$1000 arm warmers

Bishop's armwarmers are done and delivered. Finally. I think he requested them in February which would make it, er, 10 months. He did seem to appreciate them and said that they should be worth a grand with the time I took to complete them. Let this be a warning to friends who ask me to make them things. They're much more likely to get something in a timely manner if it's my idea. In my defense, all the yarn is handspun and except for the natural browns, hand-dyed. And I did three or four different dyeings to get the colors as he wanted. And he decided he wanted handknit and my wrists act up if I knit too much at one time. And his arms are absurdly buff making for absurdly large armwarmers. Many excuses, but actually a large part of the delay is that since I had to do them for him (he'd already traded me some beautiful glass things), I was not as enthusiastic as if I'd been designing and making them purely because I wanted to. At any rate, here's a photo:
I'm glad they're finally done so I can not feel guilty everytime he calls to say hello. And I do want to make him another pair, but this next pair is on my terms. Maybe he'll even get them before February. I already dyed the roving.

Meanwhile I'm itching to post pics of some of my new glass sculptures, but may be giving them as gifts, so I'll have to wait. Here's one that will be going to the Studio Artist's Gallery with a few additional details in other media:

And here's a sort of recipe for ridiculously easy and tasty chocolate ginger truffles that I'll be inflicting on my friends (went over well at the recent farm party):

5-6 oz dark chocolate
~2 cups crushed, smashed, pulverized gingersnaps
little bit of rum, start with 2 tb and add more as needed to get good consistency
~4 tb powdered sugar + extra for finishing

Melt chocolate in double broiler or reasonable improvised facsimile.
Remove from heat, stir in gingersnaps and powdered sugar. Other spices can be added as well; cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon might be tasty additions. Add rum until mix is stiff and malleable, but not too crumbly or too runny. Shape into balls, chill in fridge until firm, then roll in powdered sugar.