I made it!

Yippee, it's finally Friday. I made it through the week. And the weekend is my own to do whatever I want with. Oh joy!

Because there's a lot of snow left, and we got three more inches overnight, Paulette, her sister and I are going snowshoeing in Peninsula State Park in Door County. And then to lunch in Fish Creek and in search of yarn shops after that. Gotta find the yarn stores.

My headband is finished:



To keep the cast off edge stretchy, I used a sewn bind off. Every other bind off stitch, I picked up a stitch from the back of the Noro part of the headband, to keep the lining and outside together. It sure feels warm! It'll probably get a test drive tomorrow.

I started the pink Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted mittens on my break:



I was going to use a pattern with a cable up the back of the hand, but decided this yarn was too busy for that and went with a plain mitten.

I sure am cranking the knitted items out. No wonder I'm tired.

Jeffy has the right idea--when in doubt, nap!

Happy Birthday, Billy!

It's Churchill's (aka Billy) birthday today.

He's 12 today.

I got a lot of knitting done in the last 2 days. The wavy gravy hat is done.

The outside of hat is on the left, lining of hat is on the right.

The lining is not original to the pattern. It sure made it nice and warm.

I started on the headband last night at Knit Night.

I made up the pattern. It is heavily borrowed from the Spiral Rib hat I made in 2006. I just stopped it at headband size. When it got to as big as ear-covering size, I purled one row to use as a turning row and I dropped the Noro and started using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. I am doing 2X2 ribbing on the inside lining so that it is as stretchy as the outside.

Is it Friday yet?

Man, it's been a long week already and it's only Tuesday. Don't ask.

I got the Wavy Gravy hat done last night. I'm working on the lining now. It should be done this week. If I didn't have a meeting this evening, I could finish it. I normally would knit during a meeting, but since I am the secretary of the Labor Council, I suppose that would be frowned upon, since I'm supposed to be taking notes. Darn it.

FOs and stuff

Finished my mosaic scarf today:



Then I started this hat:



It's a pattern called Noro Wavy Gravy one skein Kureyon--except I'm making it in Silk garden to go with the scarf above. I'm going to line it in light pink Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Worsted. Hey, it's cold here.

Here are pics of the yarn from yesterday:

The yarn on the left is the Handmaiden Sea Silk and the yarn on the right is the Noro Kureyon. I also found enough leftover lavender Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in my stash to line the headband with.

Here are a couple of views of the giant snow piles in Copps grocery store parking lot:


It makes my car look really teeny. I hope we won't be adding too much more to it. I hear we're only supposed to get about an inch or so tomorrow.

Even more of a score!!

Went snowshoeing today again. This time Paulette and I went to Governor Nelson State Park between Waunakee and Middleton. Part of our motive was so that we could go to The Sow's Ear in Verona.

It was a warm day of snowshoeing. I wished I had a headband instead of a hat. Soooooo, being the knitterly person I am, I bought a skein of Noro Kureyon at the yarn store to make one. I even made up a pattern in the car on the way home. It's going to be based on the spiral rib hat I made and I am going to line it with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, to ward off the Noro scratchiness and to make it a little warmer in the ear area.

I also bought a skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk in the rose garden colorway. I love, love, love this yarn and have been secretly lusting after it for a while. I am going to make myself a lovely lace scarf with it. For those of you who are on Ravelry, check my queue for what pattern I am going to use for it. Will post pics of the new purchases tomorrow if I have time. I have slacked off enough today and really need to clean the house before I go to bed. So, ta ta for now!

Score!

I found the Noro Silk Garden color and dye lot I was looking for at Iris:

I also found this:

It's Classic Elite Alpaca Sox. I think instead of making socks with it, I will attempt to make gloves. And, I got 3 pairs of Crystal Palace 6" DPNs. Phyllis showed me some new rosewood with sterling silver straight knitting needles she is getting in. They're just lovely.

Not much else exciting going on here. It's Friday(!) and I'm going snowshoeing in a county park near Madison tomorrow. Paulette and I will then go the Sow's Ear yarn store in Verona, if it's open. Woo hoo, more yarn!

Jeffy is all excited that he got the tissue paper that my yarn was wrapped in:

He just loves the tissue paper (since he was a kitten). He thought this was especially nice because of the pawprints on it.

