Snow and Seeds

It's snowing.

Again.

I think we've made up for the past two years where we had little to no snow. It can be done now. Really.

I went out for the mail and was surprised to find what had looked like flurries had covered the road and the yard. No wonder the birds were complaining for me to fill the feeder.

We have a fabulous window feeder that allows us to easily fill it and to view the birds up close and personal. The birds don't even seem to care when we stand next to the window and watch them eat. The cardinals are the only ones that are shy. I do love the little chickadees.

Ah well. The upside to that trek to the mail box was that there was a Burpee seed catalog waiting for me, which made it all worth while. I will be sitting down with the curly girl tonight to start planning this year's garden. Happy times.

Second Sock Syndrome

Sock one. Dog in the background
hoping for a treat.

I love knitting socks, and have never suffered from second sock syndrome. Until now.

I am forcing myself to make the second sock. I don't like this pattern. It's not a bad pattern. It's well written. It's creating a very pretty sock. Great designer. But it has a yarn over at the end of two of the rows in the lace pattern. I hate that. It's making me crazy. I was trying to do the pattern as written - needles included - since it's from the Sock Knitters Master Class book. The yo at the end of the row on 4 double point needles was making me pretty stabby. Not a good place to be when you're already holding little weapons. I switched to my standard circular needle and it's better now.

The upside, is that I love the Knit Picks yarn I chose. 

Of course (never fails), the birthday for which these socks are being knit is approaching very quickly. Guess I know what I'll be doing tonight...

Sky Scarf

I'm actually keeping up with the row (ok. Two rows - across and back) a day depending on the color of the sky - sky scarf project. This year so far has been pretty gray. I'll be happy to add more blue!

Blizzard Mittens

So many people got whomped by this storm. We got a mere 5-6" out of it. No complaints! It was a whole lot easier to shovel that last night before the cop for home than it would have been to clear his parking spot of 12+ inches of the stuff.

Finished up a quick pair of mittens for my curly girl so she'll have toasty hands when she goes outside to throw snowballs at the dog.

She's baking a cake today and getting ready to play with some decorating icing. Good times!

WinterFest

My BKF and I took our kids (Well, I took the younger of my two. The teen declared that it was just too cold out for her to go.) to Winterfest at The Lands at Hillside Farms. Alpacas were pet, chickens were chased, ponies were ridden... the girls even braved the "stinky" cow barn and were rewarded with calves!

There were ice sculptures and ducks to see, and even a woman spinning some Alpaca fluff. L, who is nearly 10, was quite pleased to be included in the "oh, we're spinners, too" statement.  She was thrilled with all the animals - from the cows to the barn cats. We'll be watching for more programs from this farm. It was a lot of fun for all of us - moms, two year old and pre-teens alike.

Love this chicken. Makes me want a backyard coop!

One of the ponies near the barn - not the one L got to ride.

This old greenhouse made me want to shoot artsy photos!

Monster time

Met up Saturday with my BKF for coffee, chatting and a book exchange. She loaned me The Big Book of Knitted Monsters. I was able to *finally* finish Irving. He's nearly done - just waiting for a belly button and a mouth.