It looks like March will roar in

Right now the prediction is for 4-8 inches of snow on Monday. I could use an extra day off but .....

I knitted 2 stripes on the second sleeve of Cattails yesterday between appointments and knit night at the LYS. Not as much as expected but I read part of a book and visited quite a bit at knit night. It felt good.

I spent more than I ever have on a pair of sneakers yesterday. $115.00!!!! But The foot doctor said it would be good for me to have a good pair and I have been hard on my feet lately so I decided to go for it. I hope the secure, stable foot ware helps avoid accidents. My husband's comment, other than taking a deep breath, was that they are unprofessional looking. I don't care. ;-)
They feel good. I am out of the boot but still have tendinitis so have to be careful and can't yet start on my walking for exercise. I crave it. I need to get moving. Sigh. I suppose I can be a bit more patient.

I am now vacillating between Flaming June and Sarah for my next sweater possibilities, both out of stash yarn. Summer or winter - I haven't yet decided.

It's Friday and I am very thankful. I hope you have a good weekend.

One Sleeve Finished

Cattails is moving along nicely again after taking a back seat to Ravellenics projects. I finished the first sleeve last night and hope to pick up the stitches for the second sleeve tonight. It makes great TV knitting. I rented Season One of Chicago Fire from the library. I watched 2 episodes last night. I hope to catch up on the earlier history that I missed. I can also knit on the North Sea socks while watching TV, and I plan to take Whippoorwill out of the closet and try to figure out where I am. I might be able to work on that one while watching, too.

I have other socks to knit but those require attention to the chart and watching my knitting instead of TV so that knitting will happen at another time. I can listen to audiobooks and podcasts while knitting cabled or beaded socks, so I am saving those projects for when I don't want the TV on. I don't usually watch much TV when it's not football season, so that time could be soon.

Eldest son loves his new hat. The Highland Duo Drekkar hat worked well. It's a bit bigger and I like that. I had planned to add some ribbing to the original test knit hat but I think I will rip it out and re-knit it. I don't think I want the ribbing right near the face to be off set halfway up. It won't take long to re-knit and I will feel better. Mom loves her sweater vest and that makes me feel good, too. As I near the end of cattails I plan to swatch for my next sweater. I am determined to knit a sweater from stash yarn and I think Sarah might just be the one. I have had this yarn for a loooong time. It's time for it to come out of the storage in and into the daylight. It's a pretty, bright blue and I think it will make a good winter sweater. I have to verify yardage and swatch to be sure I can do this, or select and non-cabled sweater instead. Fingers crossed because I want those cables. ;-)

We had snow this morning! It snowed for about 2 hours and there was about 1/2 inch on the deck. I was sort of excited because I like snow but also feeling rather let down. I am ready for spring, and my search for crocus and/or daffodils was fruitless. Sigh. I keep reminidng myself that it is really only the end of February and I need to be patient .......

Have a good day, all.

PS I am not really being lazy about posting pictures. I just can't get them to load without a battle, so linking is the next best thing.

Silver or gold - you decide.

I finished Mom's vest version of the Bernhardt sweater. I am happy with it and, more importantly, so is Mom. I finished it early enough to get it blocked and ready to go when younger son headed up to visit NY for the weekend. She tried it on and likes the look and fit of it. So, silver medal for sure. I have not and will not get the North Sea Socks finished before the end of the Olympics but I did finish another WIP. The baby blanket I was working on before the Olympics has been completed. The baby was born early so I had extra impetus to finish it fast. I had no listed the blanket as one of my planned Ravelllenics projects but I did finish a WIP. So, you decide. Silver or gold medal for me?

In other knitting, I started another Drekkar hat with a different yarn and have completed about half of it. I love it. Once I finished Mom's vest and the blanket I picked up Cattails and went back to work on the sleeve. I think the 3 of us that are knitting Cattails are at about the same spot which is nice. We can encourage each other to knit on the sleeves - compare notes on how many stripes we have knitted. I hope to finish it within a month so I can wear it when/if spring weather comes. ;-)

My next WIP that I plan to pick up again is Whippoorwill. I had reached the part where I added the second color, so it should be enjoyable knitting. I have some repairs to make on other knitting and I have them sitting in a basket near my knitting spot in the living room. I have made progress on repairs, and that makes me feel good and will encourage me to make the other repairs. Some are socks, one is a hat. It's nice to be able to put things back into circulation that have been out for a year or more. :-)

My broken foot is healing slowly, the ligaments, too. It still aches, some days more than others. The boot itself hurts and that makes it hard to be good about wearing it. When I am home and not going to be too busy I wear an ace wrap and slippers to give the heel/foot a break. I am supposed to see the doctor on Thursday about the foot. I also get a dexa scan to see how bad my osteoporosis is. Fun times. :-)

We are, as are many others on the East coast, craving no snow and spring weather. I am going out in a little while to look for crocus and daffodils. Have a food day.

