I'm Throughly Sick of Snow

Kathleen-

Yesterday we visited the Como Conservatory and Zoo (by the way, any readers in the Twin Cities, the Coservatory is maybe the best single place to go in the depths of Minnesota winter for flowers and greenery and warmth. It's free (with a suggested $2 donation). We saw these gorgeous lilies and visited the many animals at the zoo. I know I keep posting zoo photos, but although I always feel guilty in my enjoyment, I love seeing the animals up close. So I'll restrain myself to one shot of the twin polar bears, and this big silverback gorilla....

It was beautiful and sunny, and we wanted to enjoy the outdoors before today's weather. Because given that it's the last day of March, Minnesota has chosen to reward us with more snow:
And not just snow...wet heavy snow that the forcasters here call "Heart Attack Snow." The reason being, it weighs about a ton, and people have heart attacks trying to shovel the stuff.



Here's the finished fiber I was working on in my last post: That's about 250 yards of 2-ply Blue Faced Leicester dyed by Fleece Artist and bought at the Stychen Time Quilt and Yarn Store in Jasper National Park in Canada this summer. And displayed in today's snow...


On Saturday I went out to Detta's Spindle, where I bought my beloved wheel. I rented a drum carder from her to process some of the mountain of alpaca fiber I got from my Dad.
Which means I now have this:
There's PLENTY more too....


Also we went to Ikea to get a shelf. As you know from your visit, our kitchen is quite challenged in terms of space and storage. This helps quite a bit.

I'm off to stare at the snow...but it is supposed to be 55 by the end of the week. Gotta love MN in the spring.

I Remembered

Kathleen-
I was getting my sandwich for Knit Night last night, and it occured to me what I had meant to blog about: SNOW.

It snowed (flurries, no sticking) on Monday as I was walking to lunch with Eily. Not heavy big flakes, more like little frozen pellets, but snow nonetheless.

Guess its time to really get going on winter accessories.

Last night at Knit Night we had the novel presence of a knitting man (who was lovely and funny), and it didn't curb our conversation one bit! He's married to one of our regulars, and though a relatively new knitter, has jumped in with gusto.

I spent much of the night bemoaning the very large feet of all the men I knit for, but I did manage to get to the gusset increase point for Grandpa's socks (I was a solid inch away and didn't know it till I measured).

I just reserved tickets for a dance show this weekend that some friends are putting on, so I need to either turn the heel first, or start the second sock so that I have knitting in the dark knitting for the show!

Gorgeous Fall Weather

Kathleen-
Today is a gorgeous Minnesota Fall day. Fall has been a bit strange this year, but the tree in our backyard has been changing:

as has the ivy on the back of the house.

In celebration of the weather, Mike and I headed to the Como Zoo and Conservatory, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch from Nelson's (YUMM) and visited the animals. Since you moved away, they've opened a really cool rain forest exhibit with tropical plants, birds, snakes, and a sloth. I spotted him just as we were about to leave:
and then he woke up:
Then we had to visit the big cats (some of my favorite exhibits). There were mountain lions, tigers, lions, and leopards. The only pictures that turned out were of the lions:

and the tiger:

And as promised, I have actual knitting progress. I've worked some on Henry:

and a closeup shot of the texture on the front:
and the back:
and then I've been diligent about knitting on the socks for Grandpa. Here's my problem. The knit night ladies were adamant about the brown as the best choice for the contrast toes and heels. At the time I agreed....but now that I've knit a few inches, I'm not so sure.
What do you think? I'm considering a different blue/green shade...

5:39 AM

Kathleen-
Last night at knit night I didn't knit a stitch. Instead I talked, looked at books and magazines, and generally enabled those around me. I did buy a book (Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop), because I'm going to knit a couple of Baby Surprise Jackets. One for E&H, and another for B&K. There was no knitting because I had no knitting with me except a sock that I'm not currently inspired about. And that came about because of running late and traffic and car crashes (not me, thankfully, but this becomes a theme).

