Snow Days and Exasperation

The second storm of the week came through Thursday into Friday, resulting in another snow day on Friday. Snow days, I find, are perfect for getting lots of fibery things done. Example #1: Monday's achievement:
I took that 4 oz of BFL from Tomboy Yarns (links in the last post) and spun it up. Sorry, forgot to take pics of the singles. I then proceeded to finish the knitting of the Aeolian shawl.
Isn't it pretty? Yeah, haven't made it to Ellie's to block it yet, maybe tonight. Have to get a hold of her first. But that's a pretty productive day in my book.

Wednesday, I finally made it over to see Bridget and fam for a belated Christmas. Which means that I finished the Baby Surplice and Aviatrix hat on Tuesday night. Didn't get photos of them on Miss Kathleen, but here's her first blog photo:
Not the best, I'll admit, but it was taken with my left hand while my right arm was holding her. And no matter what, she's adorable. Kaylee of course wanted her picture taken too.
She was most impatient to start doing everything included in her present. Disappointment abounds when you're three. This was the view from my parking spot when I got to work on Wednesday.
Nothing but gray. That's why people get depressed here in winter - there are way too many days that look like that.

Thursday was Rock Day, a day for spinning. So, I opted to ply up that BFL during the football game.
It still needs to be soaked, but you get the idea of what it looks like. Speaking of spinning, that night I opted to soak the Rugby yarn you saw last post too (I got some wool wash from Meagan for Christmas on Thursday).
So now it's done and ready to go. I got about 245 yds of a sport/DK weight. I love it. Now to decide what to make with it. And since I was on such a roll that night, I thought that I would soak the Fire yarn I spun up a while back and didn't wash. And that's when the night went downhill. After one soak, I expected there to be dye in the water - it's a vibrantly red and brown yarn. After two soaks, I was still okay with the bleeding. After three, I was not so happy. So I decided to let it soak overnight, as it was getting late and I was tired. This is what greeted me Friday morning:
Ummm, okay. This should be the last soak.
Or not. Maybe I should rinse it a bit, like 5 minutes. Good, now I'll soak it again.
And after one more soak,
I gave up. At least it's a bit lighter now. Hung it up to dry, figured that 16 hours of exposure to water was enough and if I did much more, I would mess with the integrity of the yarn. But this is freaking ridiculous. I'll probably have to wash the finished item 3 times too.
Yeah, even my hands were tinged by the dye. But onto a happier red thing, the sweater.
I separated the stitches for the sleeves - Wednesday I think, and I tried it on, and it fit! Yay! Now waist shaping can commence. Would've started but I got side tracked by a project I deemed more immediately necessary on Friday. Example #2 of the productiveness of snow days:
That yarn became this headband:
Finished last night actually. Isn't it great? I think so. It's double layered too:
Which means that it's extra warm. And comfy. Yay for semi-instant gratification projects. But this makes wearing a pony tail when it's cold so much easier. And it used not much yarn at all, so I'm thinking that some matching mittens are in order. Eventually. I have other things more pressing - I already have mittens. Maybe later, I'll get a picture of it in use.

So, this was the view from the window on Friday, after the snow had stopped falling.
And then yesterday, Mom went for a walk in the woods and took some spectacular winter wonderland photos:
So pretty, it almost makes me like winter. Almost. Those are for my cousin Krista - who misses the snow. I'd send her some if the post office would let me. We have some to spare.

And now I leave you with a very confused kitty. Knitting pal Debi included some knitted cat nip mouse toys with my Christmas gift, and I introduced one to Maddie the other night. She's not really been exposed to cat nip, and isn't sure she likes these interesting smelling things.
She's intrigued.