Funky hat and scarf set

When I asked my hairdresser what she wanted for Christmas, she had a quick reply. "I'd like a funky scarf and hat that will go with lime green." And she added, she didn't want wool. I think the pair I came up with will fit the bill nicely, don't you think? (Sorry about the model, I didn't have a person available to model it.) I'll deliver this belated gift when I get my hair cut later this month.

I used three balls of turquoise worsted weight yarn (93 yards each) and one ball of Yarn Bee Featherwisp in Sea Sprite (293 yards). Featherwisp is a 2 ply yarn--one ply is a soft eyelash yarn of white and turquoise and the other ply is a shiny railroad yarn in lime green and turquoise. Put the two together and you have a bulky weight yarn with a little shine and a fuzzy halo. I used a Russian join to join the 3 balls of turquoise yarn and then wound the two yarns into a big ball. I made the hat and scarf out of it and still have enough left over for a narrow scarf. (The pattern for my A Funky Wave Scarf is available as a free download through my Ravelry pattern store.)

The beret pattern is "Bret" from the Hip Knit Hats book. It's a beret knit top down in a bulky weight yarn.

The lake effect snow finally stopped late last night. Once our cloud cover cleared, the temps dropped quickly down to zero or a little below (depending on which thermometer you believe). The down comforter on our bed felt really good last night. :-)

The weatherman says we are in the area that got 15-20" of snow. Ours was more like 18". I only left the house today to make a trip to the library for up some Interlibrary Loan books that came in. After that short jaunt, I was ready to come home. All of the roads, even the main ones, were nothing but ice. You can't stop on ice and only a few intersections were salted. I'm used to driving on snowy roads in the winter but we haven't seen anything this bad in a long time. I'm glad the sun has come out. Even though the temp hasn't gotten out of the teens, the roads are beginning to melt where the sun has found a bare spot. They'll freeze back as soon as the sun goes down. The only good thing is this is good knitting and spinning weather.

A snowy beginning...

2008 has roared in with a major snowstorm. On New Year's Eve when we left the house for a party, there was a dusting of snow on the ground. By the time we drove home about 1 am, there was eight inches of snow. It muffled all sound and outlined all the trees with white. Our 10 minute drive turned into closer to 30 minutes creeping our way home. No snow plows had been out to clear any of the roads. Thank goodness everyone was driving slowly and carefully.

The snow continued to come down and blow around on New Year's Day. It stacked up to 12" and still it fluttered down. The system snow moved out, turned into lake enhanced snow (I suspect that's the new code word for we haven't any freaking idea where it's coming from), and then into lake effect snow. The latter term is one I am very familiar with. If the wind comes across the warmer lake waters in the right direction, it bombs us with snow. One of the benefits of living near Lake Michigan is it keeps us warmer in the winter time; one of the disadvantages is lake effect snow.

Today, the snow continues to pile up at a slower rate.It looks more like shaking powdered sugar through a sieve. I'm guessing from the table out back (see photo) that we may have 15+ inches on the ground. Some areas near us already have 20"! The forecast is for the lake effect snow to stop by tonight and temperatures to drop into the single digits. It's already down to 10F outside. My wool socks feel good about now! :-)

I've been staying warm inside and working on spinning and knitting projects. I finished two skeins of handspun. The blue is from some silk and merino batts carded and dyed by my friend Liz. I plyed it with some blue thread to extend it and make a spiral yarn. [2.7 oz/400yards] The mulberry/blue skein is Shetland, maybe lambswool. [2.8 oz/244 yards) This is from several pounds of roving that Liz dyed up for me last year in different colors. Last night, I pulled out more Shetland she dyed red with bits of black to spin. It was going so nicely I hated to go to bed!

The Promenade Stole is growing. Four more pattern repeats and the edging to go. I'm itching to get this done so I can block it. I also finished a scarf for my hairdresser. I'll post a picture and details about it after I finish the hat that goes with it. It has to be done before my next haircut sometime this month.

More Goodies!

The holidays are certainly a busy time and this year is proving no different. I'll be happy to finally be able to spend an evening at home sitting in my favorite chair knitting. Don't get me wrong, I love family and friends, I just need a breather and time to recharge my batteries.

I'm more of an introvert than not and too much socializing takes a real toll on me. Add in eating at odd times and eating things I don't usually have causes me to not feel so good. My system needs to settle down a little, which it will, just in time for New Year's Eve.

