What the heck happend?

At 9am today, the weather guy said 3-6" of snow.

I walked out my door and there was already 7". That didn't bode well....

It took me two tries to get out of my driveway, having to shovel out the end of the driveway where the plow (finally) came. The whole time, I was thinking, "Oh, this is just up here on the hill where it snows more and takes them forever to plow our street. Rt. 146 will be better." Uh uh. It was worse! A slow, yucky 2 miles to the shop. Then, I had trouble getting into my parking lot and parking space. There was So. Much. Snow.

I spent a nice, quiet day cleaning out my office and tidying things up. One customer (who braved the roads because when she came in from snow blowing, her dog had chewed up her double pointed needles!) and the UPS man came by. Decided to close at 5 in order to be able to clear off my car while it was still light out and make the trek up the hill. Got out there and had to not only dig my car out of the parking spot, but I had to dig myself out of the parking lot onto the street! There was So. Much. Snow.

I got up the hill ok, and then.....

That's my car at the end of our driveway. Did I mention that Paul was on a business trip and so could not plow the driveway and had the 4 wheel drive truck??????? Luckily I got into the driveway off of the street. There was So. Much. Snow.

The snow was so deep I was pushing it away when I was opening the door to my car. My unofficial measurement was 16" and it was still snowing. Poor Mandy didn't know what to do - she was having a hard time bounding around in the snow, so she just headed right back for the door to the house. And here we sit, at 6:55pm, waiting for Paul to get home so he can help get things back to normal. Got the fire going so I think I'll knit a little!

But first.... I finished my monster!:

This is Geet the Garage Monster. He's sitting on the stack of The Big Book of Knitted Monsters that came into the shop on Wednesday. He's adorable. Don't you think??? The other monsters in the book are adorable too and if I didn't have so many other things to knit for the shop, I'd make another. The instructions are easy too.

CUSTOMER SHOW AND TELL:

Amy's socks and fingerless mitts:

And her cowl which is made with a sparkly yarn that I can't remember the name of!:

Sandy's February Lady Sweater, made with Malabrigo Worsted:

Mari in her Wonderful Wallaby, made with Encore during the knit-a-long at the shop:

Phyllis is on a finishing spree --- she put together this afghan that had been started some time ago:

...and she's working on another!

Nancy E's Flounce scarf:

Mignonne's adorable baby sweaters made with Crofter DK:

Sisters, friends, nephews, monsters, fuzz....

While I was visiting in CT last weekend, my mom, my sister and I went through some old pictures. Check this one out of me (on the left) and my sister:

Does that not completely represent the older-sister-tormenting-the-younger-sister dynamic? Did you catch the terrified look on my face???? (click on the picture for a slightly larger view!)

I went back to Connecticut for the day this past Sunday for brunch with some girlfriends:

I don't get to see them often so it was nice to catch up!

And then went to see my nephews again, and play some ping pong:

Yes, that's the dining room table! You do what you can with what you've got - we had the paddles and the ball, so the dining room table it was.

The Daisy's and the Brownies came to visit the shop for their meeting on Saturday:

Yvette gave them a tour of the shop, a spinning demonstration, taught them finger knitting and read them "Phoebe's Sweater" while they had a snack. Whew! It was a whirlwind hour - thanks to Yvette for being the tour guide!

In other news, I was wearing my Adult Surprise Jacket the other day and noticed that it was started to fuzz/pill where the arms rub the sides of the sweater. Here is what I got when I used the sweater stone:

Felt like almost a whole sweater's worth! The jacket is made with a loosely spun merino and is not tightly knit, hence fuzzing and pilling is much more likely. It looked much better after its haircut. (Wouldn't it have been nice if I had thought to take a before and after of the jacket? --- I was too amazed by the pile of fuzz...)

I'm working on a knitted monster!

....in anticipation, next week, of the arrival of The Big Book of Knitted Monsters! An absolutely adorable book of all kinds of household monsters. This is Geet the Garage Monster. Among others in the book are the Closet Monster, Icebox Monster and Garden Monster.

I also made a baby bonnet from the Cotton Candy pattern book:

Cotton Candy is a 100% cotton yarn, and it is very soft. So nice for baby things....

CUSTOMER SHOW AND TELL:

Betty's cowl made with Expression:

Theresa's convertible mitts which she is making to donate to soldiers:

Robin's zippered child's cardigan, made with Encore for the class she is teaching in March:

So cute - and she said the zipper was easier than you'd think!

Phyllis and her finished afghan!:

Phyllis has been working on this (among other things) at the knit-ins since before I took over the shop almost three years ago. Pretty!

Stephanie's stash of finished objects:

Her beautiful shawl, the Octopus Mittens from 60 Quick Knits, and several skeins of handspun yarn! She recently purchased a wheel and has been going to town spinning up a storm.

Alison's first ever socks, made with Encore Colorspun:

She's hooked on socks now.

Valentine's

I went to CT this weekend and saw my nephews at a soccer game ---
One was there to play:

(#24!)

One didn't have a game that day, but was there with his soccer spirit in his sweatsuit:



And his neon soccer shoes!:



And one who didn't really want to be there, but came to see me!:

He really was happy to see me - can't you tell? They are all so cute and it was nice to see them!

My mom, sister and I had a nice dinner and visit --- and my sister and I got Valentine chocolates from my mom. YUM!