Welcome to the tundra...again

It doesn't exactly inspire a person to want to get out of bed when you find out it's 16 below zero outside. It even is starting to look like the tundra, with much bigger trees, of course. Our street is packed snow, as are most of the side streets in the city. It sure is slippery out there. I heard on the news that car repair shops are doing a booming business because of all the accidents out there. I saw one on my way to work this morning. The weird thing is when I went outside to come to work, my thought was, "It's not bad out here this morning". It was minus 11F at the time. Apparently I'm getting used to it.

This is my office in the Music Library:

Messy desk, I know. Don't look at that. I made the quilt on the wall. It's a Mariner's Compass block in the center with Delectable Mountains blocks for a border. I named it "Mountains in all Directions". I was inspired to make it when I was staying on vacation a few years ago in my friend Jim's cabin in Eldora, Colorado. It's up in the mountains from Boulder, just up the road from Nederland. There was a quilt store in Nederland.

The red books on top of the file cabinet on the left in the photo are the always exciting "Library of Congress Subject Headings", 24th Edition, 2001. Ooooooo, eeeeeee. I actually do like it when I get to use them. I'm a library geek.

Here are views of the Music Library:

Yup, that's an actual card catalog in the picture on the left. I still type cards for everything I catalog and my student and I file them. It's so much fun (not)! When I started working in the Music Library, people were still signing their names on book cards to check stuff out. As we all know, people's penmanship isn't getting any better. I started keeping track of checkouts using MS Excel and making spreadsheets for every month of the year and one to keep track of patron information. It works so far and has really improved recordkeeping around here. So far, no innovations are in sight for the card catalog, except I do use MS Word to type cards and print them on my inkjet printer.

But, on to all things yarny. We had a good group knitting last night. There was Gail, Paulette, Margaret, Keri, me, Mel, and Alison. We kept going outside to look at the lunar eclipse. It was pretty cool. Margaret got there late. It was pretty funny that when she went to get coffee, we all decided to go outside to look at the eclipse. When she came back, all of the chairs were empty. I helped Alison get started on her very first sock. She was moving right along on the ribbing by the end of the evening. I also helped Mel with the lace shawl she is making. Keri fixed the edge of an afghan that Mel brought from work. Fun was had by all. I didn't get much done on my scarf, but that's okay.

I am taking an hour of vacation at the end of today to go up to Iris Fine Yarns in Appleton. Must. Buy. More. Yarn. Like I really need more. What I'm going up there for is to see if they have one more skein of Noro Silk Garden to make a hat with. And DPNs to make mittens. Wish me luck that they have 1 more skein in color no. 233.

Primary day diversions

It's a cold February 19 here in Wisconsin, AKA Primary Day. CNN is attempting to scoop everyone by declaring winners in the primary races here. The polls have only been closed about 20 min. now. We won't know the REAL results for a while. It drives me nuts when the networks do this. (At least they have to good sense to project that the guy I voted for , Barack Obama, is winning)

On top of everything, my back hurts something fierce today from all the snow shoveling. I stayed home from work because of it (except to leave the house to vote and, of course, get a mocha). When I could find a comfortable way to sit, I got lots of knitting done:



The scarf is currently 41 inches long. I'm shooting for around 66-70 inches.

I got a yarn ball winder for Valentine's Day from Paulette. I put it to it's first use this evening.

This sure beats winding by hand! Woo hoo. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted Multi, soon to be mittens for me. I'm making them to go with the above scarf and the hat I mentioned a couple of days ago.

Welcome to the tunnel of snow AKA our driveway:



Our driveway is about 100 feet long. We've had 65 inches of snow since Dec. 1. No wonder my back hurts.

Call Al Gore

We have a bone to pick with Al Gore here at Chez Sara and Paulette. What the hell happened to global warming? Is global warming the reason I have been out shoveling twice today? I don't know where we are going to put any more. The snow banks along the driveway are now about 5 feet high.

Jeffy knows what to do in this kind of weather. He hunkers down.

He is not pleased at all with this weather. He can't go out and sit in the grass and that makes him annoyed.

And for no particular reason, here's an extreme closeup of Jeffy's nose:

Apparently all the shoveling is getting to me.

