Musings on a Very Cold Day

The weather here is still Arctic! We're not equipped to handle this much cold weather or continued snow. The driveways that get plowed have huge mountains at the street. It's supposed to warm up a little tomorrow.

I've been knitting. No surprise there! I finally made the mittens I need. The yarn was bought over a year ago when the previous mittens started growing holes.

My gray sweater has, not only a back, but two sleeves and two front pieces. I'm working on the front ribbing/collar now, 3" wide. Here's the latest photo from a week or so ago.

Can't take a photo now when it is scrunched up on the needle.

I finished a really warm hat today. I had a request from one family for warm hats as Christmas gifts and have been looking at patterns. This will be a gift for someone, but not the grandchildren of the request. I have something else in mind for them.

One of my neighbors got tired of the cold/snow/windchill that is keeping children home from school. There's a chili cook off at her house tonight. My oldest daughter sent me a recipe for Jalapeño Cheddar cornbread. I cooked it this morning. I happened to have all the ingredients. Should be fun.

Yes, We Have Snow

It almost buried the bird bath.

It blanketed the bench. We have bright sunshine, but it's still hard to get around!

Knitting

I spent Sunday knitting a hat. It was slow going because the lilac yarn is mostly cotton and not elastic. It does make a cute thick hat!

The sweater sleeve doesn't show much progress. I thought that I needed to knit 18 more rows to the under arm. Did that and a little more. The cables didn't match sleeve #1. Retreated and started 2 rows later. Wrong! This morning I took another look at sleeve #1, and started the underarm 4 rows earlier, 16 rows from last posting. I could have finished it by now if I'd had my head together. It looks right now.

Sock the second nears completion.

Winter is here for now

I woke up yesterday to this

The dog and I trudged through 4" of snow. (I didn't realize there was that much). It was fresh and not to hard to walk through.  Today, there is more snow and we're not walking.

It sure is pretty though.

Christmas knitting continues though, another cowl is almost finished. 😊 I'll start some socks later. I have the Volteado pattern from Knitty loaded into Knit Companion on my IPad. 

I seem to have lost a post. It had the first cowl and a pair of socks. The cowl was based on a free pattern that I altered to fit my gauge. The yarn is nice and durable Red Heart.

I also finished a pair of gift socks recently. The yarn is Grundl Hot Socks, another durable yarn. I make most gift socks from indestructible yarn. The yarn left from these socks will go into the new pair.

 

Catch Up Again

I keep knitting and fighting the snow. Yesterday was one of those "wintery mix" days. It started with rain. The temperature fell. So did about 3" of snow. SPRING IN 6 DAYS!!

This year, my city has used less salt than other years, which makes the streets more challenging to drive on. They are plowed frequently, and my driveway is plowed up to 3 times a day, but really!

Olympic Knitting
I finished all my projects/events plus one extra.

The Lady Macbeth Sweater is on track to be finished by the end of the month. The body and 1 3/4 sleeve are finished. I hope to wear it to Knitter's Fantasy April 5.

The Sock Hockey event was finished. It was entered for Team sock Knitters Anonymous, and won a prize.I got a sock pattern and a skein of sock yarn.

The Aerial Unwind event was completed and I have started preparing the yarn for washing and rewinding into cakes.

The skirt is finished and I love it. That was a WIPs Dancing event. I started it in November.

I also knit a charity hat.

I've since finished two more pairs of mittens, another hat, and a pair of socks for charity.

I've given myself a Lenten meatless challenge. I'm trying new recipes and eating more fish. I made a tomato rice casserole, and have a spoon bread recipe I want to try. It's made with polenta, creamed corn and broccoli. I also have a few things in my freezer without meat. The rest can wait until after Easter.

Well That was Interesting!

I did run out of yarn for the socks, and finished with some black. After all the angst about size and yardage, I remembered that I had used the brown yarn to decorate another pair of socks. with I had put a note with the yarn. anyway they are done and will be given some time in December 2014, either birthday or Christmas.

It keeps on snowing here. I'm ready for spring!

My knitting guild has decided to decorate a Christmas tree for charity next year. They need about 200 hats and mittens, which will be donated after serving as ornaments. I knit a pair of mittens. It seems I can't count. The first mitten was knit on 40 sts. The second on 52. Since this was for charity and I had plenty of yarn, I knit another pair like this. I also finished a smaller pair.

While I was on a mitten kick, I knit two pairs for great grandkids.

I also sneaked in a pair of fingerless mitts for ME before starting my Olympic challenges.

