Temps are dropping

Sunday, January 20, 2008

The weather as of late has been unforgiving icy winds, and colder days than I think we've had in years. At least that's how they feel. Here are a few pics I took today. It snowed last night, not a lot but enough. It is mostly powder but combined with the wind, it made for nastiness.

This is one I took on the way home. The mountains in the distance are pretty.
This is our driveway. See the drifts? At the end there they got so deep I almost got stuck.
Dinner last night didn't go as planned. The place that was holding a table for us gave it away because we were five minutes late. Apparently you have only up to the time given to get there and not a minute later. It took a long while to get a seat anywhere else. There were only 7 of us total but that's enough to be a hassle apparently.

Here is a crappy pic, best I could get. Heather and Mikel are the two in the middle. He seems like a good guy, although I'm still not happy he's stealing her away.I got them presents but forgot to get pictures. For her daughter I got a doll, a really cute one. And for them I got a personalized picture frame with their names and wedding day on it. She was too busy crying and stuff to open them when I left, but I'm sure that she loved it.

I went to two yarn shops yesterday since I had time. One I only went to for the Dale of Norway baby Ull. They sell it cheap enough that I sucked it up and went. I actually got some help this time, and the lady I don't think I've seen there before was really nice. Anyway I got four colors to do two pairs of the Selbuvotter mitts. I'm still not sure what combinations I want but I'm thinking red and white, and black and pink. We'll see.
Then I went up to the other shop to scope out yarn for sweaters. I didn't like the yarn I had picked out online, and realized I wasn't sure at all what I wanted. Soooo I got sock yarn instead. Here we have two skeins of Socks that Rock. One mediumweight and one heavyweight. The first is the med, and it's Love in Idleness. So pretty. I might make some of those mermaid mitts with it, that use the same stitch pattern as pomatomus. Not sure.The heavyweight I adore, especially the base, it's so nice. This is Chapman Springs. I bought it for a certain pattern but who knows. I just like to pet it...
Ok well really I need to get to bed. It's late and I'm up super early as usual. Hopefully I'll make it out of the driveway...

New Knitting

Saturday, January 19, 2008

So that yarn I finished, well the second it was remotely close to dry enough, I wound it up and cast on. Here's the start of my Forest Canopy shawl. I am of course farther now. I like the striping effect that seems to happen with handspun. It's very cool. It's also a very fast knit on size 8 needles!See the leaves?
I got some roving in the mail yesterday that I ordered from the last Pigeonroof update. It's GORGEOUS. I want to spin them now lol. They are both more S. African fine wool. After spinning the cornucopia, it grew on me and the softness is great.

This one is 4 ounces in the color Jester. Love this one so much.
And this one is 3.7 ounces in Hydrangea. Seriously pretty.
I also got some yarn I traded for. It's louet gems sportweight and I have two hanks in this size, of 225 yards each. Then there are two cones of around 500 yards each. So plenty to make a top or two with. I'm still thinking about it.
Well that's all I've got for now. I have things to do today. My one good friend in the area is moving far away and we are going to have dinner later. I still have a gift to get her and something for her daughter, and I had plans to go to a yarn store. So we'll see what I get done, but now I need to go feed the kids and make some tea. I woke up with a sore throat and I'm hoping that I'm not going to get sick.

Future knitter?

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Isn't this a sight? I thought it was super cute so I grabbed the camera. She's been watching!All tangled in the yarn...
My brother's hat I've been working on. It's not as bright as it looks. Apparently he's been complaining about the knit stuff I've sent my sister, and wants the hat already lol. I need to get to 5 inches before I can start the decreases, and it's taking f o r e v e r. Seriously. I'm at almost 4 here.Nothing else going on, just anxiously awaiting to hear if I got a loopy sock club spot although it looks as if we won't know until tomorrow. Until then!

