To snow, or not?

It's winter...I hate winter. But I'm looking forward to spring.

I knit. I'm a bit of a project, ahem, lady-of-the-evening....that is, I enjoy knitting, and I don't really limit the number of projects at a time. I like the feel of a "new" yarn or "new" knitting experience and that coupled with a short attention span and a wide number of interests equals, well, not many finished projects but lots and lots and lots of started ones.

I knit like I listen to music--more by mood than type. I do get into these weird kicks with knitting, just like I do with music--what started out as a Dave Matthews "jag" has turned into a "rut" bordering on "obessesion" 3 months later--my mp3 player is starting to not play anymore in protest.

Anyway, I'm the opposite of Dave-Matthews-obsessed at the moment as far as knitting goes, and in the last week have knit on no less than 4 projects with at least 5 single socks waiting for a mate as well as half a sweater and 1/3 of a shawl underway. In my head are 2 pairs of legwarmers, a bag and a throw blanket, besides the pair of leg warmers I have cast on right now and the throw I'm in the midst of. I also have about 5% of another shawl started...and that is my problem right now. (Ok, the whole paragraph indicates a "problem," but let's focus for a minute.)

Last year I was gifted the most beautiful skein of yarn I've ever seen. It's from a very wonderful company called Schaefer Yarns, who produce small batches of very special hand-painted yarns, and I honestly have no more beautiful skein in my stash right now. (Alice's silk was right up there, but I couldn't let it sit and it became a scarf within the month.

The skein I got is to the left. The colorway is Lisa III, and on all of Ravelry I found only 2 skeins in exsistence--this one and one other.

At first I was thinking I'd turn it into socks, until I saw the sheer amount of it (over 1000 yards) and realized I could make 5 pairs with that yardage and have leftovers.

I decided that special yarn needed a special project. So my next thought was a shawl, because I can do back-and forth on a one piece object so much better than assembling a sweater--and I'm not dead sure what I would do with a sweater in any case. So I turned to my favorite writer, the Yarn Harlot, for inspiration.

A few years ago Stephanie made a beautiful shawl for a little baby referred to as "Snowdrop." The shawl was to be used as a beautiful nursery object with the goal of it becoming an heirloom piece. The Snowdrop Shawl, as it came to be known, was written up in chart form and given to the blogosphere as a freebie from Stephanie herself. This is a link to the pattern. Pretty pictures of finished versions can be seen here, here and here.

Evidently this CAN be knitted. It has been over and over. It's just me that has a block. After knitting and knitting and knitting, my version of snowdrop is only slightly more than what you see in the picture.

I've tried doing the pattern repeat, but I keep FUBARing it, cussing, ripping it back, messing it up again, more cussing...Currently I have decided to try to do it in a worsted weight for my lap afghan, but I cast that on last night and need to rip it back after only 1 1/2 repeats because a) I made too many repeats and it's too wide and will block even wider and b) in just those few rows I've already had to fake it no less than 8 times in order to line things up right--k2tog where I'm not supposed to, m1 in other rows, everything's cockamammy and I don't know what to do.

So with Snowdrop not bringing any light in my life or any sign of spring, short of giving this skein to another knitter to do a snowdrop for me--which would cost big bucks, I'm afraid, because I don't know anyone who loves me quite THAT much--it's going to probably have to become something else, or go back in the stash for a few more years. And patience has never been my strong suit.

So, suggestions are welcome, even from non-knitters, because this chick's had it. What do I make with this yarn? Do I perservere and become a better person through knitting, or do I exercise patience, or do I move on altogether with a new project? Any suggestions what I could do with about 1600 yards of laceweight, shoving in uncomfortable places aside? Please also keep in mind, that a) this fiber is a wool/nylon blend, so nothing summery and b) knitting with it is a bit like wrestling with dental floss, so anything terribly complicated may make me lose what little eyesight I have left.

Thanks for your input!

Knitting again...

Short blog this morning, I have to get ready for work. :-)

Yesterday was our monthly SNB meeting. I'm part of a fantastic group of ladies who meet at the Carnegie Branch on the last Monday of the month (1-3 if you feel like coming, all welcome) to sit and knit and chat and so on. We're from all kinds of different walks of life and we have fun meeting together. We've been trying to beef our numbers a bit but although there's been inqueries few have come forth to join us.

