I'm baaack!

It's been a long time since I posted. My bad? But I haven't been hibernating, I've gotten a bunch of things done.....

DH & I drove* to Minocqua, WI to visit 2nd DS & DDIL and our granddog Aida. Well, they have no kids...you have to take what you can get.

We had a great time. We talked and talked some more and then ate and ate some more. Good times! Good food!

One afternoon we hopped on golf carts and took a tour of 2nd DS's golf course where he is superintendent. It doesn't look very green in the picture but it is greening up. And lookie....no snow! We got home to snowbanks yet. Augh!

I also had a birthday. Not telling how old. But I had a fun time!

And! TaDa! I finished DH's Christmas present. And ah, yes, that means this past Christmas not the one coming up in several months. a little slow...

When I washed it up it bled about as much as the red did on 1st DDIL's scarf. It's Great Northern Yarn. 70% mink and 30% cashmere. It seems nice but since I was so exceedingly slow and it is now spring, DH hasn't had an opportunity to wear it except for picture taking and I have no idea if it is itchy or not. Time will tell?
*Actually DH drove. I didn't drive a bit.

Weather conditions

We have had some warm weather....just enough to make a few icicles outside the kitchen window. It's a bit hard to see in the picture but they all are slanting to the north. A warm south wind made them that way.

But the other part of the warm weather, at least recently, is fog. Fog every night and lasting into the day. Grey, sound muffling, icy road making, BORING fog! Excuse me for yelling. I'm just so tired of winter. How in the world did the pioneer people survive in this region?!?! I'm yelling again aren't I? oops. sorry.

It does say Knits in the title of this blog doesn't it? Not weather reports? Well, I've been knitting rather intensely but with slow progress. I seem to be in some kind of black hole where you knit and knit, and knit and knit, and never get anywhere. And the yarn ball doesn't seem to get much smaller either. Maybe my tape measure is shrinking. Or I have magical mystery yarn. I'll post a picture when (or maybe if) I ever get done. And someone please remind me not to make another scarf for anyone any time soon. I think it's quicker to knit a sweater than a scarf!

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!