Feeling Groovy

175 meters of merino from the Feeling Groovy colorway by Chameleon Colorworks.

Man, this is bright!

Oranges

I picked up an eight pound bag of organic navel oranges at the Co-op today.  There were eight oranges in the bag.

Girl of the House snapped a picture.

One clementine, one normal navel orange, and one of the humongous navel oranges.

(Yes, humongous is a word in our house.)

Conference winners, plus...

Northfield Girls Alpine Skiing took first in conference.  

YAY!

The top five skiers receive All-Conference Honors.  Girl of the House was All-Conference for the second year in a row.  

Sweet!

Playin' Possum

Visited by a possum.  I thought they slept all winter?  

Guess it was warm enough to wake him up.

He play dead for quite awhile after medium dog checked him out up close.

He finally got up and left, but I was too impatient to wait for the walking away picture.

Sleety day

In less than three hours of falling sleet, we had two cars in the ditch in front of our house.  
Paul headed out and spread sand on the corner.

Birds coped better than humans today.

First Place!

Girl of the House had a ski race at Welch Village today.

First Place Winner!

(Notice her mittens?)

I won!

I never win things.  

But this week I won a prize on Ravelry from the NaKniMitMo group.

A beautiful kit to make the Marion Mitts by SpillyJane, the official mitten pattern of National Knit Mittens Month 2013.  It already came in the mail!

Almost done

Only a few ends left to weave in.

Then a quick bath and some blocking, and they'll be ready!

Mixing it up

Finishing up a four ounce bump of Merino from Chameleon Colorworks.  She used to have a fiber of the month club, and I still have a pretty good-sized stash of fiber remaining. 

I never could keep up to a monthly delivery, but it sure looked pretty sitting around the house in baskets!

Word of the day - Appulse (yeah, look it up!)

Last night was the closest that the moon and Jupiter will appear relative to each other until the year 2026, at least across the US and southern Canada. 

Paul got some great pictures with our big telephoto lens.

The small spot to the right is Jupiter.

Wouldn't it be fun to have a telescope?

Downton Abbey KAL - week three

Week three of the Downton Abbey Knit Along. 

I like to listen to The Current (89.3).  Apparently, everyone there has decided to call it Downtown Abbey.  

Every time they mention it, I giggle.

(at least I hope it's a conscious decision)

Too Flashy?!

These looked springy in my Ravelry queue.

Now they just look really, really flashy.

But I still think I like 'em.

So far.

Mittens!

There's a right and a left.

Girl of the House has claimed these.

Medalist

Girl of the House raced at the Welch Invitational today.  

15 girls high school teams. (17 boys) 

Her team placed 3rd.

Way to go!

Crossing the bridge

Just before I climb the last hill to home, I go over the Cannon river.

And it's always lovely.

(Trying out the blogger app on my phone)

Take THAT, Mr. Mitten!

Hah!

Fixed 'em.

Although, Rani had an excellent point.  

I should have just knitted two left mittens, and had two pair!

Can you see the problem?

Can you see the problem?

I was ready to knit the thumbs when I discovered I had two RIGHT mittens!

Guess these will take a little longer to finish.

On a mitten binge

I'm feeling a mitten binge coming on.

Dale of Norway Norge 2000

Why does the sage that lived on my deck this past summer still look alive?  

2° January weather and all?

I got the color I needed!

A fellow Raveler came through for me and sent me exactly the color I needed.

Amazing!

And now, the Hiroshige mittens are finished, blocked and ready to be wrapped. 

Ravelry link to this project

A window to see the world

While it's a bit difficult to photograph, I'll bet you can tell that this our Luna-dogs favorite window.

Is there any actual point to trying to keep this clean?

Creatures of Habit

Same home-made pizza almost every Friday night for the past 14 years.

Sure, we're creatures of habit.  

But we do know what we like.

After attending a ski meet in the rain, there's almost nothing better than coming home to a warm crockpot full of chicken vegetable barley soup.

We've done soccer in the rain, but seriously, a ski meet in the rain?

Aran Sandal Socks, Live and In Person

Aran Sandal Socks.

Finished and blocked Monday Jan 7.

Modeled by Girl of the House today.

Wrapped and presented later this week!

Ski Race

Second ski race of the high school season.

Girl of the House placed fourth.  Up from last weeks number five ranking.

Onward and Upward!

Downton Abbey Mystery Knit Along

I must (sadly) admit that I have finally succumbed to the mystery knit along phenomenon.  I've resisted oh-so-many years.  This one finally nabbed my attention.

The Downton Abbey Mystery Knit Along

It appears it is going to be some type of gauntlet.  I came too late to the party to obtain the specially dyed Lorna's Laces yarn, so I'm using some stash Lorna's Laces in the Forest colorway.

And I actually knit this while watching Downton Abbey last night!

Now, just eagerly awaiting the clue for next weeks episode.

Outdoorsy

It was a bluebird day on Saturday.  Perfect for skiing at Welch Village.

We're not going to discuss how, for the first time in my life, I fell off the ski lift.  Right? 

Good.

We took a long hike in the Carleton Arboretum today, doing some geocache maintenance.

Another amazing bluebird day.

Foiled, yet again

A quick pair of Hiroshige mittens, originally to be knit as a Christmas gift for a friend.  

I grabbed Dale of Norway Heilo, three balls from my stash.  The rust color no longer had a ball band.  It appeared to be a complete ball and the pattern called for 50 grams (one ball).

I ran out of rust as I neared the tip of the mitten.  The thumbs are also incomplete.  Not a complete ball, eh?  I should have known better!

How hard could it be to determine the color and order more?  Apparently, VERY hard!   Determining the color looking at my computer monitor has brought me these four colors, none of them correct.  Knitting out of stash yarn has ended up forcing the purchase of five more balls of yarn.  Sigh...

I've got a line on one last color.  We'll see if this last possibility will be right.  Here's hoping!

Prom?

Apparently our household, with a 17 year old girl, has become a certain demographic.  This catalog arrived in the mail.

Is this really what is worn to prom these days?

Seriously...

Aran Sandal Socks

Aran Sandal Socks 

     from Socks, Socks, Socks

I started with 2 balls of stash yarn (Dale of Norway Falk) but I'm rapidly knitting it up.  Looks like I'll have to pick up another ball...

Peace

Can't we all just get along?

Happy New Year

Last year

• Completion of three long term Dale of Norway sweater projects

This year

• Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more;  Whine less, breathe more;  Talk less, say more;  Love more, and all good things will be yours.

I had all kinds of fancy ideas for resolutions, but yeah, that pretty much covers it.