I hope we don't have a repeat of last year. Both hubby and I were sick for several days after that party. Inevitably, someone shows up sick and spreads their germs around. I get worried when I hear people say, "I didn't feel well but I came anyway because I didn't want to miss out on the fun."

Two things I managed to squeeze in this week are a quick trip to Sheep's Clothing in Valparaiso with a friend on Wednesday and meeting up with knitting friends last night at a local coffeeshop, Indulgences Pastry Cafe.

The trip to Sheep's Clothing netted the information that they will be moving to a bigger location in the near future. With yarn stuffed almost from floor to ceiling and in every nook and cranny in the current shop, they really could use the space. I didn't get as much time to look around as I would have liked (Do I ever? LOL!). It takes me awhile to figure out what I can afford to buy as opposed to what I would like to take home. I got another skein of Lorna's Lace sock yarn in turquoise to go with 2 I already have. I should have enough yardage now for a future project. I also couldn't resist a bag of novelty yarn marked "SAVE ME" for $10. An hour's worth of untangling netted me this--5 balls of Gedifra Techno Hair Lungo (retail $11 a skein), a small ball of same, and 1 ball of lavender eyelash without a label. It will go in my stash for knitting scarves and other items. After bashing novelty yarns for the last few years, I am finally learning how to use and combine them with other yarns to make fun things.

Then here are a gift, a swap, and two books I've acquired recently. The skein in the front is a gift from my friend Jess. She hit it dead on with this one. It's Handmaiden Sea Silk in my favorite colors. (I squealed when I opened it.) Even though it came with a free pattern, I'll put it aside until I find the perfect project for it. My guess is it will be used for one of my future lace designs (of which there are several more floating around in my head). Behind it on the left is a skein of Dream in Color laceweight yarn in sunrise colors and a Christmas sock kit in a cute round box. Both are a swap from my friend Sarah for a skein of my handspun yarn. The sock kit is very special as the pattern is Sarah's toe up design paired with a skein of specially dyed sock yarn and a little container of hand cream. The two books in the back---Beautiful Knitting Patterns and Knitting Around---are acquisitions from Amazon.com and Ebay, respectively. Now the only Elizabeth Zimmermann book I don't own is The Opinionated Knitter.

After a mostly green Christmas Eve and Day, it started snowing again today. At 9:30 am there was nothing on the ground. By Noon everything was covered with snow and the roads were icy. Throw in a little freezing rain this afternoon and it's a good night to stay at home.

Christmas cards

This is what my front door looks like today. Christmas cards adorn this ugly metal door that we've never gotten around to painting. I cover it with Christmas cards as they arrive, vaguely in the shape of a Christmas tree, to make it look festive. I miss it when I take in down sometime in January.

The number of Christmas cards we receive goes down every year. I don't blame anyone for not sending cards anymore. With postage at 41 cents plus the cost of cards, the cost adds up quickly.

When we got married 15 years ago, I assigned hubby the task of sending out our Christmas cards. This helped take a little of the holiday pressure off me. And since his card list was about double the size of mine, I certainly didn't want to take in on! LOL! At one point, we mailed out over 60 cards every December. I do not want to figure out how much it cost to do that.

With the cost of everything going up, and everyone's budget feeling the pinch from property taxes (ours went up this year), gasoline prices (there's no public transportation I can use where I live), etc., even we have cut back on cards. I've sent a number of ecards but hubby hasn't wanted to. (Incomprehensible when you consider that his job is computers.) There are some really nice ecards on the web. Though there aren't as many free ones as there used to be.

Early Christmas presents!

Woo-hoo! Look what I got! Two early Christmas presents from my friends. Aren't these beauties?

The new Cat Bordhi sock book has some very interesting ways of constructing socks. I can't wait to try some of them out. I really need to knit myself some more wool socks.

The knitted trims book has some edgings and other trims that I've never seen before. It will be another great resource to use for designing new knitting projects. Thanks so much for the goodies!

I finished a baby hat last night and worked on one sleeve of the baby sweater. The bind off was too tight so I'm going to rip it back and try again. Only one more sleeve to go and sewing on a couple of buttons until it's done.

In looking for something else, I found an orphan baby sock I'd made a while back. If I can find the pattern I used for it I may make a mate. The trick will be locating where I put the pattern. Yes, I know, I should have stowed the pattern, the orphan sock and the rest of the yarn all in a Ziploc bag for future knitting.

Snow and booties!

