It's Snowing.

It's cold and snowing. again. still. I am so ready for spring weather. I decided not to risk the drive to and from work today. It's a short distance but my car really does not do well on snowy and slippery roads and I can't afford to risk and accident. So I am home and plan to make the most of an extra day at home. I will do some chores and spin and knit my way through the day.

Knitting progress - I sent off the Low tide Cardigan in the pretty pink sparkly yarn to my friend, along with the sweaters for her twins.

The Low Tide was, as I suspected, too small. She sent it back at my request - I plan to sent it to my brother in the hopes that it will fit his daughter. I started right away on a new, bigger Low Tide

in a deep purple yarn (from stash!!! Yippee!!). The new Low Tide is almost finished. You can see the lace bodice (the stitches for the sleeves are still on holders in this photo) at the top and the stockinette body, which, due to increases at the front edge and decreases at the sides, curves towards the front. It looks very cute on but not so great in photos. This color is not true. It's a deep purple that I just could not capture correctly.

My Canadian Crazy Train socks are all finished. I have purple Iron Bridge socks (top picture) and purple Sole Train (lower picture) socks, knitted half by me and half by my train car mates. It was an enjoyable trip and I  hope to repeat it next year.

Capall Dubh Cardigan is getting a lot of time in my hands now that the low tide 2 is just about complete. I have completed the waist decreases and will begin the increases soon. I love the way this sweater looks so far and alternating skeins was the right way to go.

You can see here the stockinette front, the patterned back and a close up of the unblocked stitch pattern on the back and shoulders. 

Here you can see my 7th pair of Easy fingerless Mitts. They are belated holiday gifts for my co-workers. I was on a good roll with these before the holidays but when my brother became more ill and then died, I lost momentum. I have this pair and 1 more to knit, then a coffee cozy for the lone male in our department. 

The Escalator socks have been pulled from the depths of the UFO bin and are back in the line up. This is a close up of the stitch pattern. I have one sock finished and the cuff and one pattern repeat (about 20 rows) finished on the second sock. This color is not true either. It's a bit deeper, sort of like the deep red bricks you see some buildings made of. 

Another resurrected project has surfaced - out of need for a simple project to work on while I had a migraine. These are vanilla socks that were started and ripped out 3 times because I didn't like the pattern I selected. I am happy with the vanilla and it fills a knitting need. These will be worked on only when I need a simple knitting project. No counting or stitch manipulation except when it comes to the heels. Migraine project, while in a meeting or other situation where I want the knitting to be background and the conversation to be front and center. 

And just because it's snowing and I love feeding the birds on our deck, I thought I would share these photos. We have 2 Christmas trees on our deck just outside the kitchen door. We have red lights on them and keep them until the snow is over for the year. when snow comes (and in between, too) we feed the birds here. We put seeds in and under the trees and under the patio table so they have a dry, safe place to eat. They eat a bit, fly into the trees, eat more. It's a lot of fun to watch. Mostly we have cardinals, dark eyed juncos, wrens and sparrows. There are doves, an occasional black capped chickadee and probably some I just don't recognize. Oh, and the inevitable crows/ravens. 

Be safe and warm, have a happy day. 

PS the Love the yarn I own part of my 2015 goals is going pretty well. The knit on UFOs part is getting old. I can feel the craving to start a new project rising ......