I’m Back!

So it’s been a long while since I put out a new pattern. I thought you might like an explanation for why I’ve been so busy elsewhere:

Understand now why I’ve been a little preoccupied? 😉 Rest assured I’ve not given up knitting nor designing entirely though. I had a pair of sweater patterns mostly done before my son was born, and they are just waiting for photography and tech editing now. I hope to publish both this winter.

I also have a fun winter accessory set that will be ready for test knitting shortly. You can see a preview of the scarf above, and there are coordinating gloves and a hat as well. If test knitting goes well, and nothing crazy happens with my Smiley Guy, those should be published by mid-fall. Feel free to drop me a line if you want in on the test knit!

Snowed In!

Well, we definitely got walloped.

It’s hard to know for sure with the drifts, but it seems like we got about 2.5 feet. There were low points that “only” came to my knees, and high points closer to shoulder height. Of course, the plow-made mountains are a whole different story.

I worked obsessively on the Project of Doom while it was actively snowing, and got a good couple blocks done. Maybe I’ll finish it this year after all. If we have like 3 more blizzards.

After the snow finally stopped it was time to dig out ourselves and a few neighbors. This took most of a day. Athena was hemmed in by the new “fence” while we were digging out our own driveway, but when we trudged through the (for me) nearly-hip deep snow to the next driveway, she wasn’t about to be left behind. She and the other dogs on the street had a blast while we were all digging. Of course, it turned out to be a rather futile effort because even though we had clear driveways, nobody showed up to remove snow from our street until last night.

Instead, Athena had great fun ignoring the clear spot Hubby created in the backyard and making her own path for a few days. We ate lots of baked goods and soup, worked off all those baked goods in our tiny home gym, binged on Netflix, and slept embarrassingly late. I knit about a mile with the green handspun.

Monday it was above freezing, and yesterday it hit 50, believe it or not, so that’s done a good bit to melt down the massive piles of snow. By Monday a few of the most adventurous truck and SUV owners were venturing out, only to return and tell us nothing was open and there was no place to go. Yesterday Hubby ventured back to work, and said that while the main roads were fine, if only one-lane, getting out of the neighborhood took nearly half the time he spent commuting. My tiny car and I stayed home. Instead, I took advantage of the much-warmed weather and put the olive tree out to sun itself in the blinding snow glare, because nature is weird.

Then last night someone from the county showed up to haul snow off the road! Finally! It had melted quite a bit and all the trucks had compacted it plenty too, but it was still too much for an ordinary plow. This guy spent more than an hour on our short, residential street and there are absolute mountains of snow on all of our lawns today. The kid across the street had a blast climbing the one in his yard today, and planted a U.S. flag on the top of it. It was pretty stinkin’ cute.

Thanks to the county’s efforts, today I was actually able to LEAVE THE HOUSE!! I only went to the grocery store, and they were still pretty picked-over from before the storm, but it was exciting anyway. The roads are definitely not back to normal, but they are reasonably safe as long as you go slow and there aren’t too many people out at once. This whole storm has been such a weird experience for all of us native to the area. Schools are still closed through the end of the week, because buses can NOT get down many of the neighborhood roads right now, and things are even worse up in the mountains. Looks like I’ve got a lot of knitting time left ahead of me.

Sooo…what should I make with the awesome chunky alpaca?

Whiny

I am having a whiny, discontent sort of day. There’s no real excuse for it – work and home are pretty much normal, I’m not sick, and I’m getting plenty of sleep. It’s not even that cold out. I’m going to go ahead and blame it on the lack of daylight hours.

Regardless, I’m feeling petulant and unsatisfied about absolutely ridiculous things. Eloina’s cables are still awesome, but my inner toddler really seems to feel I should be done with the first sock by now. She wants to work on Brumby Jill or Hubby’s replacement Irish Moss gloves. Or a sweater, or even a different pair of socks. Because who needs sense when you can just whine?

Likewise, I have a kitchen full of food and absolutely nothing to eat, according to my totally reasonable brain. Dinner’s going to take entirely too much effort to prepare, but all the things that would be quick to prepare sound gross today. WTF, brain?

Even a run (in the chilly, dimly lit damp) didn’t pull me out of my funk. Exercise and a hot shower are usually the perfect antidote to moods like this. Maybe I need to break out the big guns and find me some cashmere. Or Jack Daniels. Cuz seriously, I’m annoying myself.

Williamsburg

Hubby and I had a lovely long weekend away. I did get a few hours of knitting time in, but the sweater really doesn’t look appreciably different so there’s not much point in another photo. I promise it’s in the home stretch though! Since there are no knitting photos to entertain you with, how about some weekend photos?

