My Secret Pal Package Is On It's Way!

    I finally got my Secret Pal's Christmas package mailed today.  Every time I tried to mail it and failed, I added something to the outside of the package.  My 'art work' goes around 3 sides!  And there's 2 or 3 patterns on the outside, too.  I was running out of room to add anything.  I hope she likes it!  It's suppose to be delivered by next Thursday.  I'll start tracking it on Tuesday to see if the holiday weekend slowed it up.  Originally, my Pal was someone in Australia and the postage for this box would be about $30 so I had to ask for someone closer.  I really didn't want to do that but....  I'm still waiting for a package from a Secret Pal.  We had until tomorrow, 12/31, to get them in the mail. 

More Snow

   Looking west out of my bedroom window towards Wally's house this morning I can barely see his garage and his house is lost in the snow...just to the right of the garage.  Those 2 buildings are less than 50 yrds away!  The forecast for today is for wind and lake effect.  It looks pretty if you don't have to go out.  Wally's cleaning the long driveway now so Jeff says we'll go to town this afternoon.  We need to get some groceries (bread, milk, eggs), last night's chili was not a big hit with anyone except Fanny.
   As of 5:30pm, the official snowfall total for Herkimer was 6 1/2" with a possible 2-5" more of lake effect possible tonight and tomorrow.  Nice, huh???

Snow in Our Little Woods

Looking West from the TV room

Looking South from the TV room (that was the big old boxelder in our yard)

   The forecast for today was 4-6" of snow (we ended up with 4")...with another 3-6" for tonight and more lake effect for tomorrow and Saturday.  A
couple of storms ganged up on us but their timing was good...in the middle of the holiday vacation.  I was very glad I was retired this morning...just looked out the window, sighed and rolled over and went back to sleep!  Even Fanny wasn't in a hurry to go out today!!  Wally hasn't plowed the driveway yet...and the Town plow's been by several times so I'm sure the driveway is plugged at the road but who cares!?!?  The village of Herkimer has declared a "Snow Emergency" w/no unnecessary travel in the village and all vehicles removed from village streets.  There have been several accidents in Utica and a fatal accident on Rte5 in Westmoreland.  People forget quickly how to drive in this stuff. 

   I've spent the day sitting by the wood stove, knitting.  Got the foot done on the 1st sock for ME! 

It's Peruvian wool with Alpaca, super soft, dark jade (even if it looks blue here) and I love it! 
   The wood bag was almost empty and Jeff was nice enough to go out and fill it.  He even walked down to the mailbox, too.  Supper tonight is gonna be chili...nothing fancy, just rib-sticking.  Jeff's been trying to stick to his diet so I can't even tempt him with any goodies for bringing in the wood!

 

The Art Work Says It All

Here's my Secret Pal gift box...a BarkBox donated by Fanny...filled with goodies a knitter will appreciate, decorated and ready to mail.  The cartoon was already on the box, I just edited it a little by adding the line on the bottom.  The art work on the top is all mine.  Hope she likes it!!  Next step is to get it to the post office...weather permitting!

Merry Christmas

      Well, we survived another Christmas. 

Jeff's sister, Sherry, and my cousin, Ed, joined us for dinner and we all enjoyed Jeff's roast beef, with baked potatoes, glazed carrots, gravy and homemade biscuits.  I cut out most of the desserts in an attempt to help Jeff get his A1C level back in control, just leaving my Italian egg cookies (this year made with Stevia and for some reason they got very hard very fast.  Fanny is enjoying the last few...thinks they are fancy dog treats!).  Ed brought some castagna...roasted chestnuts...but he and I were the only ones who tried them.  I also bought some alici...anchovies...but never opened the can because I was the only one who really likes them...and never made fried dough.  But we feasted!  Our 5 1/2 lb roast drew rave reviews and there was little left over! 
   Presents were exchanged and the hi-light of them was the cap Sherry gave Jeff that has a light in the brim.  It may

be too small for Jeff and if that's the case I volunteered to wear it!  Sherry liked the cowl I had made for her...in fact, she liked the one I had

