Swan Song

I'm retiring for the second time. This weekend will be the last time I make the long trek downtown to teach skating lessons on Saturday and Sunday mornings on the outdoor rinks. That's the Capital in the middle of my photo. That's my not-so-postcard-pretty view from the parking lot.

 I've got a long drive so I get there early and sit in my car knitting while trying to stay warm.

There is no indoor warming area at this particular rink and we all know how miserable this winter has been. It takes all I've got to get out of the car.

 We put our skates on sitting on the floor in the ladies room so our feet don't freeze but they freeze anyway.

You can't put on enough layers. I'm covered in wool. I suppose the job is a knitter's dream but I've had enough. Sayonara outdoor rinks. I'm heading back to inside rinks-for good.

An End Almost in Sight

 My Galliano vest is nearing the finish line. I ended up just doing one side at a time. Wrestling with three balls was too much to deal with in my advanced case of cabin fever.

 I'm afraid that I'm getting mighty close to running out of yarn.

 It's a good thing I have so many locks left.

 It wasn't entirely terrible to have to comb and spin more.

Not at all.

Stolen Moments

 My St. Patty's warp is getting wound. A few minutes here and a few minutes there add up.

 I went with the brightest greens. The winter green is in time out until next winter.

 My old way of winding off the cone was making me crazy. It would tangle and fall over.

 I found an old tea can worked better.

I also found a better location for the warping board that used to sit on my stove. It fell over on my head one too many times and now it's propped up against a bookcase. I'd love to hang in on a wall somewhere so it could stay put but as far as my toys are concerned, I'm out of room.

The Cure

The Mister and I have had a heck of a week with the Old Folk. Daddio's off his rocker again and The Mister's mom is being sent home today from a month long stay in a nursing home in worse shape than when she went in.

 The remedy for such a week was staring us in the face. Snow plus booze equals a new lease on life-at least for a few hours.

We don't get to use our sleds very often anymore as the quality of our snow is usually pretty poor. Today sledding conditions were perfect thanks to an overnight freeze.

The sun was out and the sky was a brilliant blue.

The snow sparkled like a million diamonds in the late afternoon sun. It was perfect.

 You could fly down the hill at an almost scary speed.

 It was a good ride if you didn't land in the creek. I didn't but I did enjoy rolling around in the snow for a slightly drunken selfie. I'm wearing my scrappy sweater made out of leftover Corridale locks. It's pretty much reserved for drunken sleigh rides.

Pup even went down for a few rides when she wasn't trying to figure out how to get my mittens off for a game of chase. We need to teach her a new game. You need your mittens when it's 20 degrees.

Getting Serious

 I've been busy but I had to find the time to get the MDSW yarn plied. That shawl needed to be on the needles asap.

It all was pretty painless until it was time to give it a bath.

 It lost a lot of color.

 Now that it is dry it isn't too bad. The light bits got lighter but I like the contrast.

I've got two ounces to work with and more to ply on the bobbins plus quite a bit of leftover fiber. That's good.

This is the first chart of nineteen repeats that need to be done before the top is picked up and knitted as short rows. That's more fresh snow it's laying on. Ugh.

It's becoming a tradition to start my spring shawl in the snow. What ever happened to our average February temperatures in the high 40's? Don't get me wrong. I like snow-in December and January. Snow after Valentine's Day is a nuisance.

Where Did the Month Go?

 I know it's a short month but February really flew by, didn't it? That heart isn't getting done anytime soon. Next year.

What I have been doing instead of cross stitching is set building again. Daughter has a couple of students that want to skate to a song from Wicked so of course I've been building the Emerald City in the living room.

I was hoping to get that March apron made before the first but that's looking unlikely. It's not easy being green.

Pandora

It snowed again today. Then we got covered in ice. Thank goodness The Mister and I had the good sense to squirrel away a bottle of boozy eggnog and a few fruitcakes or we would be at each other's throats.

I take that back. We are at each other's throats. We've been fighting tooth and nail over...cats.

We've got some really stupid ones that don't like to come inside and it's been below zero around here.

I worry myself sick about it and The Mister thinks I'm being stupid.

We have a little kitty door in the basement so they can come in if they want but they don't like to come in when people are down there. When alone they make themselves very comfortable. When disturbed they scatter back out into the cold.

The problem is all The Mister's fun stuff is down there and if anyone has a bad case of cabin fever from being stuck upstairs in the same room as me, he does. There's been a lot of yelling and pouting. They do have three heated huts and The Mister does let me leave the kitty door open all night so they can get some relief once everyone's turned in for the night. So far the kitties are doing fine. Me....not so much. Come on spring.

Slowly but Surely

Thanks to a lot of couch time due to the terrible weather, my Cosy Colours Blanket is still growing. It doesn't look like it but there are several new rows on it. Four to be exact. The mangled thumb is not too crazy about the crochet action so I've had to pace myself.

 The designer said the edges would be bumpy. They are but I know I have the right number of stitches in each row because I count and count...and count and then count again.

Now the big decision is when do I start weaving in some of these ends. I am never really sure if there might be some frogging or a ripping in my future so I hesitate to commit just yet but if I wait much longer....momma mia.

Thinking Spring

 My new shipment of weaving cotton is here. I looked at my checkbook and said I couldn't afford it and then looked out the window and said I couldn't afford not to buy it. I'm going a bit stir crazy with this late winter blast.

 These greens are for my St. Patrick's Day towels.

These will be for Easter. By April I should have all this out of my system and able to get back to those kits I bought. There's lots of techniques I need to learn and I'm not going to do it by sticking to what I know over and over-but it has been fun.

Catch Up

 My poor socks have been neglected. Daddio hasn't had many doctor's appointments lately so my travel knitting is growing dusty.

Last week we took a trip out to the hip doctor so I put a few more rows on my latest sock projects. The good news is that barring any falls, Daddio shouldn't have to return for anymore checkups. The bad news is that I'm going to have to figure out how to get in more sock knitting on my time.

The next day I did manage to finish one of my Galactic Slime socks. I've got a new pair of yellow/green Crocs waiting for these so there is some incentive.

Mardi Gras Snow Day

 Snow is not big news anymore but this is our first real snow since the last Mardi Gras. We've had a few inches here and there but nothing that had to be shoveled-until yesterday.

 I didn't even know where my trusty snow boots were. When I found them I had to vacuum them out. I didn't want to stick my foot in a spider web. Ewww...

 Pups new Lopi coat was a fail. It came right off in the deep stuff.

 All it took was a bunny hop up the driveway and it was history.

Apparently Pup is not a fan of the deep stuff. She couldn't wait to come back inside and melt. Those ice balls she picked up in her fur drove her crazy. Me, too.