Friday, February 28, 2014

Cold, Cold and More Cold

Not to sound too much like a broken record but it is very cold out again today.   We are setting all kinds of records (or at least coming close to records) for coldest;  coldest February, lots of snow, wind chill, biggest potholes, most salt used, you name it we have it in Buffalo.  The temps got down to below zero and wind chills much less than that.   But although it is cold today, at least the sun is out.  Yeah!

Lots of opportunities to wear lots of warm knitted wool.  I have my long johns on under my cords and my sock liners on under my wool socks in the hopes that I will stay warm when I pick up the little girl today.

This week was supposed to be a full week of school for her, but she got sick on Tuesday and stayed home with me.  A little 24 hour bug that didn't affect us, thank goodness.

Lots of finished objects in the knitting department since the last time out:

 My Valentine Socks  finished in time for Valentines Day
A Turn a Square Hat for hubby with a little longer ribbing to cover his ears and this was done in grays and red.
The anniversary socks finally finished.
 A Windschief hat in navy for Mike
And a pair of socks for me for St. Patrick's Day.

All the socks are Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's plain sock top down heel-flap recipe with various rib variations, my go-to and much loved pattern.  My Valentine socks have some components of "I Love Gansey" from the "Sock Club".  The green sock's are the "Cynthia Variation" that Jasmine and Gigi of the Knitmore Girls talk about and I love how it looks with this self-striping Felici.  That yarn is going away and it is as soft as a baby's you-know-what.  I love the feel of it as I'm knitting so I ordered another couple of colors, again bright, happy colors (no way this winter is going to get me down).  At this rate my sock yarn box is never going to go down since I have replenished and then some what I have knit.

I have hubby's St. Pat's socks on the needles, just begun really.  That means I have 17 days to finish them.  I have never made a pair of totally Fair Isle socks and it is proving to be a little slow going.  That will be my only project until they are done.  We'll see how long they take.

I have a plain pair of socks for homework time that I have dubbed Mardi Gras socks because of the time of year and their very happy colors.  I won't have them finished for Mardi Gras which is Tuesday, but I think the bright color combination will lift my spirits until it starts to warm up.

Looks like I am still in the Happy Land of quick, small projects.  Sure gives me a sense of accomplishment!

Monday, February 3, 2014

Hat-o-rama

Last week was a perfect week for using hats.  Forget about hat hair, it was so cold and windy. hats were a must.

In the crazy weather-winter we are having, there was another polar vortex on Tuesday, with wind chills in the -25 degree range, so the schools were closed.  Yeah!  Wednesday, it was only slightly warmer and the forecast called for it to get warmer by 11:00 a.m.  Most schools remained closed but not ours!  They had a two hour delay, which meant a lot of scrambling for parents.  The weather forecast was very wrong.  They forgot to mention that there would be snow and blowing wind all day, which made it the worst driving conditions I think I've driven in all year.  It was miserable!  Got everyone home safely, including two friends of the boy.  It was just too cold for them to walk home.  Saturday it rained!  Then it got cold enough to make Hat weather indeed.

I am doing well on my stash knitdown.  I have 11 items finished since the beginning of January. The remaining projects include five hats, three pairs of fingerless gloves,  two cowls and a sock and a half for my Valentines socks.  Small projects are really eating through the leftover yarn piles.

I have two larger projects that I am itching to get started on.  Once I get through the hat and fingerless glove set for Hubby and my Valentine gloves, oh, and the hat I promised #2 Son-in-law, I will start one of them. Both of them need total concentration, so I can work on them only when I am listening to books or TV shows that don't need too much attention.  That means I can have one or two of the small, portable projects when I am doing homework, waiting for appointments, riding in the car and all the other times I need mindless knitting.  Who knows, maybe this year I will totally become a project knitter.

Here are some pictures:
Wurm
Fartlek

Windschief Scarf

Lovesocks for Hubby for Valentines day.