The weather turned very sharply cooler this week. Last week at knit night it was 90 and muggy. This week, it was downright chilly! Which keeps me in the mood for having large pieces of knitting in my lap, and I'm speeding along on Rogue. This pattern is so spectacularly well written, I'm happily following along. And though the Skye Tweed is not a super soft yarn in the skein, but it feels so much softer knitted up.

Monday night I bound off for the underarms, so now I'm knitting up the back (which is pretty simple). This is going to be a fabulously snuggly sweater. A good thing, given how icy cold my new (basement) office was today.

Oh, and the title of the post? That would be the time that a car crash woke us up this morning. (see? a theme). Luckily, no one was hurt, but there's nothing to start your adrenaline shooting through the roof like the sound of cars colliding at high speed right outside your bedroom window. It was so loud that even Mike woke up. And there was no more meaningful sleep after that shot of adrenaline.

P.S. 300 posts! Go us!

Happy Independence Day!

Kathleen-
Happy Independence Day! Mine was graced with good food, a day full of board and party games, knitting, and fireworks. What more could one want?

Your Tuesday storm sounds a little too exciting! We need the rain badly here- even with rain on Tuesday, we're still well below normal, and my gardens show it. However, we're not nearly as bad off for rain as my hometown, which canceled its fireworks show for the second year in a row (and I think the 6th time in 8 years). It turned out to be a good precaution, as a neighboring town that opted to go on with the show managed to start a small fire!

Tuesday, armed with Knit Night companionship and a deep breath, I ripped the heel and gusset from my sockapalooza sock, put the stitches back on the needle, and recommenced knitting. As a result of my lovely day yesterday, I've reknit most of the gusset, and hope to knit the heel tonight.
After all, tomorrow Clue #2 of Mystery Stole 3 will be posted! I'm very very close to the end of Clue 1- maybe 5 rows away, so that should get finished tonight for optimum knitting over the weekend.

Summertime....

Kathleen-
I'm with you on the summertime knitting. I have very limited ability to knit in the summer in the absence of air conditioning. At the moment, we only have one of our air conditioners installed, so the master bedroom is nice and cool, but the rest of the house has a tendency to swelter. As I watched the 10:00 news last night, the words "tropical dew points" came out of the weather woman's mouth, and I knew I was in for trouble today.

Sure enough, it's already hot and sticky. Thank goodness for air conditioned offices!

I too have many projects, but I'm trying to focus at the moment.

1. Sockapalooza socks! The deadline is early August, so I'm doing my best to get them done sooner rather than later to remove the deadline.

2. Babies. I'm with you, babies are popping up all over the place. (None from me). So there's some baby knitting going on. A few pairs of booties, and maybe a couple of EZ baby sweaters are in my future.

3. Lace! So funny you should mention this. Yesterday after I posted, I was exploring the internet, and decided to sign up for the Mystery Stole 3 KnitAlong. The premise is that each Friday (with one exception for the Harry Potter release) the moderator posts a clue, and we all knit along with that clue. There is no picture of the finished stole in advance...thus the mystery! The first clue goes up this Friday, and sign-ups for the group are closing on July 5th....so if you're interested, sign up sooner rather than later. It's already got over 3000 participants.

I haven't swatched for it yet, but I've got it narrowed down to two yarns. Either Misti Alpaca Lace in a Lavender (from the Borealis Memorial Day Sale), or Blackberry Ridge Silky Merino in Samarkand Blue (from Shepard's Harvest).

As for the question of the day, I can only answer with my current answer: Priority 1 is the sockapalooza socks since they have a deadline. Priority 2 is to keep working on baby booties in small amounts, and Priority 3 is the Mystery Stole 3 KnitAlong.

All Socks, All the Time

Kathleen-
This weekend was about socks.

Friday night we went to the Groveland Tap with friends, and I knit along on my sockapalooza socks. I finished the gusset, but decided trying to turn the heel using a pattern I didn't know well while in a bar was perhaps not a good idea. Tonight I plan to turn the heel and start the heel flap.



