Snow and Knitting

This is my view from the back deck. It snowed all day Friday and most of Saturday, big wet heavy snow that would have melted fast if it had not frozen over again during the night. Di played slip and slide when I took her out this morning, but she loved it yesterday. We went out for a walk after the snow/ice/rain stopped to get both of us some exercise and the dogs, too. It was wonderful, there was no wind and the sidewalks were relatively dry. Di had a wonderful time sniffing through the snow. Poor loopy Lola was not so happy, she kept try to leap into DD2’s footsteps so she would not have to plow through the snow when we went to the field. It was funny, but pitiful, poor prissy doggy did not want to get her feet wet.

They closed my office Friday morning, which was great, I sat and watched movies and knit all the rest of the day.

I am still working on two different socks, the plain vanilla ones I originally started out of the yarn that was a mess, and the pair from the mystery yarn ball swap (MYBS). Since the plain vanilla ones were already on the #2 dpns, I went and purchased another pair to start the MYBS pair. I did not like them, they are bamboo and only 5 inches long, but I wanted to get started so I got them and cast on. It was amazing, it is so much easier to knit with the shorter dpns, they don’t catch each other and they don’t get in the way. I did not thing that an inch or two in length would make this much of a difference, but I am finding them to be much nicer to work with. Once I finally figure out how magic loop knitting works I will probably prefer that, but for some reason I just cannot get my mind around how it works. I guess this will require a class as I have taken the tutorials I find on the Internet and still don't get it..

What is your favorite length or method for knitting socks?


I am hosting a conference for work this week and I hate it. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking of the things I have forgotten or still need to be done. It started as 30 people and has grown to 90; thank God someone is helping me. However there are presentations that she cannot prepare that I am stuck with and I hate that. I hate using PowerPoint, but I am glad I at least know how to use it.

I hope everyone had a great weekend with lots of time for knitting.

Knitting Issues and DOT

I have been working on a scarf in Elann Highland Chunky off and on for a couple of months, using a knit 5 purl 5 to get a different texture. It is now 55 inches long without blocking, and I just ran out of yarn. I have used 3 balls of the yarn and cannot believe that it is not longer, it would be great if I was making it for me, cause I am short, but it is for a man who is 6’3”, so it is way tooooooo short for him. The only thing I can think of doing is calling Elann
in the morning and hoping that they have some more in the same dye lot (though I am not holding my breath). I guess I could frog the entire thing and make it narrower, 55 inches is a lot of knitting, but that is what I will be doing if Elann does not have more of the yarn available. So now my question to everyone is, what would you do in the same situation? I like the way it looks and it will keep J warm, but. . . . Please let me know what you think the ideal solution is. The color is not as boring as it looks in these pictures, but indoors at night is not the ideal situation for picture taking.
In my last post I asked how people got things completed so quickly and Darcy told me (and Aunt Kathy agreed with her), “The secret to knitting a hat in one night is to sit for 6 hours doing nothing but knitting while your 2 toddlers torture their father and trash the house and you lose all feeling in your bum and hands.” I laughed, but don’t think that would work in my case, first I don’t have any toddlers and second my bum would hurt if I sat still that long. lololol

The scarf for THE Boyfriend is going well, however the yarn is turning my bamboo needles blue. I kind of like the looks of the scarf, what do you think? BUT, how am I going to get the dye off the needles without it rubbing off onto other yarns?

And for Dogs on Thursday here is a picture of my Di all cuddled up in her blanket with her bunny rabbit, snoozing without a care in the world-
YES, I have a very spoiled dog!

I hope everything is going well for everyone!

Topic #4 AHEDE &. . .

So, for this week's topic - we have a little quiz. You need NOT get the questions correct for it to count - just post the answers somewhere in a post this week.

Q1: Where did the idea of Jack-O-Lanterns originate?
C) Ireland

Q2: Halloween is the 2nd most successful commercial Holiday - what's the first?
A) Christmas

Q3: What is the intense fear of Halloween called?
B) Samhainophobia

Q4: The mask worn by Michael Meyers in Halloween (the Movie) was actually a mask of who?
D) No one - it was an old hockey mask

Q5: In 2004, what was the most popular Halloween Candy?
A) Candy Corn

And finally - tell us what YOUR favorite Halloween Candy is! I'm a Candy Corn person myself - can make me SO sick to my belly, but man I love it! Just the plain old kind though - not the many other flavors and colors there are today!

Chocolate is always my favorite candy, doesn’t matter if it has nuts, nougat, caramel or anything else in it, I just love chocolate.

Guess what, I found my knitting needles and all the paraphernalia that I normally keep together! I was so happy; I hated the thought of buying all of that stuff all over again, with so much money tied up in it. It’s funny, when I started knitting, I did not think about the cost, just that it was something to keep my hands busy, but now when I had to think about replacing most of my stuff, I was in a panic.

I went back to work today, but I was so rested after five whole days of not working (I did not even turn on my work computer) that it’s okay. My daughter’s boyfriend and I built most of the computer desk that we put in the loft area. It wraps two walls, but my daughter and I will have room for all of our computers and not be constantly bumping into one another. I need to put some finishing touches on it and then we will be able to unpack another 20 boxes. Ohhhh boy!