A little knitting and the view of my lap

It's been a long time since I blogged last. The deep snow, the cold weather and the lack of sunshine has put me in the winter doldrums.

The sun is out today but that only means that I can see the snow piled everywhere just that much better! I know...get over it Marilyn! I'm working on it....

This is the second start on a scarf for DH. I was using the pattern Cerus but it just wasn't moving along very fast and I just wasn't feeling it, so that got frogged.

This past Sunday, I decided on a simple K2P2. I cast on 30 stitches with size 7 needles and it's just been flying along. What a relief. I've been wanting to get this finished for a month or more now and couldn't make myself work on it with the old pattern.

The yarn is the mink/cashmere like I used for 1st DDIL's scarf only her's was red.





The Pansy socks are coming along. I am so wanting to finish these and the scarf. It feels like something hanging over my head and I don't think that is the intention of knitting!














And this is the view of my lap. Teddy, the kitty that can't stand to be held and won't sit on your lap unless it is HIS idea was really trying to help me knit on DH's scarf this morning. Oh-so-much-help.

The non-pair pair of socks

I knit DH a pair of socks. I bought the yarn (Colinette Jitterbug) long ago when I was first starting knitting again and had only done a pair or so of socks before.



Here are the yarn labels*. To me they still look the same. And all that time ago I thought same name, same numbers, good to go.

I knit this sock. Looks okay. A little tired of knitting ribbing but that's alright.

Started on the second sock. Hum, looks different. Less purply, more green, less black. Kept on going. Came to the conclusion that yes they are different.

Showed DH and he said no problem. He'd wear them anyway. Just going to be house socks.

I thought phew! Don't have to undo all that ribbing to make them look alike.

So I give you the non-pair pair of socks.

*I didn't read the fine print under the staple that said the lots might not be the same and to make your knitting turn out the same you might need to alternate skeins every couple rows.

experiment

How do I make IntenseDebate comment work?? Augh!

A sweet little shrug

This sweet little thing is for 3rd DGrandbaby. She is going to be baptised on Sunday and has a wonderful dress but it is sleeveless and this is February in ND! So I volunteered to knit a little sweater....well this is even better because it doesn't hide any of the front of the dress. Perfect.

The pattern is Confection Baby Shrug (Ravelry link). It was super easy to do and I was just tickled to find the pattern in a search around Ravelry. I even got the yarn that the pattern called for, Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton. It is very soft and unlike most cottons it didn't make my hands ache. Nice. I used the 3 month size pattern and it looks like it will fit exactly right.



The detail on the back is from Baby Bolero. I just thought that it would add a nice little touch and it goes so nicely with the eyelet on the sleeves.

I didn't wash it or block it at all. I didn't want to lose that softness. It can be washed after if it needs to be.

Well as you can tell, I'm super happy with how this turned out and I hope it looks as good as I anticipate.

Oh and BTW....DH & I and the other Gramma are the godparents for this sweet little girl....that makes it even more special! :)

Blizzard

This is what our street looked like a few days ago. It was a winter wonderland of frost and a bit of sun trying to peek through. A really nice winter day.

















Today is another story. A real honest to goodness blizzard. One where you can't see out of your yard at times. And that is saying something when you live in town. It must be impossible to see at all in the country where there isn't anything to block the wind and snow.

















The drifts behind the house are growing and changing. And the mini drifts in the garage show just where the doors don't fit as tight as we thought!

I enjoy a good blizzard when everyone is safe and there aren't any power outages. It's Mother Nature's way of slowing things down....

It also gives you time to think of places to go, to get away from this kind of weather! ;)

Click to embiggen the pictures. They aren't that blurry. It's the weather!

Something finished, something started, and a naughty kitty

1st DDIL's scarf is finished. It is a Christmas gift I'm embarrassed to say but I'm doing a Happy Dance that it's finally done! The pattern is Lavender Lace Neckwarmer. I made it scarf length because that is what 1st DDIL wanted. It is from the Knit 'N Style magazine. February 2010. I used size 7 Harmony circular needle.



It is not hot pink. It is dark red. I don't even try for the right color when it's red and the winter weather is set at grey. This was even done under my Ott light. Go figure.





This is the water after I washed it in Soak. Not too bad for fading. Not as much as I expected. And this color is accurate.





This is the 2nd rinse and I only did one more. It seemed good enough. This color is also right.





Here it is blocked and drying. If I get an interesting picture of it after it's dry I'll post again. I'm not holding my breath.


Here's what I think of the yarn. It's 70% mink and 30% cashmere and from Great Northern Yarns. When I got it I was surprised by the feel of it. I expected slippery soft like fur but it had more of a cottony feel. Soft yarn but with a different feel to it than I expected. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't knit like cotton. My hands never ached once while I was working with it. It has a nice fuzz to it and I haven't seen any pilling. As you can see by the pictures it did a bit of bleeding but nothing that was extraordinary. In the 5 skeins of yarn I got there was 1 knot. I don't think this is too bad, although I'd like to buy yarn that never has knots. Unless something shows up with wearing, I like the yarn and it's fun to give a gift that is very different from the average because the yarn is exotic. Or I think so at least! :)




And so I turned right around and started DH's scarf from the same yarn. Just a different color!





And now to show you Teddy. Doesn't he look sweet and innocent? Just sleeping like any normal cat.




Well, I'd be sleeping too if I'd done all this damage in a matter of a few minutes! Yes. He tipped the chair. Yes. He flipped the rug. And yes. He moved the cardboard box off the couch and across the floor in an attempt to get to the tissue paper inside.

Naughty kitty!

Ramblin' ramblin' ramblin'

Many have written very comtemplative new year's posts on their blogs. But I've never gotten into the making resolutions, fresh start deal of new years. It's just another day in my life. No better. No worse. No more special. In my opinion, if you want a fresh start you can do it any day of the year. Doesn't have to be new years day. So whatever works for you is good but this is what works for me.

I've done a few things in the new year though.


I finished a pair of socks that I started about a year ago. Isn't that sad? But they are finally done. That's the main thing.

I've been working on the pile of papers that just seem to keep growing on my desk at work. It's going to be a long month I'm afraid. The computer is telling me to send out 1099s and I don't even have the forms yet. Uff!

I donated blood yesterday. I got my 2 gallon pin! That's a fair amount of blood if I do say so myself! :) The story about what got me started donating blood is this....Years ago my dad had surgery for colon cancer and started bleeding during the surgery. If I remember correctly they gave him 3 units of blood that day. If someone hadn't donated and that blood wasn't available he probably wouldn't have made it through the surgery. So I'm paying it back and maybe by this time I'm paying it forward too! Oh, and he came through that surgery fine and never needed chemo or anything. He passed away years and years later from old age.


And to end my post I'm giving you a look at our backyard again. Plenty of snow and today it's cold and windy. High temp of -12 with a wind chill advisory that it could be as low as -40 wind chill.

I'm going now to find my CuddleDuds.