Taking you by surprise

I'm back. Thus, a hearty welcome back to the patient readers and friends who not only seem to come back to this deserted space but also kept nagging encouraging me to post again. Thank you all very much!
I am not going to waste time on explanations for my flight under the radar. Instead I will jump right into what we are ll here for: knitting content. It's all here, new projects, known but grown projects and things that I haven't touched since I "left" you back in December. Meaning, there is in fact plenty material for many future posts and work to be done, like cleaning up the sidebars and so on. In fact, I was planning to move the blog to a new provider since I am not really happy with blogger (e.g. the awful comment section, which renders almost every comment as anonymous) but haven't decided on an alternative yet. Any suggestions?
But now pictures.

[mouse over for a cat-free view]

The Lizard Ridge is coming along nicely. After several "sqares" (I did not follow the instructions to stop after 12 segments but rather finished the skein) I decided to knit stripes out of two skeins. Two of those double-stripes plus one "square" have been grafted together now for a long stripe (=5 skeins). I have now 5 of these and the only tasks left are sewing and blocking. Tedious... but I am sure the outcome will be very satisfying.

In the next posts I will not be able to resist showing off some finished projects. And introduce the project for my one and only actual swap/KAL Bloomin' Feet. I am really excited about this exchange and want to use the opportunity to send out some warm virtual greetings to my secret pal!