Somehow (I think Rosemary's doing, she's the unofficial "in charge" person) we got noticed by the local paper and a photographer was there yesterday to take pictures and talk to our group. I'm sure it won't amount to much more than a caption and a pic in the paper, but I'll be looking for it this week--if you get the JCP, you can look for it too!

Currently I'm working on a simple wool lap afghan. I have several nice acrylic ones, but as any knitter knows, There's Just Something About Wool. I've finished 4 squares, 3 of which I've blocked and have pictures of:

From right: stockinette and moss squares, garter rib, and an improvised color/texture pattern which includes a pawprint and Jack's name. All three designs out of my head. Other colors I'm working with are green, white, navy, light gray, pumpkin, and dark gray. I'm lacking one color to pull the squares together (using the dark gray for crocheting the edges) but there's a nice eggplant purple that I think would work with the others well, and since purple is my favorite color I'm surprised I didn't get it when I got the rest of these. Anyway, at the end I'll crochet them all together and that will be that.

That's all the time for today!

It's been awhile...

It's been awhile since I've posted. This is partly because of life, but mostly because of...ok, well, I haven't had much to say.

We spent New Year's Day with friends and family at J's buddy Dave's house.

From Left: Alara, me, cousin Jacinda, Teresa (Alara's mom/Dave's wife/my friend)

Tessa wasn't with us though, because she was off with Aunt Gina for a few days at the end of her winter break. AG was the sickest she's been in years, but took her anyway....it's probably a good thing I didn't realize how sick she was or I would have kept Tessa home. But they had a lot of fun. Tessa played with AG's friend Carol's grandchildren. They played Mary Poppins a lot. They also went and did some amazing stuff and just generally had a fantastic time together, as always. (I have pictures but apparently not on my computer, hunh.)

Tessa turned 7 on the 8th and had a nice birthday. Many of her friends and ours came and celebrated, and with the Palmers, the Crippens, some of the Davis's (Uncle Mike and Aunt Jacinda), Amber, and my parents, we had a full house. It was very fun.

Other than that, just working and recovering from the holidays. It's been extremely cold here, so Tess didn't have school two days last week, and with MLK day that gave her a total of 5 days off in a row. I was DEFINATELY ready for her to go back to school.

I had my working interview at Blackman yesterday, and the ball is definately in their court now. I put forth my best and I feel very good about how it went, so if they choose not to make me an offer it's ok with me--it's not going to be because of anything I did or did not do, but rather because they don't feel I would fit in their team, and I'd rather be told "no" because of personality or work differences than be hired because of skills and suffer from cattiness or resentment later. I'm flexible about a lot of things and I hope that showed. There seemed to be several very positive moments from the tech but other than that she was hard to read. I do hope I get it....it's a very nice clinic and I liked the people there, and liked the professionalism and cleanliness and so on...but we'll see, and I'll be ok if I don't.

Christmas, Final part

The final part of our family Christmas was going to my grandparents' to be with our extended family. Aunts, Uncles, cousins were all there. We had a nice cosy time together. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Joshua, his friend Nicole, and Matthew's wife Julie on the couch together.

Grandma and Grandpa surveying the brood.

Paddle really liked Nicole. The rest of us thought she was nice too. (Doesn't Paddle really, really resemble Jack? Except P's twice J's size.)

Aunt Gina and Tessa talking



Tessa happily opening presents---cousin Ben and his boys, Connor and Tyler were with mom Jessica's family that day, so she was the only little one.

Playing with AG

AG and cousin Collin

At home, she couldn't wait to start using some of her new gifts.

Christmas, Parts 2 and 3 of 4

Christmas morning, Tessa woke up at 5:30, and since her dad had just gotten to bed around 3 (waking me in the process) I told her she had to go back to bed for at least an hour. She didn't argue but said "I can't go back to sleep!" Standard reply to that is "then read a book!" I think she must have dropped back off because she didn't come back in until 8.

Santa came in the night and left (among other things) body wash and other personal care stuff for dad, coffee and truffles and some hair things for mom, a bunch of little personal care things and a few smaller toys for Tessa, and an Operation Game to which he forgot the batteries, catnip for the kitties, and a little cash with a note telling mom to get Jack a Nylabone.

