Knitamazoo(tm)

After a late night of partying with friends watching a hockey game and lying on the couch until the ball dropped, I woke up this morning to this. Lots and lots of snow. It looks like a fresh new start to the new year. They are calling for more snow today and it could snow in amounts only measurable by feet for all I care since I have nowhere to go today. The plan is to sit at home and work on this.

“This” is my Mystic Waters Lace Shawl, a mystery shawl KAL that started last year, October or November, and finished up just before Christmas. Since I had Christmas knitting and secret sock pal knitting that just had to be done, I had to wait to cast on for it. I am now up through row 122 and I’m loving it! I wanted to work on it during my Christmas holiday, but with the inlaws here (and their dog) it was nigh near impossible to get any knitting done. So, while I have a few days off for New Year’s, I’ve been working on it all I can.

It still seems like Christmas around here, even though the decorations came down on Sunday. Santa made one more stop at our house yesterday and dropped off this. We’ve needed a new refrigerator for years. We’ve been talking about a new refrigerator for years. Finally this year when my husband won his fantasy football league, he said that his winnings would go towards a brand new refrigerator. Off to the store we went and picked out this beauty (which was on sale I might add). We absolutely love it and I’m so happy to be rid of the creamy/yellow one that has been here since we moved in 10 years ago. Now all of our appliances match and the kitchen looks good. There was some question about whether or not it would fit though the archway that separates the hall from the kitchen. We measured it without the doors and it would fit. What we didn’t know was that once the doors were off there were still a couple of pieces of metal that stuck out and the guys finally had to remove them in order to get it in the kitchen. I had to hide with the cats as I was afraid that it would have to go back to the store. But the delivery guys were fantastic and they got it in for us. It cooled down quickly and I was able to load it up yesterday afternoon.

In other knitting news, I’ve been working on a pair of River Rapids socks from Sockbug for myself. I knit this pattern for my secret sock pal and loved it. It’s an easily memorized pattern that makes wonderfully stretchy socks. I’m working them in Koigu KPPPM in a lovely blue colorway. I’m using US size 2 needles and I switched to size 1 for the heel and sole. The first one is done and fits beautifully! I can’t wait to get the other one done.

Now that the guests have gone home, the decorations have been put away for another year, the cats have returned to a normal state (well, normal for them anyway) and the snow has fallen, it’s time to put on some tea, wrap up in a blanket and knit til my heart’s content. May 2008 be a year of peace, happiness and prosperity for you and yours. Happy New Year!

So, we woke up Thursday morning to around 3 inches of snow and darling hubby got up and snow blowed the driveway. I did my part by getting up a little earlier and getting my shower out of the way so he would be able to get cleaned up when he was done and head off to work.

After my shower I went down to the basement to feed the cats. I opened the door to the laundry room, turned on the light and thought to myself . . . “Hmmm . . . I don’t remember getting an indoor swimming pool.” There was at least 2 inches of water on the floor. I’m not sure if the drain on the floor clogged or if the city sewer backed up but the kitties had to swim to get to their food. I called for the hubster and he managed to get the water to drain. Now we have a fan going to dry out the rugs on the floor and we had to put down a bridge of towels so that the cats could get to their food and litter box. What a day!

In knitting news, I’ve been working non-stop on The Mystery Sweater. I haven’t even done a stitch on a sock. (I’ll wait while you pick yourself up off the floor!) I am just enamored with this sweater. You’re changing yarn so often that you can’t get bored and since you have no idea what the finished sweater will look like it’s fun to watch it take shape. My mom wanted to see pictures of it so here you go.

When I took the picture I didn’t get the stripes all lined up like they should but you get the idea. For awhile I was dealing with over 500 stitches! I’m glad I’m past that point and it’s only taking me 15 minutes to knit a row instead of an hour. That gets real depressing after awhile since you don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere. But I knitted on and soon I could see progress.

After all the striping is done on the body, the sleeves are done and then it’s time to pick up stitches and put in a button band, collar and edging along the bottom. I think at one point I have to pick up 192 stitches (I may put the needle through my eye before I get them all picked up.)

And here is a closeup of the different yarns that I am using. The dark brown stripe above the fringy looking stuff is Softy. This stuff sure lives up to its name but don’t drop a stitch . . . you might just kill yourself trying to find it.

I’m excited as Beth Brown Reinsel will be teaching at my LYS in March. If I could afford it I would sign up for all 3 workshops she is doing but since I’m not rich, I’ve only signed up for one. I will be taking the Swedish cast-on and techniques class. I can’t wait!

So my wonderful hubby put in a new patio with a new grill and a small space for a vegetable garden for me over the weekend. Monday night we finished up the garden space and then off to the greenhouse to buy some plants. I wanted some green peppers and they had some really nice one’s on sale. So my hubby grabs two for me, I pick out some tomato plants and a red pepper plant and head to the checkout. We get home and I put in the tomato plants and start planting the peppers and what do I find . . . he picked up to habanero pepper plants instead of green peppers! Now I personally have nothing against habanero peppers but I tend to use more green peppers than habaneros. Well by this time the greenhouse is closed so we had to wait until last night to go exchange them. I double checked to make sure we were getting the right peppers this time! And now my garden is complete.

Around 2:30 this morning we had some pretty strong thunder storms roll through. Strong enough to keep me awake for the next hour and a half. Needless to say I’m pooped this morning! Must stay awake . . . must stay . . . zzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . .

In knitting news, I cast on again for Soleil this morning and it seems to be behaving itself this time. I decided to try the little trick of swapping the first stitch on the left needle with the last stitch on the right needle and this seems to be helping. I didn’t have enough time to knit the first row completely but it’s not pulling apart like the last time. I plan to work on it tonight while doing laundry and watching CSI:NY (if I can stay awake that is).

Well that’s all my news for now. Happy knitting everyone!

He surprised me this weekend and built this little patio for the brand new gas grill he bought. He also made a little space for me to have a vegetable garden. Isn’t he just the sweetest?