Snow place like home

It snowed last night in my little corner of the world. There isn't any snow here at work in Carlton, or for most of my commute, but at home in a funny little quirk of micro-climate, I got dumped on. My little car dragged bottom down the whole hill and squirreled around a fair bit, but got me to work safe and sound.

It's pretty, isn't it? I used to really hate the snow, but I guess I'm coming to terms with it (about time). It'll probably be all gone when I go home. Course, if it doesn't melt at all, I'll be walking the last 1/2 mile 'cuz down hill is one thing, but up is way different! My vet couldn't make it up the hill this morning in 4 wheel drive (it's a steep hill and really wet snow), so I know my little car wouldn't do it either. The vet visit could wait, so it will.

Meanwhile, a here are a couple of snow cats:

Is it my imagination or has this month been the longest January on record?

Stay warm!

Diane

Brrr

It's pretty chilly around here, as I know it is in many places. We leave the big roll-up door in the warehouse open while we're here, and the breeze was such yesterday that if someone opened the front door, the doors in the shipping area would be blown open. Is that a venturi effect? Your basic wind tunnel through the whole place. brrrr! It's sunny and gorgeous out with blue skies, which are pretty unusual during winter, but nippy. A good time to be knitting.

We're frantically working on info for the website, which we hope to have go live in a couple more weeks. If only we could clone ourselves and get a lot more done!

We should be working on the spring knitting catalog, but it's sitting on the back burner for the website. It's that cloning thing, and that irritating mere 8 hours a day for work (well - 8 hours for everybody else around here! I try not to add up my hours, it gets frightening). All things in time, right?

Just last week I noticed that it's no longer pitch dark at 5 pm. And this weekend I noticed the daffodils starting to poke through the ground. Spring is coming, spring is coming! Such a tease...

First toe up sock

I'm pretty new to knitting socks, and trying to round out my learning by trying various different techniques. I've done a few pair cuff down, so it was time to try toe-up. Seems perfect for those sock yarns that you buy 2 of to make a pair, like Panda Wool and Panda Cotton and Panda Silk and Lorna's Laces and ..... well, you get the idea. You take a ball of yarn, start at the toe and knit until done. Perfect! (like those old cook books "bake at medium heat until done").

I turned to Wendy's generic toe up pattern (thank you Wendy!!) with feather and fan for the top, and used the undyed panda bamboo/wool yarn we've got that I dyed a while back using Procion dyes. (I needed to do an experiment - do you dye a yarn thats bamboo and wool (plant and protein) using a dye for plant or for protein (Landscapes)? The answer is they both work great!)

And a close up of the feather and fan:

I'm pretty pleased with them! Well, "it" and a half, I'm up to the heal on the 2nd one. I think I like the heal flaps and gussets type socks better, but looking at all my store boughts of course, that's not what they use! I never considered the making of socks before, other than the difference between regular socks and those icky tube socks. THAT would be a quick knit, but yuck!

Somewhere out there in cyber land I saw something about toe up with gussets, so I may have to hunt that up. But no hurry, there are too many on the needles now. There's just no end to the inspiration and experimentation. Gotta love it!

On a side note, if anyone tried calling yesterday morning and were perplexed by no answer, it was because we couldn't get in! The ~one month old lock mechanism on the door decided to fall apart and keep us all locked out while Charlie feverishly tried to get it to cooperate. He was successful (thank you Charlie!), but no thanks to Schlage and the lousy lock they made. HEH. So, new knob, new lock, new keys and away we go. It's always something!

Happy weekend!

Diane

Another bag completed

Here is another of the bags we all worked on together. This one Paula made using Lamb's Pride Bulky. It's designed to carry a laptop. Much more stylish than a boring brief case sort of thing, don't you think? You could make one to match all your outfits.

The strap is sewn on after the felting, and she didn't enjoy that part, but otherwise loved the project.

I'm thinking I'll need to make one for me now. I made the beaded number as a store sample to show what the beads look like in action. It was my first fulled project, and it was more fun than I'd imagined. Narrowing it down is the hard part. Oh, and maybe finishing up a few others that are nagging at me... Hate it when projects nag. So unbecoming. I'm knitting as fast as I can! Thursdays are my big knit night - Ugly Betty and Gray's Anatomy! I didn't watch any TV whatsoever for something like 15 years, and now suddenly I'm addicted. It's good for the knitting though. Too bad October Road is on so late, it's past my bedtime. My alarm goes off at 5 am, so a program that starts at 10 pm is too late. See - addicted. Not just one show! What is the world coming to?

Diane