Month: January 2012

This is the view out our window this morning:

Now, I know many of you from other parts of the country (I'm looking at you Marguerite!) think this is laughable that this would snow us in, but this is the great Pacific Northwest.  While we can deal with lots of rain and grey skies, snow and ice brings us to a screeching halt!  We have many hills and don't have the snow removing equipment to deal with it.  We actually probably could get out of our driveway with our 4 wheel drive, but discretion is the better part of valor and we have chosen to stay put.  I had gone to the granddaughters for the weekend and instead of coming home Saturday night, decided to wait until Sunday.  Oops!  This is what greeted me the next morning:

I would not have gotten out of Ben & Abby's housing development without the 4 wheel drive, but the freeway was clear.  In fact, there was almost no snow between our house and theirs, but our house had as much snow as they did!  Another weather oddity of our area – snow can be really hit and miss.

Maggie really, really loves the snow and one of her favorite games is catch the snowball:

That was taken yesterday – we've had about 5-6 more inches since then.  This morning while I was standing on the deck taking pictures, this little guy was terribly put out that I was standing by his feeder:

So, we've been snug as bugs in our warm house, watching movies, scrapbooking, knitting, and just generally being lazy.  I did get quite a bit accomplished on hubby's sweater.  The body and neckline are done and I've started on the sleeves:

Not a great picture.  The neckline doesn't ruffle like that.  So far it seems to fit him very well.  We weren't sure if we would even get mail delivery today, but the USPS came through and delivered this:

12 skeins of Knit Picks Gloss in Sea Spray.  This will be for my Cape Cod gansey.  Thank you Ben and Abby for the gift certificate!  I lost no time in casting on:

Unfortunately in my haste I miscounted and cast on 50 stitches less than I should have – discovered after the first two rounds.  Off to start over!

In the meantime, I've gotten a lot of scrapbooking done while cooped up – here's one of my newest pages:

I belong to a small knitting group and on occasion we undertake a group project.  This year we decided we'd like to explore knitting ganseys.  Most of us will be knitting a gansey, although we won't all be using the same pattern.  I've decided to do Cape Cod by Alice Starmore.  The crazy part?  The suggested gauge is (drum roll, please) 8.5 stitches to the inch with sport weight yarn.  Excuse me?  I can't imagine anyone getting that gauge.  As it is, I will be using fingering weight yarn, at a gauge of 8 stitches to the inch on (another drum roll) size 0 needles.  Yes, I am a little bit looney tunes.  Two things are working in my favor (well, maybe three).  First of all, the pattern only comes in one size, which is too small for me.  The  .5  less stitches per inch should put it in exactly the right size range.  Secondly, our deadline is almost a year away.  Our goal is to all wear our sweaters to our Christmas party the beginning of December.  And, I ordered a color I truly love.  I debated whether to get something timeless and neutral, but decided if I was going to be working on this for a year, I really needed to love the color.  I ordered it today – stay tuned.

Of course, this is in addition to the two adult sized sweaters I promised for hubby and son.  On the plus side, I almost have the body done on hubby's sweater.  I've finished the front and am up past the armholes on the back.

Son still hasn't decided on a pattern for his.  I may end up having to draft something.  He really wants a zip up cardigan and I haven't had any luck finding one in sport weight on Ravelry.  Anyone out there have any ideas?  I told him if he could at least find a picture of a style he liked, I would create the pattern.  Maybe this will be an excuse to buy Sweater Wizard.  I've been trying to hold off until they come out with a Mac version.

In addition to knitting away madly, I've been working on scrapbooking as well.  I've started a year long class and have decided to make a book for my parents.  I toyed with the idea of surprising them with it when it was done, but decided that I really need their input along the way.  Here are my first two pages:

(Kit-Ever After by Kristal Hartley, Recollection by Joanne Brisebois, Boys and Toys by Linda Sattgast, Scrap It Now Clusters and Scrap It Now Template by Digital Scrapper.com Font – American Typewriter)

And of course, the granddaughters always give me good scrapbooking opportunities:

Kit – Thankfully by Krystal Hartley, ScrapItNow Templates, fonts Beautiful ES and Cambria.

Kit – Under the Pier by Kellie Mize, Pennant tutorial by Susie Roberts, ScrapItNow Templates, font Calisto MT.

Isobel was SO excited to get that tooth out!  And, since the picture was taken, she has lost the other upper tooth.  She's really starting to lose that little girl look and is becoming a big girl way, way too fast!