 
finished and the one I had not, so I promised to finish the 2nd one for her, too.  Ed agreed this year's socks were nice enough to wear to work and not just wear to use the snowplower!  Fanny made out the best, giftwise.  Sherry gave her a 20 lb bag of gourmet dog food, a bag of beefy treats and 2 rawhide chews! (The youngest family member always makes out the best, don't they?  Even if they are a dog.)  Jeff and I got 4 or 5 new dvd's from Sherry to share that he (and Ed) will enjoy.  Guess I'm going to have to buy my own. (I had wanted 'Florence Foster Jenkins' with Meryl Streep and Simon Helberg...Howard from Big Bang Theory.)  Sherry gave me a drying stand so I can block scarves and shawls without Fanny jumping on them, something I am looking forward to using!!

   We planned to have dinner around 2pm so

Sherry could get home before dark.  She left around 4pm and made it home OK after getting stuck in our driveway.  Ed left about 7pm and he got stuck in about the same place and ended up just backing  down the big driveway to the paved road. The big driveway turns into a speed staking rink really quick and it's easy to get stuck across it.  But they both eventually made it out and Jeff made it in and out yesterday without any trouble.  I haven't tried and don't plan on trying until tomorrow...or until we get some snow to cover that ice.
  I'm on vacation for the rest of this week, knitting what I want when I want.  The shop is closed for the season...or in hibernation, as we like to say. I still have to go to Cooperstown and gather my stock but I'm going to wait until next Friday when I have an orthopedic appointment (you know, 2 birds...1 trip).  After a slow December, sales picked up at the end and we ended up just shy of last year's sales.  Not bad.  I actually sold 3 sweaters the last day!  But the guy who worked didn't write the name of the sweater, just the generic 'sweater'.  I'll be able to tell what sold when I see what's left.  I've got a sweater order to do before I start working on my spring stock but I think I deserve a couple of days off first.  Maybe I'll actually make myself a pair of socks!  There's this skein of machine washable Peruvian
wool and alpaca sock yarn I've been saving....

     Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas!

A Very Wintry Day

     The weather today kept changing.  There was a pink sky when I woke up around 7am but it had been replaced with a whiteout by 9am.  When that finished around 10:30, we had a beautiful blue sky with sunshine...but it was cold...temps were only in the teens.  Twice during the day suddenly there were whiteouts again...the last one around supper time that closed the local libraries and cancelled bingo games and afterschool activities, according to the TV news.  Right now it's clear...and cold again and it's suppose to stay that way thru the night.  Tomorrow is suppose to be better...warming up during the day.
   I sat by the woodstove and knit on hats to take to the shop tomorrow until Jeff told me to let the fire go out.  We were getting a strong backdraft and smoke was coming into the house.  He went outside during one of the clear times and cleaned the chimney pipe but he still wouldn't let me have a fire.  He wants to clean the stove and maybe replace the blanket  (whatever that is) tomorrow while I'm at the shop.

   So today I sat there and knit.  Made 3 hats to take to the shop to replace what sold over the weekend and today at the Showcase that was held at Bassett.  I got a little carried away and
did 2 of them  (the pink and gray, and the lime and navy) in the next larger
size to fit 2-3 yr olds and only 1 (the white and red) in the baby size.  Then I spent the time after supper
making the pompoms and learned that I don't do a very good job making pompoms.   I think I should just give in and either buy one of the new pompom makers or not make hats that require pompoms.  I've got 1 order for a 2-3 yr old hat that I have to do this weekend but right now I can't stand to think about making another pompom.  I've got to sweep up the exploded pompoms yet.  Boy, do I know how to waste yarn.

Scarves, Cowls and Other Knitted Things

     I sat down yesterday with the intent to start a cowl to give Jeff's sister for Christmas.  I was using a pattern from Ravelry called Gallatin's Scarf (one of several that I found that I thought she might like), Caron Simply Soft acrylic yarn in woodland heather and a US 10 1/2 needle.  The lacey edge wasn't difficult and the scarf grew quite quickly.  By the time I finished the scarf this morning I knew it wasn't going anywhere without me.  I was keeping it.