I had some time to knit too and finished my car seat blanket:

And I even worked a little bit on my Girasole, which has been sitting for a while. Couldn't work on my Volna since it takes more concentration than I had. I can't wait to finish it, though, so I can have it at the shop for a sample. The Noro laceweight yarn is very nice to work with and I love the colors.

And now, off to a Valentine's dinner with Paul!

Enough already!

Alright already! I've had enough of the snow, and so has the sheep:

And today? What was up with *dark sky/white-out snow for ten minutes, then blue sky/sun, repeat from * ? I'm so ready for spring and the warm weather. Don't get me wrong -- I love, Love, LOVE sitting in front of the warm fire knitting. But, it's just gone on too long now. It feels like it's been cold for 6 months.

Good thing the spring yarns are starting to come in - gives us something to look forward to!


Check out Jana's Maine Morning Mitts (made with Autunno and Noro Kochoran):


Speaking of the Maine Morning Mitts, Liz from Peace Love & Yarn brought a new supply to the shop recently and there are some great chunky's to use for these mitts!



CUSTOMER SHOW AND TELL:
Stevie's adorable little turtles, mini-crab and mini horse:

Jan's THIRD (or is it fourth?) gathered scarf, made with Malabrigo Silky Merino:

And, in case you didn't see my edits from the last post, Jan's cowl (pictured in the last post) is called the Willow Cowl (click there for the free pattern on Ravelry).

Millie's Yankee Knitter baby sweater (still needs buttons!):

Kathy L's Diverged socks:

and her Shawl Collared Cowl (made with Baby Alpaca Grande) and Lava Flow cowl, made with Invernal:

Robin's Morning Walk headband, with her knitted flower:

Robin is teaching a class to knit this flower Saturday March 13, 12:30-2:30!

And here is Susan in her FIRST EVER sweater! (made with Cascade 220):

Super Bowl Show and Tell

I don't get thrilled about the Super Bowl except for three things:
1) food (suprise, suprise)
2) commercials
3) half time show

(and I don't think I'm alone with this list, am I right? anyone?)

Paul and I got some wings and things and enjoyed our Super Bowl fare. I liked a couple of the commercials but overall was not thrilled. Loved the car commercial with the little kid dressed as Darth Vader. I also enjoyed the half time show - I like the Black Eyed Peas and thought they did a great job. The game I could have done without (I guess that's when a DVR would come in handy - just skip over all that nonsense.) so of course.....

During the Super Bowl, I finished my Wonderful Wallaby!

...But I can't figure out how the picture got this way, or how to turn it around. Made with Ella Rae Superwash and I can't believe how soft it got after blocking!

Also finished my Feather and Fan scarf, for the upcoming class March 4):

Made with Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo, a nice Dk weight yarn.

Also, started working on another car seat blanket for someone....

CUSTOMER SHOW AND TELL:

Here is Jan's cowl (for the life of me I can't remember what it's called but will find out --edited to add that Jan's cowl is the Willow Cowl from Ravelry -- click there!), made with Ella Rae Lace Merino. Here it is layed out flat:

And here is what it will look like when you wear it:

Pretty cool!

Rose's collection of scarves, two multi-directional scarves and one gathered scarf:

Sue A's socks made with Zauerball Crazy (which is a newly arrived yarn to the shop!)

Trudi's tam, made for the upcoming class (March 19 & 26):

Robin's newsboy hat, made with Ella Rae Sand Art:

A Miracle Whip moment

The shop was closed yesterday due to the weather. I can't tell you what a hard decision it was to make - and I kept checking the weather to make sure I had made the right decision. There was a lull in the middle of the day, when nothing was happening and I kept saying to Paul (who stayed home because the weather and roads were so bad - could I get a clue from that?), "See? Maybe i shouldn't have closed!" Then at 3:30 or so, it started sleeting very hard and I felt better.

I kept envisioning that someone would have ventured out to the yarn shop (because that's where people go after a storm, right? - not the grocery store, gas station etc) and encountered a locked door and the "closed" sign. Just like that old Miracle Whip commercial - do you remember it? - when the guy ran out of Miracle Whip in the middle of the night, went to the grocery store but it was not open. And he said in this very disappointed voice,"They're closed." Remember????? I think it was the same guy who was in the "Time to make the donuts" Dunkin' Donuts commercial.

So, got through the bad weather, back open today and hopefully Spring is close by. I'm ready for it.

At any rate, since I then had time, I knit!
Finished my Traveling Woman Shawl, with Periwinkle Sheep Sock Dream:

What a wonderful yarn! So soft and wonderful to work with (cashmere!). This is a sample for the upcoming class - which will be a good class for those wanting to venture into lace knitting. A fairly simple pattern with such pretty results.


Got up the beginning of the hood on my Wallaby:

This is turning out so cute! Can't wait to see what the hood will look like. Almost done.


Then, I worked on the "Volna" scarf, for the upcoming class:

A more adventurous pattern but it is so pretty. I'm using the Noro Kirameki lace yarn, but the pattern gives options for other weights of yarn (including Noro Taiyo, which should be coming to the shop soon!) and widths of scarf.


And finally, I forgot to mention this little side project I've been working on:

A cotton rug to put in front of the wood stove. I'm using doubled worsted weight cotton and a size 8 needle to make it nice and dense. Very plain and a little boring, but it's meant to be practical and hide soot and other wood stove dirt. It's only about 2/5 of the way done; all garter stitch, so I take it in the car or work on it watching tv since I don't have to think about it.