Inaugural Ball, White House Tour,

We arrived in DC on Sunday around 11:00 went off to explore the Mall. Met up with friends at the Botanical Gardens and visited the Native American Museum and had some wonderful native food.
Inauguration Day : we stood with a million other enthusiastic mostly younger people to watch the swearing in ceremony. It was inspiring to see such a diverse and friendly crowd. I was renewed with hope that we can work together to make a better world. FORWARD. Into the new century. Everyone carried a cell phone to record the event and the felling of being part of this giant community was worth the physical endurance it took to walk miles and stand for hours in lines.

We did no use our tickets for the parade. We went back to our hotel to rest up for the Ball and find some food to keep going.

The Ball was hard to describe. Thousands of people all dressed up milling about. The music was great and seeing the President dance with Michelle was the high point of the evening.

The tour of the White House 11:00am
Frigid cold standing in line. We just missed the Surprise visit of the President, First Lady and Bo. If we were just a little slower moving through we would have seen them. Kathy F. From Greenville was there and had the her picture posted on the White House Site. I will attach it below.
Here are a few pictures:

Inaugural hat for Deborah

Knit cabled Tam my original design. Inspired by a tam I saw in Knitty Magazine. My tam uses larger needles and my flower only has 6 petals the other one had 8. I knit this without a pattern just making it up as I knit knowing that the math had to come out so I had 6 equal sections to create the design I hoped to achieve. Below are some notes that I took as I knit. An experienced knitter should be able to knit a similar hat following the notes plus pictures posted below.
You may email me at spinningotter@gmail.com if you have questions.
Worsted weight Manos yarn on #9 circular needles.
Cast on 64 stitches
K2p2 for a couple rows
Knit one row
Purl around two rows
Knit row increasing (k8m1) to 72sts
(72 Divide by 6 = 12) knit 12 place marker to create a design with 6 sections in the pattern. Blossom pattern on top looks like flower with 5 petals.
You will use the markers as a guide to increase stitches inside the petals to 104 stitches to make a Tam shape.
When the hat is large enough you will decrease inside of the petals(seed stitch) to form top of the hat. Look at the photos below as a guide

Another pair of Angora Mittens

The mittens I made for Sue we so much fun I made another pair. Red Angora by Elsbeth Lavold and left over yarn green tweed from Dale of Norway.
Knitted.
Cast on 40 stitches on #5 ndls
Adding stitches for thumb gusset(16+adding 4-6 sts to finish the thumb when seperated from the body of the mitten). finished off the thunm with # 3 ndls to tighten up stitches.