Killer Rabbit, Dress alteration, SOA swatching, and yarn guide

Here's the Killer Rabbit K. got me for Christmas. It's going to work with me, where it will join the Dead Parrot and Black Knight.

Yesterday my sis came over and we went shopping for patterns for her wedding dress. She settled on a McCall's pattern which, strangely, I can't find online right now, which we took back to my house and made up in muslin for fitting, with a few alterations. All told, very successful. I won't post pics because the muslin is a touch seethrough in the pics, but we're happy with the results. The next step will be the full-size mockup, since we're going to lengthen it; that could be done in the lining fabric.

I bought a Vintage Vogue pattern for my dress to wear at her wedding -- well, several VV patterns, since they were on sale -- and some dark blue poly satin (I'm contemplating getting some silk satin next payday for the final version). Meant to make the muslin mockup today, but instead I spent another day burning shows off the TiVo and ripping more CDs, and swatching for the Son of Aran sweater. Also made some black beans & rice (still cooking) and beef stew (done), and cleaned the fridge out.

I've been having a problem lately with yarn bothering the skin on my left index finger, where it runs over the finger for tension. (See the angry red line on my finger, at left.) So I bought two more Clover yarn guides (I already had one). These are normally used for stranded knitting, but it works just fine for preventing yarn chafing, too. I tried the wire knitting thimble I bought a while ago, also for use with stranded knitting, but it actually doesn't work as well -- it's a little too heavy, IMO, and doesn't stay put on my skinny fingers that well. Also, the yarn tangles up in the little wire curlicues when I take the thimble off, so I have to disentangle it when I come back to the project.

And yes, there's an error in the braid in my swatch. I'm not going to fix it; the swatch is just for the purpose of measuring, so it's not worth ripping back.