It was cold outside this morning when I left for work. I am sure that those who live in the north think that 6 degrees at this time of year is a heat wave, but for here, that is darn cold. The funny thing is that I have felt more cold other days, when the temperature was higher. It took a while for my car to warm up, though. I usually have nice warm temps within a few minutes but today it took about 15 minutes to have heat pouring out of the vents.
Yesterday, in addition to doing my exercises, (32 sit ups, 32 of each of 3 different upper body exercises and 10 push ups) I went walking with DH. He's been walking for exercise since early January because he is less busy with yard work and other physical labor. Exercise helps to keep his blood sugar down (he is diabetic). He walks 1 - 2 miles (depending on his back and knee pain) most days, usually in the daytime hours. I walked with him yesterday, and hope to start walking a couple of times/week if my big toe joint doesn't complain too much. (I had surgery on it two years ago for bad arthritis and the surgery didn't help much).
I spun some Finn fiber, spindle spun some silk before the football games started and did a lot of knitting during the games. I was able to finish the knitting portion of the Four Quarters Sweater and connect fronts to backs at the sleeves! The next step is to sew fronts to fronts and backs to backs. The sleeves were joined using short rows and a 3 needle bind off rather than binding off and sewing together. The front and back seams will have to be sewn, and they are supposed to be sewn with the fabric edges to the outside for decorative purposes. That might wait until the weekend so that I can have daylight to work in.
I started (yes, I cast on another project) a neck gaiter for DH. (He prefers to call it a neck gaiter rather than cowl). His walks in this weather leave his neck and face cold. I will use some handspun in shades of blue to make a ribbed neck and lower face covering for him. I swatched last night to find the needle size that would give me a nice firm fabric that will stretch but not let in too much cold air, and then cast on. Once I get a couple of inches knitted, I'll put it on waste yarn and have him try it on to be sure that I have the size right.
The playoff games had mixed results for me. I was pleased to see the Green Bay Packers beat Chicago but disappointed to see Pittsburgh beat the NY Jets. I grew up on Long Island, NY, and my family still lives there. One of my brothers is a Jets fan, and we exchanged test messages during the game. They almost came back to win ......
I managed a few rows on the Petiole hat over the weekend, and a few rounds on socks, but most of my fiber efforts went into finishing the Four quarters sweater and spinning the Finn fiber. I didn't even spin any masham - I decided to spin more Finn so that I can make a 3 ply to see what this fiber will look like. I was very disappointed to find as many nepps in the fiber as I have to deal with. It makes for fuzzy, lumpy singles and I hope that when I ply it, I'll like it more. I have about half of what I plan to use spun, and will be working on spinning up the rest this week (and probably into the weekend) so that I can ply it next weekend.
We managed to get our considerable store of Christmas decorations, wrapping supplies, dishes, lines, etc. back into storage this weekend. That is a major accomplishment. There is alot of it and it gets stored under the stairs. It has to be moved around while on the knees, using a flashlight or headlamp and trying to avoid hitting heads on the underside of the steps. We are currently making plans to build a storage closet in the basement to avoid use of that under stairs storage.
We are also making tentative plans to re-do the bathroom in the (finished) basement. The shower door does not open fully because the toilet is too close to it. There is no linen closet in or near the bathroom for towels, and the cabinet under the sink was damaged by a slow leak that we were unaware of. We (read DH and eldest son) will move the toilet over, replace the bathroom sink and vanity, etc, and build a set of shelves or a closet for storage in there. Those two projects will keep DH busy for the rest of the winter. He likes to have projects to work on, more so now that he does not work outside the home. He's a useful guy. ;))
Have a good day.
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