St Pats Day Already?

Girl of the House is ready after a quick stop at the Target dollar bins. 

One down

One to go.

I like the texture in these socks.

Wouldn't they be pretty in a multicolored yarn?

Lightbox

First day with a lightbox on my desk.  

It's so very bright!

Anyone have any experience with one?

For the spindle

Picked out a nice Polwarth for the spindle.

It generally takes me all year to spin four ounces on the spindle.

Travel spinning - but the yarn is full of memories.

Bumping

I started spinning a nice bump of Blue Faced Leicester today.

For some reason the big dog wanted to cozy up to the action.

Every time my right foot came down, his head moved.

Bump, bump, bump.

Fresh Snow

It snowed yesterday.  It was a thing of beauty.  We haven't had nearly enough snow this year.

Paul and I took advantage of the fresh flakes and made it into the Carleton Arboretum this afternoon for some cross country skiing.

I so wish I'd carried the good camera.  The light was so amazingly gorgeous, and the little point and shoot just doesn't do it justice.

But I hadn't cross country skied for years, and I was afraid I'd face plant and break it.

I did fall.

But I didn't face plant!

Meal for one?

Add a plate full of rice, beans, and salad, another plate of tortillas. 

This is one huge delicious meal.

For one. 

Really.

Toasty Twist Socks

Had a request for some purple socks.  

I have the freedom to pick the pattern, they just need to be purple.

Toasty Twist Socks in Dale of Norway Falk yarn.

Bright!

Oh, so bright!

In need of some blocking, but the knitting is complete.

I reversed the colors in the other hand, just to make it interesting.

Interesting.

That's a good description.

Blowing and drifting

The driveway at the hospital this morning.  It's currently 4° with a windchill of -17°.  Yay Minnesota!

Mosaic Mitts (#7 for the year)

Looking for a quick mitten pattern, I came across Mosaic Mitts from the Summer 2004 Interweave Knits magazine.

Did some shopping in my yarn stash and came across some older Classic Elite Tapestry yarn.

Got one done.

These are quick!

Downtown Abbey Mystery KnitAlong finished

I finished these two weeks ago and never got them photographed.  I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with them?  

Although, it was fun to do a knitalong!  It's the only one I've really done.

Bekky, do you want these?  They match your sweater.

Neverending Blankie

I've been puzzling how to photograph this.

I laid it out on our bed.  Not pretty.

I held it up.  Not pretty.

Nice sunny day today - how about the clothesline?  

That'll do for now.

I started this in the spring of 2012.  It's 11 squares by 12 squares.  I've got 117 squares done.

It's great car knitting, I knitted another square today on the way to the ski hill.

I'll get there!

Critter? Critters?

Every day when I'm home for the day, before I take my coat off, I head out to the deck to get the birdseed and fill the feeders.  

(Actually, we say "feed the fillers".)

Tonight I spotted unexpected debris as I approached the deck box.

And then I noticed the chewy marks.

Which, of course, is why we keep this very attractive rock on top of the deck box, year round.

Aren't all these critters supposed to be hibernating?

Temperature scarf #2

I'm so excited about the Temperature Scarf that I decided to knit a second one, for another city.

Again, two rows for each day.

Different stitch pattern, different colorway.  

I've knit to January 25.

Mittens #5

Ripped, reknit, and fulled.

They're going to be plenty warm!

Rip and Knit

I tried to tell myself that these mittens were long enough to full.

Until I got the thumbs knitted.  I don't think the thumbs should be as long as the hand, do you?

Guess I'll rip and reknit.

Color

Already found a use for some of the new Palette yarn - the My Year in Temperatures scarf.

Two rows for the the high temperature everyday in 2013.

One color for every ten degree increment.

Dark blue line after each month.

I haven't defined a yarn for a high temp less than -10°.  I hope I don't need to!  We've only had a single day with a below zero high so far this year.

I'm caught up to February 10.

Here's hoping for warmer temps!

More music

We finally found the right guitar for Girl of the House.  She was promised one for Christmas.

Apparently she's a natural talent.  

Who knew?

Replenishing

I'm de-cluttering right?

That makes room for adding stuff?

40 balls of fingering weight Palette purchased at a great price from KnitPicks. I bought two sale kits with no intention of knitting the patterns.  Brought the price down to $1.85 per ball rather than the $3.39-3.59 regular price.

Now, to dream up a project.

My shameful secret

Do you have a time waster?  (Beyond Facebook?)

Something you do when you should/could be productive?

I play bubbleshooter.

music, music, music

More de-cluttering.  There are over 200 CDs that need to leave the house. 

Has anyone out there ever made any sales on Half.com?  I've successfully sold a few things on Ebay, but haven't tried Half. I think I'll give it a try.

The albums and the turntable are going to Colorado to live with Ben and Bekky.  I guess vinyl is very trendy now.

We're not going to speak of the boxes and boxes of cassette tapes that we already tossed, are we?  Good.

At least we didn't have any eight-tracks...

The Mitten Binge Continues

Mittens pair #5, started

Fulled Wooly Mitts

Knitted from left over Lopi yarn

High School Sectionals

Fresh snow for the High School Alpine sectional competition  today at Buck Hill.

An intense look of concentration.

We're very proud of her!

Headed to Colorado

Marion Mitts are done

Sounds like they'll be headed to Colorado to daughter in law Bekky.

Wish I were headed that way too!

Pileated woodpecker

We knew this big ol' woodpecker was around, but could never lay eyes on him.

Today was the day!

Sun Halo

We took this cellphone picture while skiing this afternoon at Welch Village.

Did anyone else in Minnesota see the halo around the sun today?

Careless

Have you done this?

Opened up a scissors (rather than using that really sharp knife) and used one side to open the tape on a package?

And opened the item in the package?

Guess I'll be mending this dog bed.