My back is feeling much better. Thank you everyone for your good wishes. By Saturday night I was able to do a little knitting again. I cast on for a pair of little Robin Hood type booties. The pattern is a free one from the Bernat website called Organic Cotton Knit Booties. Since I don't happen to have any of that yarn on hand, I used Sugar & Cream worsted weight cotton. These were simple and fast to knit. I made the 3 month size and only used about 60 yards of yarn. Here's what the bootie looks like before seaming and after seaming. They're so cute!

I cast on for a hat to match the baby sweater last night. I knit my hats from the top down in the round. I start them on double points with a bit of I-cord and move to a 16" circular as soon as it is big enough around. I'll post my pattern for it one of these days. The baby sweater is done except for the sleeves. I'm having trouble with the bottom of the sweater rolling. The pattern I'm using from One Skein Wonders doesn't have you do enough garter stitch rows. I'll make a note on the pattern in case I make it again. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the rolling edge. It may block out. If it doesn't, I'll have to stabilize the edge somehow. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

We got 8" of snow over the weekend. Once the system moved through we got some lake effect snow on top of it and it got very windy. Today, it has warmed up a bit and the sun has come out. The streets are melting which is good. Here's a pic of what it looks out our patio door and here's what's growing inside. Yes, that is a bell pepper plant with a pepper turning red. We had too many plants for our garden this year so hubby planted two of them in pots. They've been growing in our family room all summer. Soon I'll have some fresh peppers to pick. LOL! If you double click on this picture, you'll be able to see our wood pellet stove burning. It keeps this room toasty in the winter time. It used to be the coldest room in our home. Our kitties love it! The pellet stove produces so much heat that we push some of it into the rest of the house with a fan. Our furnace doesn't run much unless it gets really cold outside.

Back pain

I have been seeing a chiropractor for most of this year. He's gotten a lot of my neck and back problems straightened out. I have a history of back problems beginning at the age of 35. It's something that runs in both sides of my family. Being involved in a number of car accidents where I was hit from behind (none my fault) and several injuries at work moving things haven't helped.

Unfortunately, yesterday I managed to hurt myself again. How can the simple act of lifting a phone book and stretching over to lay it down cause so much pain? Well, that phone book was heavy and I did hyperextend and overstretch my arm. As I did it I felt a flash of red hot pain run down my back. Oh, no!

After laying down for a few minutes, the pain didn't go away and I could feel it with every breath I took. I knew I had a rib tip out for that to happen. Ask me how I know? LOL! Not good.

My chiropractor closes at noon on Friday so I quickly called to ask if I could get in. They said to come right away. It was not easy driving myself to his office but I managed. The injury is on my right side so every movement of that arm made it hurt even more. Dr. Bryan told me I had thrown out several vertebrae and rib tips. No wonder I hurt! After the regular therapy didn't do the job, he resorted to more force. I heard and felt everything pop back into place. It still hurts but not nearly as much as it did. It would have been much worse today if I had done nothing. I've had enough past experience to know. I can't do much of anything until this settles down and starts to heal. It's better today though I'm stiff and sore. Help is only a phone call away if I need it this weekend. Now there's a caring doctor for you! Otherwise, I have another appointment on Monday.

No knitting yesterday and maybe not today either. :-( I'm working on a baby sweater for a friend who is due in January. Still have the sleeves to do and maybe a hat and booties to go with. (Michelle, there is no way this is going to be a surprise. LOL!) The stole is about 60-70% done. I've measured off what I need for the final edging and tied a marker on my yarn. Now all I have to do is keep knitting in pattern until I reach that point. Rectangular stoles always take longer to knit than triangles.

Snow is headed our way again. I'll take it over freezing rain and ice any day. They don't know yet how much we'll get out of this storm though starting tonight it could get nasty. I'm happy staying home where it's warm and hope I can start knitting again soon.

I really feel for the people in Oklahoma and other states who are still without power. Snow is adding insult to injury and slowing down the repairs to their electricity. Such a widespread outage and bad roads means you're on your own until repairs are completed. There's no running out to the nearest store if you need something. The Weather Channel and the Red Cross both advise having a safety kit and a plan for disasters. It's good advice.

I emailed copies of the Tweets pattern out to the contest winners last Monday, December 10. Two of them were successfully received. The third person is having problems getting it. I sent a second copy out to her today. Please check your junk, spam, or bulk email box if you don't find it in your regular mail.