While Waiting For The Snow

Note: after many hours of cussing and snarling, I finally got blogger to post my pictures. I'm not sure if it was a glitch or an editorial comment by blogger, because the pics really are awful. My humble apologies. At some point, the weather will brighten up and I will be home during those bright hours to retake most of these pictures. Until then, I apologize, but hope that lousy pictures are at least a little better than none.

A lot has actually been going on, so a Random Sunday seemed in order to catch it all up.

1. Since there might be someone out there who (a) lives in a cave without internet, and (b) actually cares about the Packers, I will end the football portion of this blog with a very few words (and I swear this is the last football reference!): "nail biter", "Yikes", "wow that was close". Okay, done, back to knitting!

2. During the game, I cast on a Newborn Packer Charity Hat:

Ravelry Project Link and Pattern Link Knit with Berocco Comfort in Dark Green and Gold.

I think this hat is rather acorn shaped, but apparently so are newborn heads. Who knew?

I have more of this yarn left and hope to do another hat or matching booties before the challenge ends at the end of the month. As it was cast on during the game, I expect this to be a very lucky hat! (oops, did I mention a game? game? what game?)

3. The reason I cast on the hat is because I also cast off mara. After an illness delay, mara is currently drying on the pins and should be all done later today.

I am really pleased with the size and shape while blocking. I used just over 2 balls of Cascade 220 tweed, 521 yards and it is 25" down the spine. I would have made it a little bigger for myself, but Cindy is small and I think it will be just right for her.

The only real modification I made was to do the border increases every row instead of every other row as written. That changed the shape from a basic V to this elongated wing shape that enfolds the wearer -- like a bear hug. Or, technically, a sheep hug, since it is 100% merino wool.

I am still hoping to get better pictures, of the shawl off the pins. Stay tuned, I'm pretty sure the sun will come out eventually...


4. I have started a new comfort shawl for Nancy, whose dear husband, Jim, died very suddenly of a heart attack at age 64 last week. When I set a private goal of knitting 11 shawls in 2011, I really did NOT mean comfort shawls for grieving friends.


More about this later. Suffice it to say that objects are larger than they appear in the picture. Admit it, how many of you immediately pictured an enormous eyeball filling a rear view mirror when you read that?


5. After 5 days above freezing, the ground is covered by dead grass, dead leaves, and grey, icy, dirty, dead snow. My eyes and brain are so starved for color stimulation that I have started fantasizing about red. I found a dark raspberry long-sleeved cotton Tee for $3.99 at Shopko on Friday and almost wept as I threw it into my basket. I think I managed to not actually snarl and hunch over the basket as I looked around for potential competitors to my shirt, but it was close.

6. Last night I signed up for a hat pattern test and cast on within minutes of receiving the pattern. I'm using brick red Nashua Handknits Focus Worsted left over from Arlene's Braided Cowl. I don't want to put it down. I keep looking at it while I type. It's helping.

I should call this project "a not grey dead hat", but that would probably confuse anyone who hasn't read this post. Instead, it is called Tied-Band Chevron Beret Test. And here's a Ravelry link: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Rainyt/tied-band-chevron-beret-test

In answer to the obvious questions, no, I do not have measles, and no, I don't know why the picture makes me look like I have measles. Yes, it is a totally crappy picture taken by someone who got caught up in the moment and forgot that the object of the picture was supposed to be the hat.

The picture is also pre-blocking. Post blocking the hat is much smoother at the top but still has the three "wrinkles" or folds at the bottom, which I like a lot. If the knitting goddess smiles, I will get decent pics of this as well tomorrow during daylight hours.



7. For the last 30 years (at least), I have had a standing request for snow on my birthday. It's a day early, but it looks like it the universe is coming through in a big way this year - they are predicting 7-11 inches today and tonight. Nice job. That will help cover the disgusting mess that is Green Bay right now (see #5 above).