A day full of fun!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Wow do I feel like I got a lot done today. It wasn't really much but it was enough to make it feel productive. First though, here's a picture of the Lace Mitt that I had finished but didn't get a picture of it with the hems sewn down and the ends woven in. I really like this one!When I got home I grabbed my Retro Rib sock and started working on it. I got up to the toe where you start to decrease last night. So it wasn't long before I finished that up! Here they are! I haven't taken them off since I finished them...oh...4 hours ago lol.
Here's a little shot of my toes!!! Also worth mentioning is the fact that I still have over half a ball left of this yarn. I can get a whole nother pair of socks out of it!
After that I fed the kids and got them in bed for naps and stuff, and set out to work on plying my two bobbins of singles. After an hour, maybe an hour and a half, I finished plying it and wound it off the bobbin. The result was a perfectly balanced skein of about 467 yards. Isn't it pretty???
It's more orange than the pictures are showing but that's ok. I am happy with how it turned out. I'm also glad that it's a little bit thicker than the last roving I spun. I'm getting better! Here's a little closeup, a bit washed out from the lighting, but I like it.
I've decided to knit the Forest Canopy with this. I ripped the seasilk version I was doing after I decided I didn't like it so much after all. I can't wait to knit with it!

Next up will be the Green Ocean superwash bfl, because I love to spin bfl and want superwash for socks. So that's my goal. Then after that I'm going to spin two of my pink rovings up for the Juno Regina stole/shawl on knitty. I think it will be great!

So lots of spinning in my future I think. And knitting too. I have to finish up a pair of mitts seriously, my hands are so cold in the mornings, and I lost the other pair I had...
And my brother would like his hat sometime this winter...
AND now that the Retro Rib socks are done I can cast on for the second Twisted Flower sock!

The last thing I did today was add those nifty Ravelry progress bars that you can see there on the left. Cool huh? I love the little picture of the project and I was able to get them working pretty easy. Thanks to some code from Casey (the Ravelry code monkey as he's affectionately called) and Rachel's help that is.

Ok well I think that's plenty for today. I will update more later when I've got something to report!

If you go out in the woods today...

Sunday, January 13, 2008

So today I had a huge project ahead of me. That is, after I got home from work. I had to be there at 5am today since our quarterly meeting was this morning. Meaning I had to be there earlier and finish earlier. Yep so after that I came home and slept about an hour on the couch until lunch. Then after lunch I started moving things around. I had previously been keeping my computer on this table. Yep, seriously. See the left side where that light is shining. That's where it was. That pile,...yarn. Ok so under it there is a basket and ahem, my printer...but still.
Now I am by no means and organized person but even that was bad for me. It makes it impossible to find anything or think straight. Anyway, we moved my desk from the bedroom, to another corner of the above room and here is where my computer sits now.Much better right? I think so too. I am slowly migrating important things onto this desk and clearing the table over there which will have a new home as well. I love moving furniture...

In other news I finally got pictures of the kids with the little bear hats my secret pal sent for them. They didn't keep them on long so this is the best I could do. I love the little curls sneaking out from Alexis' hat here.
And Nick with his and a balloon I gave him to occupy for a bit last night.
And in knitting news, well spinning anyway...I finished that first bobbin of the Cornucopia, and besides that I'm halfway through the second. If I wasn't cleaning today I could probably finish that one too. I will take another break later to spin a little, but right now when I'm in the mood it's better to keep cleaning.
Aren't the colors pretty? This is more accurate than the other pictures I've posted. I really like it. The S. African fine is growing on me the more I spin it. That and I bought two more from Pigeonroof's etsy shop yesterday when she updated. And they are GORGEOUS. Seriously. I can't wait to get them. I know I know like I need more. I'm getting faster at spinning though, so hopefully I'll be using it up faster. Purchase justified right?

I'm glad everyone liked the pictures I posted of our deer. I wasn't actually that close to them. I was in the upstairs pantry window and zoomed in. There are quite a few of them though that are really friendly. We had a young doe last year who would eat out of our hands. Several follow my MIL around the yard. Like 2 feet behind her the whole time. It's fun, they are pretty to watch. I'll try and get fawn pictures in the spring. It's just the psychotic suicidal ones you gotta watch for when you're driving...

Ok well I think that's a good bit of an update for now. I'm busy lately with working early, and now school. I'm really trying to get back into good habits with that. Hopefully the fact that I've dropped to part time will help. So I'll be back when I can!