Snow redux

Hey, it's snowing--again. Imagine that! Well, we never did get to church, because at the time, there was 1/4" of ice out there and it was still coming down in the form of freezing rain. It's snowing now--there must be 6 inches out there so far. We are supposed to get 10-12. I reaaaaallllly want to go to Starbucks, but have come to the realization that I could be considered certifiably nuts if I went out driving in this weather for just a mocha. Paulette made us Starbucks drinking chocolate, but it's not the same. Roughing it is so hard.

Pictures of Paulette's sister and I snowshoeing:

Here are pictures of the park:

And, finally, here are pictures of Cheryl's cats, Smokie and Max:

I'm making good progress on the mosaic scarf. It's probably about a third of the way done. I want to make this hat to go with it:

http://strandinthehandpatterns.blogspot.com/2007/02/noro-kureyon-one-ball-wavy-gravy-hat.html

The only modification I'm making to it is to line it with Nasuha Handknits Creative Focus Worsted in pale pink, so that it shows through the holes in the lace and makes it sufficiently warm for Wisconsin.

Snow fun

Paulette's sister Cheryl and I had fun snowshoeing. We went to Maywood Environmental Park in Sheboygan (my hometown). I had never been there before, so that was fun. It sure is pretty there. We actually talked to other snowshoers.

The winter storm watch is now a warning for 10-12 inches of snow tomorrow. I'm staying home all day, except to go out for church and a mocha.

Maybe I'll make a lot of progress on the scarf.

Road trippin'

I had to drive down to Madison for a political action committee meeting today. The roads were okay--I thought they would be nightmarish after the 11 inches of snow we got yesterday.

Of course, I had time after the meeting to find a yarn store down there. I went to Prairie Junction in Sun Prairie and bought this:



Gotta love the sock yarn.

I made good progress during the meeting on the mosaic scarf:



I gave up VIP passes to see Barack Obama to go to my meeting. :( But, I get paid mileage for going to my meeting and don't have to use vacation. Greed comes first, I guess. I hear it was quite the crowd--6000 people were crammed into our sports center.

We are waiting for the next winter storm--there's a winter storm watch for Sunday. The forecast is for 7 inches this time.

I am going snowshoeing someplace tomorrow. I need to talk to Paulette's sister about it yet. Paulette is not well enough from her cold to go out snowshoeing.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from the bottom of my heart scarves:



Which I am proudly wearing today.

There's a heavy snow warning for today--the snow is never going to stop here. With Easter so early, I better start knitting woolies for Easter and not put my boots too far away.

Yesterday when I came into work, I looked at the trees on the way into the building. In one of them was hung a rope swing. Apparently the students were busy the evening before. I took a picture of it, but you can't really see it very well. Always the party pooper, I called Facilities Management to have it removed. It's bad for the tree and some little kid could get hurt on University property. Hey, I'm on the Health and Safety committee at work and that's a dangerous risk.

Hole-y cow!

The potholes are getting to be a really phenominal size around here.




This is in the Copps grocery store parking lot. It's on the way to one of the driveways (and to Starbucks). This picture doesn't do it any justice at all--it's forkin huge. It's about half the size of my Cavalier. It sure took them long enough to rope this and it's friends off.

My niece, Melissa, was complaining that I don't give Churchill enough face time on my blog. Here's a picture of him sleeping on Paulette's bed:



Don't disturb the sleeping beast.

Paulette and I spent the evening at church weeding out books from the library--like we don't get enough library action at our actual jobs. But I digress. Anyhow, we got it down to two tubs of books--from about 9 or so. It's amazing the amount of junk there was. Does a church library really need a book on how to fold paper airplanes? I don't think so. And really, how many Bishop Sheen books do we really need? We threw them all out. Like, get with the times here. I also don't think we need almost the entire "Chicken soup for blah blah blah" series. I could use a double mocha after doing all that. On the up side, it only took us two hours. I thought it would take a lot longer. Now we just have to go the St. Mary's worship site and do the same thing. Three of our parishes have been consolidated into one, so there's alot of work to do to make us all one big happy family.

Paulette's amaryllis is blooming.



Sorry it's blurry. I'm tired.

