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.

October is Orange

I just realized that there has been orange in at least one photo in every post this month (not that there have been that many posts, but still) and that it continues in today's post. Lots of orange.

The month is winding down, and that means that I needed to get a bunch of projects done for the Rav thing. So I did. Yay. In time to photograph with the kiddos yesterday.

It was leaf day, so they were in the neighborhood. First up - I made a pumpkin hat for Aubrey. It's adorable, too big, but adorable.
She'll be able to wear it for years - which is a small consolation. Another consolation - her brothers both enjoyed wearing it, especially Mason.
And yes, that last one is Elliott whipping the hat around, which explains my facial expression. Next up, I finished the Multnomah you saw last time. After I took it off the blocking pins, I didn't take it off all day. I love it that much, and it's like wearing nothing around your neck, it's so soft and light.
Color is perfect for fall as well. Also perfect for fall? Owls. I whipped up a few for the nephews, as a Halloween present (and because Aubrey was getting presents - Aunt Annie needs to be fair). They turned out so cute! I really was tempted not to give them away.
But I did. And it was worth it. Mason had fully accepted his owl into the family in about 2 minutes:
Luckily, Elliott's owl survived it's emergency craniotomy performed with a jig saw (not sure he has a future as a neurosurgeon, but you never know).
All in all, I think they liked them.
I also finished Peggy's birthday present (finally). Still cringing a bit about the cutting of a knitted item, even if it was felted. Guess that means I'm not ready for steeks yet.
And Aubrey got to wear her little shoes home. She could not be bothered to pose for the camera.
Last night I finished up the last of the October projects, the Fire yarn.
Ended up with about 335 yds of worsted weight yarn. And am very happy with it. So not what I would normally choose, but that goes to show you it's good to step outside the comfort zone every now and then.

In other news, last football game of the season is tomorrow. The reports about maybe being possibly eligible for playoffs with a win ended up being false. Volleyball continues, they don't play again until next Wednesday (maybe I'll make it to that game, the girls are a bit miffed that I didn't get to a game in this round). Girls soccer lost a heart breaker on Monday - the refs were atrocious. you know it's bad when trainer Annie starts yelling at the refs! Boys soccer won an amazing game on Tuesday. With 1:25 left in the second overtime (each OT is 15 min) the winning goal was scored. Talk about drama. They play again tomorrow night, and it looks like I'll be going, at the request of the team.

So that's my big plans for Halloween - hope you all have a happy and haunted one!

I thought it was all supposed to be winding down...

Last week of October. Usually by this point life is settling down. Fall is usually so crazy busy for me and I'm usually kind of grateful for this time of year to roll around. Somehow, this year, it's not happening, and I'm not really upset. Weird.

Last weekend, that's where we'll start. Friday night was football, we lost, in the rain, far away, again. Have you picked up on the pattern this season yet? But that meant Saturday was free for apple picking. The Perry fam picked me up, in the rain, and we headed out to Patterson's. Got some yummy donuts, and then hit the play ground.
Didn't stay long, as it was raining, and we still had to go to the other farm to get the apples. But the boys were surprisingly photogenic. So we climbed back into the truck, doled out the donuts (I highly recommend the pumpkin - so good) and headed to apple farm.
It was hard to convince Mason not to pick up all the apples from the ground, but we succeeded. The boys enjoyed picking the apples, and even Miss Aubrey appeared to enjoy her bundled-up self.

Then we headed back to pick out a pumpkin. Or two. Elliott liked this one, for a minute, and then moved on.
I was a little too busy pulling the pumpkin wagon to actually snap a pic of the chosen pumpkins, but they were good ones. It was cold and wet, and not everyone stayed happy the whole outing, but it was fun. Hopefully next year the weather will cooperate and we can do the hayride and what not.

The rest of Saturday was spent watching football, ND was that close! Couldn't knit during the game, I was way too stressed. Afterwards, I started spinning the Fire fiber. Friday night, I finished it.
I love it so much. More than I thought I would. Just goes to show you shouldn't judge a roving, it's too hard to know what the yarn will look like. Plying will happen this week.

Sunday was Browns-Steelers. I started a new project, the Multnomah shawl out of some Malabrigo Sock. OMG. So soft. Would be wasted on the feet. Great pattern, quick and easy. So quick that Thursday night it looked like this:
Done, almost. See here's the problem:
See that, I ran out of yarn about 20 stitches away from being completely bound off! Crazy. So, I bit the bullet and ripped back to before the patterned bit.
I had increased to a number of stitches based on someones note on Ravelry, and ended up with 6 extra stitches on the first pattern row (which is 2 rows of increases). So in ripping back the 2 increase rows, I eliminated the extra stitches and gave myself enough yarn to finish. Which I did, today.
Yay! I'll block it tonight. Close up on the feather and fan pattern:
Monday night, I went to Ellie's and felted the slippers for Peggy. I'm going to put the finishing touches on them today, I hope.
Much better size now. I wore them around the house the other night to get them fitted to shape of feet, I'll think they came out pretty great, not sure I want to give them away....

This weekend was a bit crazy. Saturday was a marathon. Football game at 1pm (we won, against a Div. 1 team, which, in all kinds of crazy, means that if we beat the Div. 3 team we play this weekend, we're still somehow possibly going to the playoffs), boys soccer had a game at Newbury and had to be on the bus by 4:30 (game time was 6) I was planning on going, had thought to take my time, get some dinner, and leave when I needed to in order to get back to the rink for the hockey game at 8:30pm. Yeah, about that, as I was pulling out of the school's driveway, I got a panicked phone call from one of the soccer players because the ref was insisting on seeing the MD's note saying he was cleared to play with the brace on his wrist (just so you don't think I'm negligent, he's played with the brace on for the past month and no ref has required the note until now).

So I quickly turned around and went back to the office to retrieve said note, ran to main office to make copy of the note (in football the ref's have to keep a copy of the note, so I was being prepared) and got in the car and headed out. No dinner. Got to the game just before it started, only to realize that they did not have a trainer on duty. So I stayed for the whole game (only had to take care of the other team, funny how that works). But we won! Which means that they play again tomorrow, at home. Fingers crossed that it doesn't rain too much.

So after the game ended, I high-tailed it out of the stadium and back to my car, worried that I was going to be late for the hockey game. But the little kid game was still being played when I got there. I love it when the real games are late because the little kids go over, it was a theme this weekend, because that's how it went on Sunday too. Can you believe that it's hockey season already?! Neither can I. After the game on Sunday, I headed out west to hang out with Liz, and stayed out there until Ellie's plane arrived. It was a long weekend.

So, for this week, I've got girls soccer and volleyball in the playoffs today, the boys game tomorrow and the football game on Saturday. Those are guaranteed, any wins today or tomorrow adds something to the schedule, which was supposed to be empty. Huh.