Me-Made May Day 6: Mittens from an old sweater

This seemed like a brilliant idea, but I'm not entirely happy with the pattern. I have fairly large hands, so found these rather snug, and the thumb placement isn't brilliant. I am now cutting out more and playing with the pattern, as I think I can get another two pairs from the sweater. They'll be fine for the local shelter; if they get lost or no-one wants them, I don't really care.

Me-Made May Day 7: Horn Sausage Stuffer

This isn't exactly sewing, but it is something I made and will be using next week. It is a sausage stuffer (basically a very primitive funnel made of cow's horn). I'm researching medieval sausages, and this is one of the tools I have been able to document. You can read about my sausage research here: http://www.siglindesarts.wordpress.com.

Answer for question 4356.

[Error: unknown template qotd]I entered a small swim meet run by one of the local clubs. Somehow, the coach managing registrations decided I needed to do the 200 IM race (the last race of the day). I didn't realize I was registered so was late to the starting blocks. Luckily, it meant I didn't have time to stress too much about doing 50 m of butterfly (my absolute worst stroke, and one I rarely manage to do for 50 yards at a time, let alone 50 m at top speed). It was the hardest 4 1/2 minutes of swimming I have ever done. It wasn't too bad for an old broad who only learned to butterfly about 5 years ago, and rarely swims more than once a week, though.