Take That, Winter

My yard, earlier this week.

 Goodbye February.

 I am so over you.

 It looks like Mother Nature is over you, too.

I know it's still stupid cold out and that damn polar vortex thingy is sitting on top of us once again but you're doomed winter. Don't let the door hit you on the arse on your way out.

Empty Handed

I went out shopping for yarn this past weekend and this is what I came back with. That's right. Nothing.

It all started here. For some reason I found myself watching this in the middle of the night last week.

I can't begin to tell you what it's about. All I know is that it takes place in Norway and everyone is wearing the most amazing sweaters. That's all I could think about.

 See?

There is also knitting. In one scene she is knitting on doublepoints. Seriously, doublepoints and it looks like she really knows what she's doing. As for the yarn I didn't buy, it was for a brown Icelandic type sweater that the knitter lady was wearing in an early scene. I want one by next winter but I couldn't find any suitable yarn in sweater quantities at any of the usual locations. Everyone seems to have put away their workhorse yarns and put out their spring and summer frou-frou. I guess I'm going to have to order some.

Crisis Averted

See that chair? Those keys hanging there are a problem. I shouldn't be able to see them. Daddio has a million doctor's appointments this week and there is no sock knitting bag hanging with them ready for me to pick up and bring along. Horrors.

I know I have some pretty projects in the works but I need something ready to go. Now.

Thank goodness I remembered I had Daddio's crazy sock blank socks already in the works and stashed away from last fall. Whew. That was a close one.

Scaredy Cat

I wasted a lot of time this morning trying to convince a very skittish kitty to let me take his picture with my new caramel colored Wandering Cat sock yarn.  I was trying to show how nicely they matched but he was having none of it. All I succeeded in doing was getting the skein covered in cat hair.

 I am happy to say the lint roller returned the skein to its original condition so I could get a decent photo of it.

I know this is not the time of year to get excited over shades of brown, as lovely as they are, but it's nice to know that mid summer, when I am weary of all the heat and blinding sun, this will be waiting with the promise of fall.

Speaking of Wandering Cat,  I got a big surprise in the mail yesterday. They sent out an adorable thank you note and some crazy beautiful stitch markers in response to the fund raiser they held for Tux's medical care earlier this year. I am happy to report that he is doing well adjusting to life with three paws. You can follow his progress over on their Facebook page.

Olympic Fails

 I don't blame the pup for hiding.

 She knew that something terrible was about to happen.

 We were watching ladies figure skating on Thursday and I was sewing together her latest sweater.

 Only this time there was a problem.

 My doggie Olympic project was a real mess. The neck and the armholes were completely out of whack.

 It wasn't any problem to cut it apart and re-sew it but for some reason, I re-sewed it sideways.  Double fail. The slip stitch rib is supposed to go across the dog not down her back.

There was no way out of this. I had to cut it apart again and re-sew it for the third time.

 Happily, I had it all back together before the closing ceremony. It's not a prefect fit but it works under her new harness to keep her from pulling out of it.

I also failed to finish at least one of my Selbu mittens but I don't consider this a real fail. It may not be done but it has given me my confidence back. I am looking at stranded mittens now with a brand new attitude.

 I did have a major spinning fail when for some reason I can't explain, I plied a good bit of the yellow in the wrong direction resulting in this mass of nasty twist. I can only blame it on hockey-and that's all I'm saying about that. I now have a lot less yellow but it could have been worse. I could have been up 2-0 with only 3 minutes to go and.......well. you know.

I don't know about you but this Monday morning seems awful sad without all the fuss and bother from Sochi. It's going to be a long four years.

Sunday Pupdate

 This week we had our four month check up. At the vet's, New Pup was all smiles-at first.

 It took a while for her to realize that she wasn't actually in a good place.

Oh crap, more shots. Three this time, in fact. Ouch. Poor baby.

Back at home she was pretty wiped out for the rest of the day. Thank goodness we are almost done with this part of puppyhood. Mommy can't take much more.

Competition

 This is ice skating competition season, not just in Sochi but here as well.

 This is the time of year that amateur skaters take to the ice at local rinks to do their thing to earn medals.

 Daughter is a coach of many such skaters and she enlisted our help to put together some props.

 There was a lot of  pvc pipe cutting going on....

....and a lot of painting.

Can you guess what song these skaters are skating to?

 

 Here's a hint: Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding. No? How about Jacha-chacha-chacha-chow?
 If you still don't know go here but don't blame me when you can't get this ridiculous song out of your head. It's been stuck in mine for days now.
And for the record, I do know what the fox says-they scream like little girls being killed in the middle of the night. Our woods are full of the noisy critters and I've had the bejeezus scared out of me by them more than once.

Inside Out

Now that all the Olympic fuss is almost over, I really needed to finish winding the warp I began months ago- but something was keeping me from it.

New Pup was being a butt head about it. It was all doggie toys to her.

I put myself in the doggie pen and got it all wound while she tried to figure out what trick I was playing. I may just put the whole loom in there.

Ripped

In the middle of all the Olympic knitting I found myself worrying about the Tour de Fleece. Last year's TdF project has been in limbo for a long while. I washed, dyed and spun a Merino fleece in the heat of the summer and then dropped the ball on the actual project.

 I got this far on my Featherweight Cardi and then put it in time out because I hated the fit.

 The length was awkward on my bottom fluffy bits. I needed to rip out the ribbing and add length but I didn't have the heart to do it after all that work.

It's much easier to destroy your work after it's sat for a while so I had no trouble at all pulling out the ribbing six months later and starting again. Now I hope I've spun enough yarn to add the length I need or there will be a post in the future full of very bad language.

Congested

While my Olympic knitting project is done, my spinning project is still underway. The problem (and isn't there always a problem?) is that I noticed that every time I finish spinning I've been having major coughing and sniffling issues. I've taken an idea from Kathy B and tried a mask today and it worked like a charm.

I didn't realize how much loose fiber flies around until I started cleaning it up after every spin so the pup wouldn't get it. This is the sticky roller on the fourth go round. I threw away the first few sticky sheets before I thought to photograph them but you can take my word for it-they were covered in fuzzy stuff. Half of which came off my clothes and Crocs. I can only imagine how much of it would have gone up my nose.

The good news is that I am already finished the orange so that only leaves the yellow batt to spin.

Tomorrow the orange Jacob will get plied and added to this pile that still needs soaking and thwacking. I'm hoping for some better weather for it. Yesterday it was snow. Today it is rain. Who knows that tomorrow will bring. It's been one crazy winter.

On the Podium

Once upon a time, I had a box of teeny tiny locks.

Those locks got washed and dyed.

Then they were carded into pretty batts.

Those batts got spun into yarn.

The yarn got knit into a pair of thrummed mittens during the 2014 Winter Olympics.

It's been a cold winter here. Colder than in Sochi, Russia.

It's not very often that I can take photos of mittens in the snow.

 Here is a peek at the insides. They are filled with soft fluffy fiber-and all the unwoven ends from the colorwork. The best thing is that they are done. Now I can actually watch the remaining events instead of just listening to them.