousins I decided a scarf and hat combo for each would be appropriate as they go off to college and the Air Force. Enter Wendy Easton’s Brioche Scarf and Hat from Weekend Knitting. I could do them in black and gold (for Purdue) and navy and gray (Air Force).
Learning curve alert! Having never worked brioche stitch before, it’s taken a little while to pick up. My spatially challenged brain doesn’t seem to find it intuitive, and I find myself wondering in admiration how the first brioche knitter dreamed it up.
It took about 5″ to get the hang of it and I still find myself stopping every once in a while wondering where am I? Not complete autopilot knitting.
I also didn’t really like the i-cord cast on for a “manly” scarf, so being quite the overachiever I had to pick up the two-color Italian cast-on to use instead.
I kept the i-cord edgings because they are necessary for the pattern to work as written and at that point my brain was done with alterations.
I am liking the results; I’m just moving more slowly on it than I’d hoped. Looks like the honorary niece will have to wait until mid-June for her gift. Sorry, Meesh!
Out in the real world, the peonies in the back yard operate on their own timeline. They are the state flower, after all.
My great-grandmother on the German-American side used to call them “pineys.”
Ariadne's Legacy 
A Corrugator would have been faster for sure. Just sayin’.
My ‘pineys’ are still scrawny red shoots. But you might get to see them in flower! And/or maybe the poppies! Come on June!
Your peonies are beautiful! What a green thumb you have! hehehe… really, I am jealous.
Steve’s Granny Bessie (from Kentucky) called them “pineys” too.
One more library day with you this year. Yea! (Not because of you, but because that means the end is near!)