It was rainy and gross the first evening and morning we were there, but we made up for it by lounging around until embarrassingly late and then getting Duck Donuts. If you are lucky enough to live in an area that has Duck Donuts, you should definitely try them. Such an awesome treat, especially when they’re still warm.

Once the weather cleared up a bit we visited Colonial Williamsburg like always, and watched some re-enactors in town for an event. Being the hockey obsessed household that we are though, we made sure to leave in plenty of time to catch the season home-opener on tv that evening.

After the game we came back and did a ghost tour because…well, because October, that’s why. No ghosts (shocker), but it was fun!

We spent a day at Busch Gardens too, which is always fun but is extra fun this time of year because they’re all decked out for Halloween. Are you noticing a theme on this trip? Every evening they open up a collection of haunted houses and flood the park with actors in spooky costumes, and they really do go all out. So fun!

It was so hard to come back to work yesterday, but so completely worth it. Now to crack down on this sweater…

Back to School

Well, teachers in my district are officially back to work. The kids will follow at the end of the month. Unfortunately, that means a serious blow to my energy levels and knitting time! On the other hand, I am excited as always about the new year and new kids. I’m trying something new and putting “15 minutes of knitting” on my daily to-do list, in the hopes that seeing it there will actually prompt me to do it. It would be nice to have that little bit of visible productivity and stress relief every day! What do you think? How to you make yourself make time when you’re busy?

Montreal

Hubby and I are back from a week in Montreal, and very grateful to my little sis for again house- and pet-sitting! Ready for a few highlights? It’s photo-heavy!

First off, the hotel we stayed in had such amazing views we almost didn’t want to leave it! From one side of the impressively affordable suite, we could see Vieux Montreal, the St. Lawrence River, and Habitat 67. From the other side we could see a good chunk of downtown and Mont Royal. It was pretty stunning.

Even though we deliberately got a room with a kitchenette so we could take advantage of Montreal’s famous farmers’ markets and bagels, we had a surprisingly hard time finding any! We did manage to find a few local treats to sample though!

We spent plenty of time touring around Vieux Montreal’s beautiful old buildings and museums (And ice cream shops. So many ice cream shops.)

 

And spent a day exploring Mont Royal too.

Of course, being hockey fans (if not especially Habs fans) we had to go to Centre Bell. We chose to do that on the only day it rained, because the so-called underground city meant we could walk there without ever actually going outside. Pretty amazing.

All in all an excellent week, with plenty of built-in knitting time as well! More on that later!

I DO Believe in Spring, I do, I do!

Looklooklooklooklookit!

GREEN. The hyacinths have made an appearance, although worryingly the crocus have not. There are daffodil shoots poking their heads out of the leaves too! Every year the calendar says spring is coming, and every year, towards the end, I worry that it might not actually be true. But here is evidence!

I don’t even care that my kitchen floors will look like this for the next 2 months,

or that my shoes and dog won’t look any better. I’m not sad about putting away knitting because honestly? Air conditioning is frigid here in Virginia. The knits will be made and worn all summer long. Besides, we’ve still got a few more weeks of frosty mornings for hats and blanket knitting. I went for a run today. Outside. As if I live someplace humans actually want to live. Spring might actually, finally be here. So excited!!

March is the Cruelest Month

Yesterday it was in the upper-40s here, and rained heavily. By evening most of the snow on the ground had melted off, and I noticed that my hyacinths were peeping up through the mulch out back! It was fabulous, and I wanted to share with ya’ll, but it was twilight already. So this morning I got up and aimed my camera out the window at the flower bed…

Crap. It’s definitely snowing again. I knew it was in the forecast, but as warm as it was yesterday I just didn’t quite believe it would really happen. At the time of that photo there was about an inch on the ground, and my poor hyacinths may already have been done for.

By the time we took the pup out for a romp after lunch – and boy does she ever romp when there’s snow on the ground – there was probably about 6 inches on the ground. At this point, the snow is up to about the middle of the wheels on the cars in the street – so 8 inches? Maybe? It is still snowing quite hard.

Hubby and I are thoroughly snowed in. That means it’s time for hot cocoa (with a shot of Bailey’s, because this weather is not fair), Netflix, and a nice WIP for me. Come and get me when it’s spring.

P.S. I’m taking advantage of the extra time at home to make some plans for an upcoming KAL. Come take my polls here; I could really use your input!

Snow Day!

So for the last two days, this has been happening:

Which, as I live in a state that shuts down when it snows, means a lot of this has been happening as well:

and this:

and finally, finally this:

I could get used to this snow day business.

I Survived!

It felt like a close call from time to time, but I managed to survive to Winter Break! Time to put up some decorations,

bake some cookies,

and finish some knitting.

Return to sanity: begin.

P.S. Because I know you’ll ask, the hat pattern is Kris Carlson’s Nubby.