Saturday night we went to a St. Paul Saints game (they won, 11-1). I was anticipating spending all day Sunday at Twin Cities Pride, so I wanted something simple and cotton to work on. The mohair content in the Bearfoot is lovely, but sticky in the hot and humid. So I returned to the socks you had started and given to me in April. I was unhappy with my previous gusset increases, so I ripped out to the beginning of increases on both socks, and reknitted. Between the Saints game and working at my organization's booth at Twin Cities Pride, I'm ready to turn the heel on one sock, and have started the increases on the other.


It's really too hot to knit anything but socks at this point, though I am thinking longingly of lace and of cables. Once my sockapalooza socks are done, I may retreat into air conditioning so I can knit lace and/or cables to my hearts content!

Stormy Weather

Kathleen-
Not much knitting to report. My Dad was in town to speak at an event, so I've been busy with him, and on Wednesday night I was drafted to play softball on Mike's team because they were short on women, so I lost a normal knitting opportunity.

So no knitting pictures, but I do have a fun weather picture to show:

We were about to go to bed Wednesday night, and I went to put something in my car, and there were amazing storm clouds- so dramatic that I couldn't resist a few pictures. We got some pretty good rain out of the storm, but no severe weather in our neighborhood, although others were not so lucky.
By the way, it's hard to take pictures of lightning in the dark with a digital camera that has shutter lag.

I'm just starting the gusset on the first sockapalooza sock, so heel turning is in my near future. I think I'm going to use Wendy's pattern for a slip-stitch heel on a toe up sock. This weekend it Twin Cities Pride, and my organization has a booth, so much of my weekend will be spent at the Pride Festival, where hopefully there will be a bit of knitting!

81 Degrees!

Kathleen-
I started this post yesterday, but never finished it. So here it is, with additions at the end...

It's just a week till you're here, and I'm crazy excited. The way I can prove this is that tonight I'm going to go home and clean in preparation!

I've been reading all the comments about the REPRESENT event, and thanks for the great link to the story about Joe showing up. I was sitting at my desk crying because the whole thing was so overwhelmingly cool.

In recognition of the fact that the Harlot is going to be right here in St Paul, I've been planning. Rumor has it that the event is already full and they're doing a waiting list! So glad that I reserved a space for us! I left a comment on the Harlot's blog explaining how far Alabama is from Minnesota (in Miles and Kilometers). I also canceled one order for the new book (at B&N) because when I originally called they said they would receive copies by the 30th of March, and would contact me if there were any delays, and then today I called to check and their arrival date is now April 8th. Unacceptable! So I called the Yarnery (which already has it in stock), and ordered two.

SundayMike and I hosted an all day board game extravaganza. People arrived at 9am, and the game broke up around 9pm. One of the participants had dropped off the breakfast dish the night before, and so I put it in the oven around 8am. So we ate breakfast, played the game, snacked, played the game, ate sushi and pasta salad, played the game, snacked, played the game, ate dinner, finished the game, and ate dessert. I made Spinach-Pesto Lasagna and Lemon Ginger Cheesecake for dinner, and both were big hits. They also both had the advantage of being assembled the day before, which was key, and they easily feed 10 people.

All through the game, I knit away on Clessidra, which are turning out great. Now that the pattern is established, I only need to look at the chart occasionally, which makes them go much faster. There would be pictures of the socks, but my camera isn't talking to my computer at the moment.

Yesterday in Minnesota it was 81 degrees! In March! We set records! It was gorgeous! Mike got home and we decided that despite the enormous amount of leftovers, we should take advantage of the unseasonable weather, and so we took ourselves off to have dinner on the patio of the Happy Gnome. It was a brilliant plan, but it meant we got home and pretty much went to bed. Today we're back to seasonable weather, so it turns out to have been a good decision to sit on the patio all evening.

One week till you're here!