Ravellenics

I am doing the Ravellenics and I already have a bronze medal!

My final goals, decided on the day of the opening ceremony, were to knit the test knit hat (Drekkar - I will link to it when it has been released), knit the North Sea Socks and finish my selected WIP (The vest version of the Bernhardt sweater). I decided that one completion would get a bronze, another item completed would be silver and I would get gold if I finished a third piece (this could be one sock of the 2). With the hat completed, I have a bonze and I fully expect to finish my WIP and get silver by the end of the Olympics. I doubt I will make it to the gold but I'll try. I am knitting both socks at the same time on a different set of DPNs.

We are expecting a huge snow storm tonight/tomorrow. I am expecting to be at home and able to knit at least part of the day. ;-) With my foot broken I have an excuse to not shovel but I enjoy shoveling so I may try to do some of it. If it's too slippery, though, I won't risk another broken bone.
We are borrowing a generator in case we loose power. Lights I can do without. Heat is vital.

Stay safe and warm, all.

Sleeves! I am knitting sleeves!

Well, actually just one at a time, but still - I finished the dreaded seed stitch edging on the body of the Cattails sweater and have knit a round or two on the first sleeve. That's progress.

I added another project to my knitting list. I have agreed to do a test knit for Melanie. It's a cabled hat (I love to knit cables) and it's for eldest son. When I showed him the pattern he was very excited about it. The only bad thing is that he wants it in black. UGH. We'll see. Maybe I can find another dark color that he likes that isn't as dark as black. ;-) The pattern is called Drekkar and you will be hearing and seeing more about it shortly. I have to go to the LYS on Thursday to get some alpaca yarn.

Meanwhile, I continue to plug away at the projects on the needles - the mitered baby blanket, Mom's vest version of Bernhardt and Cattails. I knit some on the vanilla sock that is just a carry along project (it doesn't count in the WIP section of my brain) while at the meeting I went to over the weekend and last night (because I was too tired to knit anything else).

I know I should not have taken on the new hat project but I feel as though all of my projects have been around for a while and will be for several more weeks. I need a quick finish project, some instant gratification and this will do nicely. Even my WIPs from last year will take some time to finish. None will be quick, not even the cowl, because it is light weight yarn and beading. I need something quick. Besides, Rob needs a warm hat more than I need a beaded cowl. ;-)

We are expecting more mixed precip and some ice tomorrow. UGH. If the ice is significant, I will not be driving to work, but I would rather come in and save my time off for more fun things. Fingers crossed that it's not as bad as they are predicting.

Have a warm and safe day.

Snow. again.

I thought we might escape. They said the snow would start in the early morning and when I got up at 8:00 it was still raining. It switched to a nasty mix of rain and sleet a short time later and now (9:30) it's snowing heavily. Ugh.

I plan to pack away the Christmas stuff today - dishes, lights, linens, etc. We always keep that stuff out until at least mid January to make the switch worth the work. Its time now for it to go away.

I also plan some spinning, though spinning on the wheel is very tricky with "the boot" on my foot. It's harder than I thought, actually, so I might have to switch to spindles for my sampling. I would like to finish knitting the seed stitch edging on Cattails, too, so I can start a sleeve.

Have a good day and stay safe and warm.

Bronco Bummer

I am back from Dallas. I was all excited to get back and watch the Superbowl, and now I am disappointed. I am happy to be home but the game was a total bust. The Broncos didn't even put up a good fight. :-(

I had quite a bit of knitting time while I was away. Cattails is long enough and so I started on the bottom edge. I was considering using garter stitch for the edging rather than seed stitch but when I looked at the photos of the other projects I liked the seed stitch more. I hate to knit seed stitch. Sigh.

I picked up a cowl that has been on the needles for 2 years and knitted several inches on that on the plane. I finished the toe on a vanilla toe up sock while in the meeting. Now it is a good, mindless project for waiting.

I spent some time today when I got home neatening up and putting things away. We moved the Christmas tree out of the house and onto the deck. We were going to get rid of it but with snow coming tomorrow we decided to leave it on the deck (with the lights on) and light it during the snow storm tomorrow (if it materializes). I am off tomorrow to make up for having to work this weekend. Sometimes things work out well. :-)

Knitting, spinning and putting holiday stuff away is on the schedule for tomorrow. Take care.