This is a pattern that I designed a year or so ago. I used the same yarn for me, since I had given away the originals. They'll be ready when the weather decides to cooperate.

I'm working on four Olympic challenges. Early in the day I have my Lady Macbeth sweater. I may not finish this, but and hour or so a day makes progress. It would qualify for the Ravelry event WIP Dancing, but I won't enter it unless it is finished.

Secondly, I have a pair of socks: event Sock Hockey. It's a Cookie A pattern which will also qualify for SKA and Solid Socks, I'm working with Knit Companion, which is great for a pattern with a 38 row repeat. It's the socks shown on the cover of her Sock Innovation book. I've done 48 of 63 rows on the first leg.

Thirdly is my Aerial Unwind event. I'm reclaiming the yarn from my TKGA Masters sweater. Lovely yarn. A great sweater! Too big for the body I have now. I found the pattern and will reknit and publish the pattern after rewriting in a smaller size etc.

Fourth challenge is another WIP dancing event. I started a skirt from leftover yarn. This is a Gwen Bortner idea, which I am probably going to have finished by the end of the games. I'm using up lots of odd balls of worsted weight yarn.

I've recorded the games and plan to do a lot of sitting and knitting in the next two weeks.

Winter Beauty

The snow was beautiful while it lasted! It melted and we had a few days of rain.

Snow people appeared.

 

Christmas decorations were sighted.

 

Church was attended. Knitting happened. Some gifts arrived and were opened. It's cold and snowy in SE Washington.

 I received a nylon light cube between these two hats.

 

I need to learn more about photoshopping the resulting images

Olympic kntting

I finished another sock for the Ravelympics. It's for Plymouth Yarn Co. so I can't show you. I do have a medal for the first socks. The designer event involved not only designing a sock, but putting the pattern up for sale on Ravelry. Since the sock was knit from left overs; it used stash yarn. It may seem silly, but it's fun. Finish a project, get a medal.

The snow situation here is getting deep. We've gotten less than some areas. Our airport has been able to stay open. It just keeps falling, about 8" in the last 2 days. Friday saw schools cancelled. The wind factor was high. It's manageable, but we're getting tired of it.

Yes, we have snow

We've had over a foot of new snow this week. It's pretty, but I'd rather have it in smaller doses. My car doesn't have skis. I think this planter in my front yard has reached its limit too!

I've been thinking more about the emotional ups and downs of designing. It's sort of like a puzzle. When the pieces go together nicely, you're happy. When they don't you're frustrated. More frustration leads to depression and the feeling that you're never going to get it together.

I've been working on my Noro cardigan. I knit one square a day. I'll finish on Feb 5th. This is the second sleeve and I have one more button to make. I'm using the contrast color yarn for those.

A baby sweater is in the works. The body is finished and ready to cast off. My own pattern.

Socks are nearly finished. The contrast color doesn't always show up well. The pattern is Onion Domes from KnitNet.

Next week will have finished projects and a chance to start again. Next up, more socks and a shawl design. I also have to write the pattern for the baby sweater. This is the second time I've knit the design. Time to get it out into the world.

Digging out

I've fallen in love with fagotting. The shawl border is almost finished. I started for the final time on Thursday night at the Susan Yarns sit and knit. The diamonds continue the body pattern, even when doubling up the attaching points, everything fits together really well. I've steam blocked the border, but think when I block the whole shawl the border will stretch more.

I'm finding the snow depth gives interesting images. I really miss walking the dog. It's interesting, sometimes I don't want to do it, but she loves the snooping, and the walk is contemplation time for me. My legs miss the exercise, but most of the walks aren't cleaned and I refuse to take her in the street.

Today the sun shone and it got above freezing. There is some interesting scenery out there. There's the icicle jailhouse look from our upstairs porch.

The depth really shows on the bench and birdbath. Bronte really had fun running around the yard today. It's hard to get a good picture of a fast dog.

I have started another sock, and am plugging along on my Noro mitered square cardigan. I still have 1/2 sleeve to go on that. The sock is Onion Domes from KnitNet July 2002. The pattern has a short leg, with the heel starting right below the color pattern. I prefer a longer leg. The pink yarn is Bernat Hot Socks in Hot Tamale color. I don't know what the contrast yarn is.

Knit, knit, reknit

Designing and redesigning can be hard work. I'm reworking a shawl designed by someone else. The design and pattern are yarn support for the company, and they had a parting of the ways with the original designer. I need to put a new border on the shawl and rewrite the pattern.