I finished one half of the patriotic scarf at lunch today. I have to string about eleventy-million more beads on the yarn again, which isn't happening tonight any more. So, I started the next scarf in the lineup. It's another mosaic scarf made with pink Nashua Creative Focus Worsted and variegated Noro Silk Garden yarn. Didn't take a picture of it yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Good night!

Ils sont finis!

My Anne Subtle Stripe socks are all finished!



I'm so happy. Now I can truly move on to other things.

I was fooling around with my camera at lunch (I wanted a new picture for Ravelry):



I do love my DPNs.

Fargo on the Fox

Welcome to Fargo on the Fox:

Those are ice shanties out on Lake Winnebago. It's sturgeon spearing time.

I prefer other winter pursuits, such as snowshoeing, which was very lovely yesterday--the snow was all marshmallow-y and puffy. We were the first ones on the trail. Breaking trail is really hard work and it's easy to get lost if you don't know where you're going. It was so pretty out. We went to Kettle Moraine State Forest and left from the Greenbush picnic area.

We also went to yarn stores in the afternoon! Observe my purchases:

The yarn on the left is Lorna's Laces Shepherd worsted and the yarn on the right is Koigu. I plan on making boot socks out of the Lorna'a Laces, because it's cold here and I just like the stuff on the the left and I have been looking at that colorway since fall. I guess the time was right to buy it. I also bought size 10 Crystal Palace 9 inch needles and the new Interweave Knits magazine.

Today we (Paulette and I) are destined for Fox River Mall and Barnes and Noble in Appleton. I need Clinique stuff from Younkers and I want to look for the new Piecework magazine at the bookstore. My car needs warming up--it's currently -9 outside. Brrrrrrrrr. It was really cold going to church this morning.

Here's a picture of Jeffy in Mardi Gras finery:

I started knitting a new scarf yesterday:

It's made out of Fortissima Socka Colori. I bought the beads at Hobby Lobby (6/0 seed beads) and strung them on nylon beading thread to transfer them to the yarn. I bought out the blue ones they had, and I randomly mixed in some patriotic ones that I also bought.

Well, better go now. Lunch and more shopping beckons! Stay warm everyone. Knit more warm stuff and put it all on at once.

The weekend beckons

It's Friday once again. It's almost me time.

Tomorrow I am: going snowshoeing in the morning, coming home and changing clothes, going to yarn stores with Paulette's sister and niece and knitting. My kind of day!!

It's supposed to be really cold on Sunday. I am knitting and going to the mall in Appleton on Sunday, so that I can stay indoors.

Knitting fun

Knit Night was so much fun last night! We had 7 people there. We haven't had that many in, well, I can't really say. I did get some knitting done, but was distracted for quite a while by this gorgeous Hungarian needle lace book that Margaret brought with her.

Dodging the bullet

Whew, we sure got a close call on mega snow. Just to the south of here, in Fond du Lac county, they are getting 12 inches of snow. In Sheboygan, where my mom and sisters live, they are supposed to get more than that. I 43 in Sheboygan county is impassible because of so much snow. So far it looks like we have only gotten about 4 inches here--no big deal!

All that snow would have significantly interfered with Knit Night tonight and we just can't have that. My sock is coming along swimmingly.

Snow

Boy, we're under a winter storm warning--again. 4-7 inches is predicted this time. I have read of folks who have had to buy new shovels this year because they wore out the one they have.

I'm supposed to go to a meeting at church this evening, but that may not be happening. Oh well, if I don't go, there's more time for knitting.

I began the heel on sock #2 at lunchtime. Oh boy!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Superbowl of knitting

I got knitting done during the Superbowl. The top of my second sock is about 3 inches from the heel now--not bad, since it was Saturday when I started working on them again.

I am very happy the Giants won the Superbowl. I didn't want the Patriots to go out with a perfect season, because no one is perfect. It was a good game. We had ribs and football cookies during the game--nummy.

The cats just hate football. They especially hate it when you start yelling at the television. Funny, they don't hate political stuff as much and I probably do just as much yelling at the television then. Go figure.

It's done!!

My scarf is done!



Now I can move on to the socks I began for me in November, before I started the Christmas knitting.



It's different knitting socks for me. I mean, I can try them on and make sure they fit.

Other than the knitting, nothing much exciting is happening here. Jeffy and Churchill are happy their mommies are both home. It's snowing out. A perfect day for knitting!