Beating the Winter Blues

When you are only 8 inches tall, 3 to 4 feet of snow can be really really depressing. So, to beat the winter blues, one must be creative. Being their mothers fur kids, mine are very creative. Case in point: I was putting some groceries away.

Silver, why are you so interested in that bag?

Ah ha!

Mom, do you mind?

I got the crocheting done on the rope. All I need to do is sew the ends together. Will be doing that for the class I'm teaching today, since they will be needing to know that to finish their bangle bracelets.

I am not lonely now. Daughter Ruth came home for the weekend. Sarah is home from her trip too. The three of us went to Toro Viejo for dinner (a nice little Mexican restaurant in our town-owned by actual Mexicans. The food is great!), my treat. It was wonderful spending some time with my daughters. I really enjoy them now, all grown up. We can have real conversations.

After dinner we came home and watched Hello Dolly with Barbara Streisand and ate Coconut Cream Pie. Wow, can that woman sing! And you can not watch that movie and walk away feeling blue. Just what we needed-since it was snowing and we weren't happy about it. (I am so SICK of snow!)

I've made some progress on the second of Franks brown socks-halfway through the leg. I've come to a stand still on the Baby Surprise jacket, mostly because I do not like the way the increases are done. Elizabeth Zimmerman's method looks sloppy to me. It's making unsightly holes both sides of the stitch the increases are on. I'm researching and experimenting to find something I like better. I've knit and frogged the same 10 rows more times than I care to think about. It's sticky cos you have to do 2 increases at once, one on each side of a stitch, and I want it to look nice. I'm just picky that way.

Have a great day.

More of the Nasty White Stuff

Well, so much for "2 more inches". It turned out to be 8. It snowed hard all day long.

I had to get out to do something fun. The home environment was feeling overwhelmingly oppressive to me. So against my better judgment, I decided to go to bead group. Technically, bead group is me going to my friend Cindy's bead store and spending a couple hours or so chatting and beading with her. Once in awhile someone else will show up too, which makes it all the more fun. (We had a new gal come who is quite a card. She makes me laugh, so I hope she comes again.)

It took almost an hour to get my car out of the driveway. Lots of digging and cat litter (for traction). It is a testament to my determination to go somewhere that I actually succeeded in doing so. You may wonder why I had such a hard time after all the digging and blowing that was done on Monday. That's how much snow fell between when I got up and I left 4 hours later. It was really slippery snow too. Besides, my car is being really wimpy about it all. I don't think I like my new tires. They don't seem to have much traction in the snow.

About 2 miles from home I started wishing I hadn't gone out. The roads were downright scary. Especially on Highway 41, where the snow was racing horizontally and drifting like crazy. I persevered, though, and made it safe and sound to Cindy's shop, where we cried on each others shoulders over the amount of snow we find ourselves dealing with. Somehow it just made everything better being able to do that. I also finished a couple projects that I've had on the back burner for awhile. Cindy had some show and tell too. She recently got a new spinning wheel and she showed me some yarn she's working on. It's gorgeous. It's a blend of various fibers in blacks and whites, including some angora from a rabbit she used to have, named Granddad. It's very soft yarn. She also showed me some yarn she dyed with Kool Aid because I've been talking about trying that.

Driving home was even less fun. Anything over 25mph and the car would start squirreling around on the road. It took several tries before I made it back down the driveway to my parking spot in front of the house. I came in the house, exhausted, and collapsed in my chair for a nap.

I felt so bad when Sweet Hubby got home from work. I could see the frustration in his face. He's done nothing but move snow around for 4 days. He had to do yet another repair job on the snow blower, then spend 2.5 hours blowing snow out of the driveway and parking area. Under the circumstances, comfort food was needed. So I made fried chicken for dinner.

This morning I opened the door to let the boys out for their business and I was able to report to Sweet Hubby there is no new snow. Hurray! We get a break today. However, we have storm warnings for tonight. We're expecting another 8 to 10 inches overnight.

I suppose I should try to find positive things about this situation, and there is one good thing about it. The snow is now too deep for any Moose to come within a couple miles of my house.

I've been working on the Baby Surprise. It's been a bit of a challenge. I have learned some new things, including a new way to do Make 1's. The pattern is turning out to be quite clever. I see why it's so popular. I'll take pics of it later today. My camera battery is dead so I'm waiting for it to charge up.

Have a great day.

Baby Surprise Begun

It's relentless! It's cruel, unmerciful, cold hearted as they come! I'm talking about the snow. We've got 2 new inches and 2 more will fall before this afternoon. I swear, Sweet Hubby almost started crying when he got up this morning. He's developed a real hatred for the snow blower. (I think if it didn't keep breaking, he'd feel a bit differently.) At least it's the fluffy powdery kind this time. He says he has to replace a rubber ring before he can blow again. Thankfully, we have a spare one so we won't have to wait a week.

(insert pic of me shaking my fist at the clouds) Stupid snow!

I have managed to do a bit of knitting through all this. Just a bit. I have started the Baby Surprise jacket. It took 3 tries to get something I'm happy with. I am using worsted weight acrylic of unknown origin because it's a Knit Wits project. I didn't like how stiff the fabric was feeling in garter stitch, so I am doing a stockinette version based on notes I've found on a blog called Panda Man's Knitting Corner. I am quite pleased with the results so far.



I'm going to put stripes in it using the browns and purples I was using in the frogged baby pinwheel sweater.

I have also decided on February's sock project. I've got a beautiful skein of Fearless Fibers superwash merino sock yarn in the Sublime colorway which is warm shades of brown. I'm going to make another pair of socks for my daughters boyfriend, Frank. He absolutely loves the ones I gave him for Christmas. And since he treats my daughter so fine, and is such a sweety, I think he deserves another pair of my super deluxe hand knit socks. I'm going to do 7x1 rib I think. Something quick and easy.

Found a contest at Tami Knits blog. Check it out.

Have a nice day.