Tessa loved her presents from us, which included some books and a couple of movies, including her "big gift" of the first season of Gilmore Girls. (When we got to my in-laws, Grandma had gotten her the next 6 seasons, which means she got the whole set in one day!)

We left for the in-laws right after opening our own presents and did more of the present thing there. (I have some new knitting books!) Jeremy's big gift was being loaded down with about 25# of change (mainly quarters!) plus a ton of smaller bills, so I'll be picking up paper rolls today for us to fill to make a bank deposit--which hopefully makes up the difference needed to make our December house payment!

We had a great day. Even the moody teenage boy was happy to be with the family and see everyone. Tessa got to play with her Aunt Kiersten and cousin Cadence, we watched Wall-E (which Daddy and Tessa love, I thought it was ok but got bored before the end), we ate mom's great dinner and mostly just enjoyed each other's company. We especially enjoyed the little ones, Candence and Cassidy--such funny little kids! Below are pictures of our day.



Opening Presents



More Presents!



Grandpa and his Grandgirls



Family Cat, Nature--he wasn't feeling good all day. :-(



Silly girl!



Aunt Kiersten and Cadence



Cousins



Uncle J teasing Cadence



Uncle Justin teaching Tessa how to use her recorder



Bobby with Natchie



Siblings Kiersten and J...Youngest and Oldest, 21 years between. There are more years between these two than between J and his mother. Which kind of blows the mind when you think about it that way...



Uncle J playing with C.J., his favorite (only) nephew!



C.J.'s first Christmas!

Christmas, Part One of Four

So we had our first of four christmases today. They go in this order: my family today, the three of us early tomorrow, J's family tomorrow late a.m./early p.m., then my extended family on Saturday. Phew!

My family came today and my folks brought dinner to us. We had a huge spread--dad's soup, sandwiches, macaroni salad, jello, pie, my sister's taco dip, Jesus' birthday cake, etc....lots of food. We had presents, not a huge haul (we're all fairly broke) but a very, very happy one. All the kids but Cory were there, seeing as we've no idea how to get in touch with him. Caleb brought his girlfriend Kylee, and I was able to pull something together last-minute for her (a fashion scarf and a necklace made by my friend Kristin which she LOVED) despite not knowing that she was coming. There was music and fun. No movies which is surprising, but that's ok. Mom and Dad got Tessa and Juel matching outfits--too cute.

Here's some pictures from the day, in no particular order. Sorry they're so blurry, I accidently had my camera on "slow" and they're all extended exposures. Stupid me.

Snow Day!

Today is a snow day! I woke up to a phone call from my boss-lady telling me that work was, well, cancelled for the day. Which is fine by me because I hate going out in the cold plus I still am not feeling so great from yesterday. After a few hours, the world looked like this:





So we were pretty happy to stay inside.


Tessa loves snow days. We get to stay in jammies, watch movies and do a little light cleaning. So far we've only made it to the first two. :-)





I like to knit on snow days of course....no different from any other day except I don't have work to mess with my knitting time (just housework and meals). Today I'm working on these:





Aren't they great? The purple is a super-soft merino/silk/cashmere blend and the white is wool. I think they're going to be fantastic house socks, as long as I don't walk in them--for wearing while watching TV, sleeping, etc. I have to sleep in socks or I simply cannot sleep. I'm looking forward to being finished with them, hopefully later today so I can sleep in them tonight.


(For those interested, the purple yarn is Kathmandu from Queensland Collection and the white is a discontinuned member of the Joann's Sensations line. I am knitting them on 4.25mm needles, which is approx. size 6 U.S., and CO 48 sts in the regular Yarn Harlot Basic Sock Recipe found in Knitting Rules).


Even the critters like to get in on snow days. Behold, Annie and Jack:





The other night, Tessa had her school program. It was cute. She had fun. That's about all that can be said for most school programs. It was held in a local church because the school gymnasium is too small. Tessa looked really cute.





I have a few close-up shots of her as well, but a) my camera sucks at closeups, so they're blurry and b) you can actually distinguish which kid is which in them, and since I don't have every parents' permission to post photos, I'm not going to.


So the snow is coming down harder now and it's 1 p.m. and I've got to get rockin' if I'm going to finish socks. I leave you with one last snuggly Jack picture. Because I think he's really cute. :-)