I Guess I Asked For It

I forgot I changed my door decoration this year:

Mother Nature must've liked it!

But it's gone for the most part now. We may get more next week.

Isn't this little birdie a cutie! Nice and "round" like me! ;O) Happy Winter!

Snowed In

It doesn't take much where I live to make life come to a standstill. But last night we finally got the white stuff. My knitting meeting was a NO-GO today due to the weather, the library is closed until next week. At least Jenna LOVES the reason why!

It's still coming down and I have to admit, we're all pretty happy to finally see something stick to the ground. It doesn't seem to be as ICY as the last storm we had come through. At least people can make it into the sub-division this time.
Not too many people are out and about today though. When it snows here, life really s.l.o.w.s. down.

It's kind of nice.

There's not a lot of knitting going on for me lately. I'm signed up for the Ravelympics but have yet to decide WHAT TO DO, and like a knit-wit (LOL) I joined TWO teams! Last time I had a good idea of what I wanted to accomplish, but this time it's been a whole lot harder. I haven't felt like knitting a whole bunch anyway. My creative mojo has taken a vacation and it's cramping my olympic spirit! Hope it finds it's way back! (SOON!)

Ah well, I still have time....

The New Year Chill

I don't mind snow (as long as I don't have to drive in it). It's the ICE that makes me nervous. Here in the Southeast we don't get much snow and even less ice - but this latest blast just wanted to share I guess. It's been a week of 20 degrees or less, with a nice steady breeze of icy wind to make it feel like half of that. This Central California girl isn't used to this (we could DRIVE to the snow, but didn't live right in it). I know we're not in anything like in the mid-west or like my cousins buried in snow in Michigan. If we were, I'd be in really big trouble! We city folk are used to running to the store for stuff on a whim. This isn't so much fun.

These cars parked in front of our house because the street is ICE. They couldn't make it up the hill further down the sub-division so they just parked here and walked home. These are the days when I'm glad I'm not working right now. With my lead foot I'd be sliding off a mountain for sure. Thankfully there were only a few days of this, today the road seems to be getting better and next week the sun should warm the streets more - so less icy patches. The kids loved having snow days from school though, especially on the heels of winter break!

This is one of my latest projects, my first go at two at a time, toe up socks. I'm using Cometosilver.com's pictures as my guide and I had absolutely no problem with the cast on - but I don't like this toe at all. I think I need to rip and add more to my initial cast on, a rounded toe is going to suit me better. Unless we have little elf "pointy" feet, these aren't going to fit any of us (trust me, I've already tried it on every foot in the house to avoid redoing them.) I'm using the handspun yarn that CA DAWN sent me for my birthday last year. It's made this new journey of 2 at a time more fun because it's really soft and squishy. I may break down and just do 2 at a time cuff down though, just for expediency.

Tomorrow is car shopping day, it's time for the Big Guy to replace his company car. I love that he wants me to go with him (we may end up buying this one for our daughter down the road - a teenage driver...yikes) but I hope I can stay warm out there! I negotiated a trip to Joann's for some buttons for a project for my SIL. Gotta love a man who is easy to trick compromise with.

Happy Knitting! (And stay WARM!)

Black is the new Black

And it's such a bummer for me to knit with!! My poor eyes! But my cousin is worth it because she really does USE the things I knit for her. That's the best reason to knit for someone, so when she asks for something I just can't say no. She's a Dosimetrist at a cancer center in California and is mostly on several computers all day in a VERY cold office. She requested black, so here they are.

Pattern: Sleekit Mitts
Yarn: Dream In Color Smooshy in Black Parade (which really looks bluish, brownish, blackish)
Size 1 needles

I really like this pattern, it's simple, yet sophisticated.

I sort of "left out" one line in the pattern the first time I made one. It happened to be a part in the pattern that works the thumb gusset up to a certain number of inches after the increases. When you miss something like that you wonder why your finished mitt is literally cutting off the circulation in your hand. Oops.

The pattern calls for a K1, YO, K1 increase to start the thumb gusset and my knitter's mind warned me "You'll get a hole". And yep, I got a HOLE. Knitters Tip #746: Always Follow Your Instincts (REALLY!)
I used a few of the brain cells that are still working and did my own thing: KFB, K1.See? No HOLE!! Yay Me!! I really like how she wrote up the pattern for the top of the thumb gusset though. She has you pass a stitch over some of the ones you pick up along the top and it really closes things up nicely. I'm going to use that technique on other ones I make as well. It sure beats having to use the tail to "fix up" any holes that show when you're done.

Here's another pair that I made for her:

Pattern: Fetching
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in Black
Size 5 needles - I added one extra cable row to the bottom and adjusted for the top as well. Did regular bind off rather than picot that's in the pattern. I think that keeps it from "flaring out" as much. These are thicker and I hope they work for her.

I actually have another pair in the works right now that's in the same blackish DIC yarn (since I had so much left over). She'll use them all the time so she can switch them out.

Today is a rest day. It was only supposed to be "light rain" today per the weather guy.


Oh my. Somebody sure got it wrong. School got out early but luckily my youngest was already here (she was up all night coughing). The Big Guy picked up my oldest who's just happy as pie to get out of school early. It'll probably all be gone by tomorrow though...