Stupid Snow

With the snow we got the before Thanksgiving came the not so wonderful subzero temps....ugh! Shawn has been very thankful for buying the snow thrower this year....money well spent! If I had to guestimate it'd say we've got a good 6-8 inches of snow on the ground. Course some of that started to melt today and tomorrow it's suppose to hit almost 40F. I think the lowest we dropped during the cold snap was around -40F (yup thats a negative in front of the 40...brrrr) with the windchill. That's just way to cold for me. Thankfully the cold snap broke the other day and we're now back to more normal winter temps, which is funny since we haven't hit the official first day of winter yet. Unfortunately it looks like the cold and snow are heading back our way this weekend. Mother Nature is just teasing us right now with these almost lovely sunny days.

I finished my Rainbow and Cloud socks. 

I really like how these turned out. The yarn base used for this yarn is so soft and cozy. I'm hoping she puts up more of the Ribbon Candy self striping. I'm normally not a girly colored yarn person but I love the Ribbon Candy colorway! I'd love to get a skein soon. There's more then enough yarn to make a pair of socks for myself and one of the kiddos.

Kaity's socks are very close to being done.

I think I have about 2 inches left before starting the toe and then it's on to Bree's socks. That's the extent of my Christmas knitting.

Other then that, I haven't done much knitting that I can show you. Mostly it's been test knits and for obvious reasons I can't post about that out on the blog. I have a few more test knits in route. Right now I'm trying to finish up some old WIPs before I start anymore new projects. 

On a bright note, puppy girl will be coming home tomorrow morning. Course I'm posting this at night so most of you will probably read this in the morning. I'll post some pics out here on the blog in the next few days. We're so excited to be bringing her home! The breeder is giving her a bath tonight and she's going to bring the puppy with her to work tomorrow morning. We have an invitation to go out to their ranch this summer for a visit and take the girls fishing. We've been working on puppy proofing the house and have the front half of the house blocked off where the girls playroom, front door and stairs are.

Brrrrr....It's Cold Outside

Winter is definitely kicking it into gear now. Looking at this weeks forecast I'm wondering if maybe Mother Nature isn't trying to make up for lost time since we had all that warmer then normal weather.

Remember the pic I posted last month where the sun was shining and it was gorgeous outside. Well here's a refresher:

Now you remember? Alrighty then....here's what it looks like this afternoon. Shawn is now very happy that he got the snow thrower. Instead of spending an hour shoveling snow it took him about 15 minutes to clear our stuff and another 15 minutes to clear the sidewalks in front of our neighbors on each side of our house.

Here's a shot of the back yard....its sad but I just typed yarn instead of yard.

Needless to say I've opted to stay home and drink tea instead of going out in this stuff. We were going to go out to PetCo last night but the roads were so slick that we decided to stay home. It rained for part of the day yesterday and then the temps started dropping in the early evening and by the the time it was bedtime for the girls we were seeing snow. Rain + Drop in temps + snow = nasty roads and lots of accidents. In a four hour period yesterday there were over 50 accidents here in town.

I've been working on Kaity's Christmas socks.

The pattern is Child's Lovely Lace socks (ravelry)(non ravelry)...the non rav link is to Patons website so you will have to be logged on your account to view it. The pattern is one of their freebie patterns. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock in the Tickled Pink colorway. These have been set aside so I can work on some test knits but they aren't going to take long to finish. It'll take even less time to finish up Bree's Christmas socks.

I also received my order from Knit Picks.

This is one of the sock yarn kits that was on sale. It came with four different colors of Stroll Tonal sock yarn and a pattern booklet that contains 12 different patterns. This kit with the purple yarn isn't for sale anymore but they do have the other two for sale. $25.99 for 4 skeins of sock yarn and 12 patterns is a pretty good deal.

That sums it up for now. 

Happy Crafting!

 

Gaining A New Family Member

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted/emailed me about Shadow. We miss her so much. We donated some of her things to a local pet rescue place that runs off of volunteers and donations. I think Shadow would be happy with the fact that some abandoned/abused dog was using her stuff.

