Clown Barf

 

The snow is almost gone, but the world is still a very gray and muted place.  A few weeks ago, someone on Ravelry had the brilliant idea to have a yarn swap called Clown Barf to brighten up the dreariness of the late winter.  My sock yarn blanket is for kiddo, so I jumped at the chance to add brights.  The way the way most Blankie Mania swaps work is that 20 people contribute 20 mini skeins of yarn.  The swap mom divvies them up and mails them back to us.

The minis arrives yesterday and I admit i was like a kid in a yarn candy store.  The blankie is slowly growing, and the colors are reassurance that the arrival of spring is more than just a date on the calendar.

Oreo likes it too.

Remeber the canvas tool wraps?

I made them for my Dad who is a carver.  He very nicely told me that I had messed the first one up, so I made him another one.  It had room for 30 or 32 tools. It was cool.  He made this treasure chest for kiddo.  It has a key and everything.  She loves it.  Check out the carved scallop he did.  Way cool.

Yesterday he sent me an email saying he went to an auction and bought these. There are about 150 antique carving tools lying there.  He may be one happy camper, but he is on his own!

The 10th Good thing about Ella

When I was a kid, we had a book called the 10th Good Thing About Barney by Judith Voirst. Barney was a cat who died.

Ella died today.

1. She had personality.
2. She was a cuddly and warm
3. She was not afraid of the kid and allowed DD to love her.
4. She made sure that the covers did not escape during the night by lying on them and pinning them in place.
5. She never scratched the furniture.
6. She educated us about important things like having a pristine litter box, eating good cheese, chin scratches, the joys of napping, and now illness and death.
7. She gave us funny family stories to tell.
8. She created a warm spot where my feet go when I get into bed.
9. She rose above being left on the front door of the SPCA in a box. She became a Queen.
10. She was a beloved member of our family.

We will miss her.

At acupuncture.  She actually liked it.

Knit happens

One of my co-workers just had a baby.  While she was on maternity leave I made her Ruffled Baby Hat.  The pattern says it takes an hour.  It took me two and a half, mostly because it took me three tries to do all the stitches of the long tail cast on.  But regardless, it came together in a snap and I love the sweet cotton summery feel of it.  I meant to bring it in to work but I procrastinated wrapping it.

Then, last week she brought her son in.  

Oops. 

I need a boy hat.  I found knitchick's Tomato Beanie.  Kiddo helped me pick out yarn to make a blueberry hat.  Knit happens, but I like it.

Jammie Days

One of the things I love to do on a winter weekend is to stay home and spend the day in our jammies.  Mother nature must have heard me complaining about the piles of grubby ice everywhere and sent us some snow.  We are supposed to wake up tomorrow to 8-12".  It was supposed to start as rain and change over to snow, but it has been snowing fine, steady flakes all day.  This the kind of snow that means business.

Don't worry, we do bathe, we just put on another clean set of jammies after wards. There is a fire in the fireplace.  

 

The kid is playing.  

Sometimes I go do some housework; sometimes I knit.

Summer can wait.

Dreaming of Summer

© Tiiina

It is warmer here, but is it still wet and gray.  Really, all the warmth has accomplished is to melt down the snow piles into blackened piles if ice.  Summer is still a very long way away. Tiina Seppälä designed a pair of socks with the winding path of the Kalaoki river in Finland.  I love her photo.  It reminds me of the green, hazy days of summer.  

Cosmic Fibers Yarn is a local indie dyer, but she also has an Etsy shop.  I loved her green: The Woods Outside Merlotts.  I had originally purchased Happy Feet in a blues/purple colorway, but I like Carrie's green better.

This pattern is really easy to follow.  The 'river' stitches are 7 stitches and they flow back and forth with increase and decrease stitches.  I love them.

Summer will come.  When it does, it will be too hot to wear these wool socks.  Until then I can dream.

Panama City Beach

We ran away for a week and got reacquainted with the sun.  We left 20 degree weather with snow and 40 mph winds. We arrived to this!

Camp Helen State Park

We burried kiddo in the sand

And made a sand forest

The Farmer did not catch a fish.  He is bummed. And cold.  It was windy!

Kiddo fed the gulls.

and played chase with the surf.

I wanted to rock and knit on that porch all day...

Kiddo found a lizard.

The view from the balcony.

Looking the other way.

Another sand forest...

Panama City Beach Traveler Socks

These are the simplest cable socks.  I made a pair for the Farmer's Mom for Christmas and I did not want to give them up.  There are only 8 cable stitches where things change and the pattern is memorize-able.  I knit most of one on the plane home from Panama City Beach.  I find airports stressful, but I love knitting on planes.  These socks magically transform when you put them on.  They go from lumpy, scrawny knit things to really pretty cabled socks.  Go find yourself a skein of worsted weight yarn and get knitting!