I had what I thought was a good border pattern. It took about 4 tries to get it to work. Depression, depression, joy! But no joy! It didn't work with the rest of the shawl. Try again! I think it was the 3rd try with the second pattern that I was happy with! Make sure you start at the correct corner, so the pattern works easily. This is a triangle, so I need to double up on the attaching points. It's looking really good now, and the border picks up the body pattern. Pictures later.

I haven't started the pattern rewrite. The border will be fairly easy, but translating the body of the shawl will take some time. The previous designer does not write clear, easy to follow patterns.

Updates
The scrap yarn scarf is no longer finished. The second end was wider than the first and it was a little short. I'll keep working on it. There's no deadline.

The Widdershins socks are finished and wrapped in birthday paper. They'll go out in the mail tomorrow. Eighteen yr. old grandsons don't get much mail and our schedules don't often match up.

I am knitting my Noro sweater at the rate of one mitered square a day. I should finish the second sleeve by the end of the month.

I've started another pair of socks for another birthday. They're Onion Domes socks from KnitNet in2002.

Weather in NE Ohio is white and deep (about 12"), but temps are now up into the 20's. Of course, that means it's warm enough to snow some more. We don't get snow when it's around o degrees.

It's Dark, It's Grey, It's Snowy

The first week back at work went slowly. The world has been white and cold. Customers tend to stay home in this weather. The first few inches were beautiful and quiet. I like walking in fresh snow. Now we have about 10". We need some snow removal.

The bad weather has meant a little more knitting time. I've started a stealth sweater, so there won't be a lot of other knitting to show. I do have a couple of things finished.

A scrap scarf in garter stitch. Use 3-5 yards of each yarn on 25-30 stitches. Row 1: k1, k2tog, k to 1 st before end, inc. 1, k1. Row 2: k. Repeat. Leave all tails. This was fun, I think I'll do another one, but longer.

I'm knitting more birthday socks. The Ravelry SKA group has a January option of socks from an online magazine. That fit my need for grandson socks, so I'm doing Widdershins from Knitty Summer 2006. I made a number of changes to fit the target foot, but one is finished.

My November SKA sock entry won me a skein of sock yarn called Chewy Spaghetti. That was the pair of socks that has the cuff redone and I ran out of yarn twice. Winners are picked by random number from the finished socks.

I knit some swatches of new yarns for the TNNA trade show. I sent pictures of the swatches to the yarn companies, and one of them wants me to knit socks for them. They are coming out with a new solid color sock yarn.

My stealth project is for another yarn company. The swatch is done and washed. I can start this tonight. I want to get farther on the sock first.

Dinner is cooked already, it's black bean soup. I just need to add the tomatoes, heat up and eat. I like easy dinners! The extra will go in the freezer for future meals.

The gauge grinch strikes again

I've been busted! Another daughter has joined Ravelry. Neither of them has posted much yet. DD Julie has a blog (link on my sidebar). I really enjoy seeing what she's doing. Now I'll have to use generic names for any gift projects, especially for them and their families.

My sweater sleeve grows slowly. Many of you know the feeling. Knit, knit, knit, measure. No change! Knit, knit, knit. measure again. I have done all the increases that I calculated. The sleeve is still too narrow and shorter than expected. Check the gauge on the sweater body in the lice section. I wish I had measured the gauge of the swatch before washing. I think the yarn relaxed after its bath. Refigure using the new figures. I've almost finished the "extra" increases and the sleeve width looks good. I'm at 16" long and close to the 20" circumference that I aimed for. Lice will continue until 19" and then the zigzag pattern like the yoke peerie. The sleeve will be worked straight after I finish the increases. I'll count the rows of lice to make the other sleeve match.

I have a design commission with a June deadline. I'm going to make 2 children's sweaters out of sock yarn. Thursday is my day off. I'm thinking it's time to wind the yarn into a ball and start swatching. It'll be a break from the small needles. I'm using 2.5 mm needles for both the sweater and the socks. Actually,that's wrong. I can't go up much in needle size or the fabric will be too loose, maybe US#2/2.75mm. I plan a boy and a girl sweater in related colors.

It snowed again. The weather can't make up its mind. We've had a lot of warm days this winter, so the snow has not piled up as it does some years. We have 8" on the ground right now. No school today, since most of the snow fell overnight. By Sunday it should get above freezing, and melting will commence. Dog and I shoveled the front walk instead of checking out the neighborhood. This morning, we made a path one shovel wide. This evening, we widened part of it. In the morning we'll finish the front walk. I hope our plow service comes tonight. Most of the snow fell after they plowed last evening. Calls have been made, but the snow remains.