We have made the decision to get another dog. We went out to a ranch near Stockett, MT to look at Springer Spaniel puppies. We wanted to see if we would be sad at being near the puppies but we were all happy and decided to get one of the liver and white little girl puppies. Here's a pic that the lady took of the girls with the puppy we picked out.

Actually Zeus is the one that ultimately helped us decide which on. His tail was going a million miles an hour when when he sniffed her.

Shadow can never be replaced and we opted not to get another Cocker Spaniel right now which is probably a good decision since we saw a black Cocker Spaniel that I swear was the spitting image of Shadow when she was younger. We were all close to tears watching the dog walk by. The owners were kind enough to stop and talk to us for a few. We will get another Cocker again some day.

On the knitting front I've been pretty busy. After the round of steroids I started feeling a bit better. Not good enough to run a marathon but more normal then I had been feeling.

I finished my moms Catnip Socks (ravelry)(non ravelry).

 

The yarn is Zen Yarn Garden Bling sock yarn. The colorway is Blue Spruce. Great yarn, great pattern. I really need to drop a box off in the mail to her soon.

Started and finished a new winter cowl for myself. 

The pattern is Turtle Tracks Cowl (ravelry)(non ravelry). The yarn is Knit Picks Gloss HW. Awesome little pattern and wonderful yarn. I really enjoyed knitting on this one. I used all but 12 inches of yarn. This was knit with only one skein. Unblocked it's around 11 inches tall and it's 20 inches round. I'm pretty sure it's going to grow a little with blocking. I'm trying out the yarn to see if it's good for a sweater. If it survives the abuse from being used all the time this winter then it will make a good sweater for me. I definitely abuse my cowls way more then I do my sweaters.

I finished my cousins baby blanket in record time....took me 10 days total.

The pattern I finally decided on was Pamela's Blanket (ravelry) which incidentally was none of the ones I originally picked from. The yarn is Knit Picks Comfy worsted. It's perfect for baby blankets. It's machine washable and it's extremely soft. I'm amazed I knit this so fast because baby blankets tend to bore me. Guess I realized that this one had a shorter deadline. I need to drop it in the mail on payday.

I'm cruising right along on my sock yarn blanket. 

 

I've started the second row. It'll be a nice blanket to snuggle under when I'm done with it. 

My Lord of the Rings sock club package came in.  

Love it! I'm a sucker for green. One more package to go and the Lord of the Rings club will be done.

I've also received my TLE sock club package....CLICK HERE FOR A SPOILER PIC! This was the last one for this year and it's gorgeous!!! I have the option to re-up for next year and I'll definitely go for a second year. All the packages have been great this year. Some of them are ones I probably wouldn't have picked for myself but I loved them anyway.

I picked up a skein of each color to make scarves for the Special Olympics this year. It's a project that is near and dear to my heart. One of my cousins has Down Syndrome. I've been to a good number of Special Olympics to cheer on my cousin. It's Red Heart Classic yarn that I have to use but using the acrylic is sooooo worth it for me. If you can please stop by the Red Heart Special Olympics Scarf site and pledge to knit/crochet a scarf or two.

On a medical related note, my RA doc has added Methotrexate to the list of pills I have to take. This one only has to be taken once a week so that's a relief. So far I haven't had any side effects so that's always good. I guess nausea is one of the most common along with dizziness and headaches. Apparently I have a cast iron stomach so all is well. Unfortunately it could take up to 12 weeks for this stuff to kick in and really do its job.

I leave you with this:

Bree in her "going to work" uniform. Cracked me up when she told me that she was dressed for work. She never did tell me what she did for work. 

Loss of a Dear Friend

Today we had to put our beloved Cocker Spaniel to sleep. She had liver cancer (which we didn't know about) that had spread to all but a very small portion of her liver. We didn't want her to suffer in pain.

We had her in our lives for almost 12 years. She will be missed greatly by everyone of us in the family. Rest in peace our beloved furry protector.