Besides, it wasn't what Sherry was looking for.  She wanted something to wrap around her neck and be able to pull up over her nose if needed and use as a hood.  This scarf/cowl isn't deep enough to use as a hood. OK, so back to the drawing board.  The next cowl I started is called Evelyn and I'm doing it in Caron Simply Soft acrylic yarn in cream and again on a 10 1/2 needle.  Unfortunately, it wasn't a whole skein
when I started and I ran out a few minutes ago with several rows...and maybe

3"...to go so I'm going to have to get another skein to finish.  This doesn't look like it's what Sherry is looking for, either, but I won't be able to tell for sure until it's finished.  I like it but if I decide not to keep for myself, this one will go to the Herkimer Library for it's fence program.  (Anyone who needs a hat, scarf or gloves/mittens can take what's hanging on the fence, no questions asked.) There is one more pattern, called the Champagne Cowl, on Ravelry that may be what she wants.  It's longer and doesn't have the lacey open work.  And it's wide/deep enough to use as a hood. But I don't have any yarn to start it tonight so I guess it's back to working on Jeff's socks.
(He watched me mend my socks yesterday and told me maybe I should stop knitting for everybody else... since he has enough socks for now...and knit a pair for myself.  Nice of him, huh?)

HATS ON DISPLAY

        Here's all the new hats...and a few older models...on display in the shop in Cooperstown.  That's 22 hats!  You'd think somebody will like one of them this holiday season, don't you?  Hope so!

I Never Know When To Quit

   You would think that I would learn to set my knitting aside when I work on a hat...that's 63 stitches...for a day and a half and can't get the design from the graph paper into it.  But no.  I just keep ripping it out and trying again.  Maybe I'm not counting correctly.  Maybe I copied the graph wrong.  Maybe I'm just going crazy.  Finally, yesterday afternoon, after starting the hat the day before and
after removing most of the extra design elements from a charted snowflake, I got the damn snowflake to repeat 3 times around the hat. I finished the it...but did not sew it up or work in the ends...and immediately started another one.  And, wonders of wonders, the 2nd hat worked up in an hour and a half without any problems.  Today I'll sew up both hats and work in all the loose ends...and make the pompoms for the tops.  UCK...pompoms, I hate making them!  (Usually one will explode on me and little pieces of yarn will go flying all over the room.  But isn't that the way it looks around my chair normally?)  Anyway, they'll finish those hats perfectly.  Then I think I'll try something I saw online...a Christmas Candy Hat...a white hat with red and green stripes swirled around it.  Let's see how I can screw that up.  
   Oh, and the reason I was having such a difficult time with that pattern...I think I was getting sick...a cold...and didn't want to give in to it.  I coughed all night and woke up with a sore throat this morning. 

Jeff's Keeping Busy, too!

     I don't think Jeff was every very good at waiting for anything.  This close to Christmas he came home from Tractor Supply today (where he went to get dog food and a couple of bundles of hardwood) with this knife and tool sharpener and spent part of this afternoon...sharpening knives!  He can also sharpen scissors, axes and the blades to the lawn mower.  He's  been researching it online and was surprised
to find it in Herkimer. 
He also got the
replacement
agreement. 
Unfortunately, you have
to order the
replacement belts when they are needed.  I can't wait until he sharpens my scissors!
   I finished the 2d Tree on the Car hat yesterday and then charted a snowflake.  I spent last night and today trying to get it knit but it's not coming out the way I like.  I've had to remove a lot of the extra snowflakes...just single stitches...to simplify the design coz there is just so much you can put on a baby hat.  I'm down to 3 snowflakes...15 sts each...and it's looking pretty good.  The one I'm working on is gray with pink snowflakes and the 2nd one will be navy with lime green snowflakes.  I know, I know, not exactly traditional Christmas colors but they look pretty good.  As soon as I can I will post photos and you can make up your own mind.  Until then, it's time to get back to knitting!