It was only 2 days

Wow. What a difference a weekend can make. Friday was not that long ago, and yet so much has changed. Friday, the day started out mild and gorgeous (it eventually started raining, but it started out nice). Friday, my nephews were playing in the leaves.


Today, I woke up to this:

Hmmmm. Seriously.
Friday, it was still the fall sports season. Friday, my volleyball team beat last year's state champs to get into the state finals. Friday, the football team was still practicing. Today, it is officially the winter sports season. Today is the start of basketball, and the continuation of hockey. Saturday was a bad day - both volleyball and football lost, pretty badly. Very depressing. Bad weekend in general for my sports, ND and the Steelers lost as well.

So to counteract all the yuckiness of the weekend, today I am wearing a new pair of socks.
The Wicked socks. Yay! Nothing better than handknit socks to cheer you up. Except maybe for this:

A Fibery Friday

Wow- I haven't done 2 posts in the same week in a while. Look out - I'm getting wild and crazy. But I have stuff to show off, so here goes. As I said in my last post - I was a bit tired of working with the Alpine Targhee, so I started a different spinning project - yeah, I'm that fickle. Remember that nice "Fallen Leaves" merino I showed a few weeks ago? I started that. I thought it was appropriate (even if it is a little bit close to being team colors for a certain hated football team). Haven't gotten much done, the gift knitting comes first - but here it is:
I like it. I think it'll end up being a very nice 3-ply worsted weight yarn. We'll see how many yards I get, but it should become something pretty and fabulous for next fall.

Yesterday, I received my long-awaited football bonus. I placed an order for a spot in a spindle and fiber club way back when, after I had gotten my 2-a-day paycheck, as my present to myself. It was originally supposed to arrive mid-October, but the woman who makes the spindles and fiber and what not was a few weeks late delivering her son, and things got a little delayed. Anyway, let me just say that it was worth the wait.
That right there is what came in the package. 5 oz of merino in the colorway "Sunday kind of love" which is, seriously, my colors. Love it. And that spindle,
is a 1.39 oz rosewood and jade spindle. So gorgeous. And it spins really really well. How do I know? Because also included in the box was a ball of pin drafted hand-painted cormo. Luscious is all I can say about the cormo, it's so freaking soft and squishy. I had to spin it up. Couldn't help myself.
Very pretty, I'll probably Navajo ply it tonight. We'll see if I get enough yardage to do a little coffee cup cozy.

So that's what I did last night, instead of finished my Wicked socks. I've got a couple inches of stockinette and the toe to do, so that will get done tonight too. Wow, I may even be able to blog over the weekend if I have a finished object to show. Seriously crazy.
Keep your fingers crossed for my volleyball team that plays today in the state semis and tomorrow evening in the finals if they win, and for the football team who is playing tomorrow night (the team we're playing has 8 players committed to D1 schools, and it's been said that they could probably win the State championship in any of the divisions, including Division 1 - so I'm thinking that tomorrow night will be my last football game - just saying.)

Too Many Secrets

Not much to report. Football won on Friday, home playoff game this Saturday against a team I've never heard of (Norway if you're wondering). Volleyball plays again tomorrow night in Barberton for the chance to play on Saturday. If they win on Saturday, they go to Dayton the following weekend for States.

There has been knitting. Much of which I cannot show. That'll be the issue for a while, now that I'm fully into gift knitting. But I do have a sock and a half to show.
Need to keep knitting these. Was hopeful that I would get them done in time to wear on Friday for Halloween (Wicked Witch is the colorway, very appropriate, I thought) but now I'm not so sure. I could easily crank it out and not have any problem, except that there is a secret project that is needing immediate attention because it has a real deadline. Hmmm. We'll see. It's a long bus trip to Barberton....

Anyway, speaking of gift knitting, here's some photos of the Scurvier Pirate hat in action.
Note that in the pic above, Charlie is wearing both versions of the hat, one on top of the other. I love that!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

It's back to the knitting. And sports. Let's get the sports out of the way first, that way those not interested in the knitting can leave early. Have to give a big huge shout out to the Tampa Bay Rays for doing what my beloved Indians couldn't a year ago. And I might have a new favorite MLB player - BJ Upton. Why? Because in the post game interview, the second answer he gave started with a big thank you to the training staff for keeping him on the field. I love any athlete that can recognize the importance of the training staff - we are often under-appreciated and overlooked by the general public. So yay BJ Upton!

Moving on, my Steelers won again yesterday (and it was televised!) Notre Dame had a bye week, my football team won 56-13 over Harvey which shut the door on us getting into the play-0ffs. We may even get a home game first round. Oh boy! A freshman girl won the state tennis championships - that was expected, she got an invite to the US Open this year. Volleyball is chugging along in the playoffs, they play today. And sadly, both of my soccer teams are done for the year.

But hockey has started. And basketball is about to. Never a dull moment.

Onto the knitting. I have a finished object! Yay. I finished the Serpentine Mitts.
Love them. Wore them on Saturday at my football game. They work very well. Won't wear them at work much, they'll get too dirty and icky. These will be more for home use - knitting and ravelry-ing when the house gets really chilly (did I say gets? Sorry, I meant to say "now that it's really chilly"). Really great pattern.

Now that I have given Peggy her birthday present, I can show them to you. I finished these ages ago and kept them secret for her birthday which was the 7th. It's the Spiral Eyelet pattern, using the Noro Kureyon sock yarn.
I did finish another Scurvy Pirate hat, but I sent it off to NJ with mom before I could take any photos. It looks just like the last one, only a little bit bigger. Am hoping that mom is bringing home pics of it in use so I can post them here.

I started a sock, using the Wicked Witch yarn from KnitPicks. Love it (I say that about all my knitting don't I?) But seriously, look at them pretty spiraly stripes. I using the Fanny pattern, but modifying it a bunch.
I've also started a secret project. Of my own design. Ack! Scary thought that. We'll see how it works out. No photos until after it's gifted of course. Wish me luck.

I've done a little bit of spinning, not much due to the knitting, but a little. Here's how much of the Alpine I've got done.
And knitting pal Meagan and I recently traded some goods. This is what I got:
A skein of Noro Iro (a bulky wool/silk blend) to be made into mittens to go with my Striped Noro scarf. I'll get around to knitting these sometime after Christmas when all the gift knitting is done.
And a shawl's worth of Glimmer. It's alpaca with a bit of bling added in. It's really really pretty. And once again I'll get around to knitting it eventually. So soft and sparkly!

In other crafty news, I made my Halloween cards last night. Yay me. I'll show you them after they've been sent and received so as not to spoil the surprise. You know how I hate to spoil surprises. Have a good week!