A Little Bit of Progress, At Least!

I was not able to get as much knitting done this past weekend as I would have liked, unfortunately.  But I did finish the Landscapes scarf done with one strand of Lion Brand Landscapes yarn and 2 strands of Lion Brand Fun Fur.  The fringe is pure Landscapes.  The picture does not show the Landscapes yarn in the body of the scarf very well.  It actually shows up much better in person.  I have received many compliments on this scarf at work from the "Lunchtime Stitch and Bitchers."  Also, the Moda Dea scarf is about halfway done.  I plan to put a very generous fringe on it.  There was not enough progress on the Glamour Wrap to take a picture of -- only a couple of rows, so I will save that for later.  I did some digging in my yarn stash this weekend, too.  I have plans for several more projects (surprise, surprise!) My dad loved his Seafarer's scarf so much that I am going to knit him another one to match a different coat.  And since it is so cold outside, I have been feeling the need to knit up another batch of "No Hair Day Hairy Chemo Caps!"  While checking out the www.headhuggers.org website, I noticed a new pattern that has been posted there.  It is the "Floppy Brim Hat" or knitting Pattern #12 on their website.  It is so cute!  I think I will have to make at least one of these in this next batch of chemo caps.  Also, Spunknit has some great ideas for chemo hats on her blog, "Innane Knitting Babble" (check her out on the link in my sidebar).  Last year, I got the  idea to knit these chemo hats from her and I made a batch to take to the Hematology/Oncology center.  The patients loved them!  Cheers to Spunknit for promoting such a wonderful idea!  The next idea I have to knit is a scarf made out of the leftover yarn from the "Merry Cruisemas" shawl I knit for my "Other Sister Debbie" (see the December 26th blog entry for details of this shawl). The yarn is Lion Brand Trellis and the color is "Night Life."  I am going to make a skinny scarf out of the leftovers -- just something to brighten up all of those black sweaters that I seem to wear all winter long.  And I have more project ideas, too!  I know you are surprised about that!  ;)  But I will wait until the weekend to tell you about those.  Until then, happy knitting!

Snow!

This is the scene that greeted me this morning when I woke up.  It finally snowed last night!  It wasn't much, but it is still pretty to look at.  Now the weather forecast is calling for an ice storm this weekend.  Ugh!  I hate ice storms!  Unfortunately, we get a lot of them here.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that we are close enough to the ice/snow line that it will end up being more snow.  At least I do not have to work this weekend so I don't have to worry about getting out in it.  I do not have much knitting progress to report on.  This has been a busy, hectic week, and I have been too tired at night to do much knitting.  But I am off today and I plan to get enough progress done to show by the end of this 3 day weekend!  If the ice storm does come, I plan to knit and watch movies and drink hot tea -- exactly what I need after this long, hectic week!

How Embarrassing!

The spell of unseasonably warm weather has ended here, and the temperatures have plummeted from highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's back to highs in the 30's and lows in the teens.  The drastic weather change brought about an embarrassing situation for me.  As the heavy winter coats came back out, so did the hats and gloves.............and scarves!  So why is that so embarrassing for me?  Well, out of all of the scarves I have knit over the last couple of years, I find that I do not have a warm scarf for my own neck.  The scarf that is now draped around my winter coat is a store bought one!  GASP!  On Saturday, I was asked 4 different times if I had knit that scarf, and I was very embarrassed to have to say, "No, I bought it."  Well, there is only so much embarrassment that I can handle in one day, so I decided that I had to remedy that situation ASAP!  As soon as I got out of work, I hurriedly ran to Michael's to see what I could come up with.  I wanted a couple of quick and easy portable scarf projects.  The glamour wrap is a really fun project, but it is hardly portable since I have a huge bag of leftover yarns that I am using to knit it.  When I got to Michael's I was pleased to see that there were new yarns in the store.  I ended up with Bernat Bling Bling in Cabaret Crimson to make the scarf in the new Bling Bling leaflet. And I also bought Moda Dea Cache in the color Rave to mix with Moda Dea Dream (no color name -- color #3503) for another scarf.  And I really liked this color of Landscapes yarn from Lion Brand -- it is Deep Sea.  The Landscapes is a bit more expensive than I wanted considering there is not much yardage, so I compromised somewhat.  I have started that scarf mixing the Landscapes with black fun fur and larger needles to stretch the Landscapes a little further.  I hope to finish the Landscapes scarf later on today so that the next time somone asks me if I knit that scarf, I can proudly say, "Yes, I knit it!"

First Knitting Project of 2005?

 Since I'd been finishing up some odds and ends of old projects, I had not really thought about what would be the first knitting project of 2005.  Not until I this morning when I changed the day on my Knitting Pattern A Day calender, that is!  The Sat/Sun January 8 & 9th page features the "Bias Knit Cocoon & Glam Wrap."  Wow!  This just might be it!  And the best part of it is, I can use stash yarns for this project, and I have just the yarns in mind.  Only my color scheme will not be acid green and sun yellow.  Alas, that combination would leave me looking like I had a bad case of jaundice.  Instead, I have the more complexion friendly combination of fuchsia, teal and blue in mind.   I did not make any real resolutions about knitting this year, just a couple of "decisions".  First, I would like to use up stash yarns whenever possible (to both save some money and make more room in the "art studio"). And second, I am determined this year not to saddle myself with any "restrictions" forcing myself to finish a project that does not "feel right" for some reason.  After all, knitting is what I enjoy and what I do to relax, so why should I force myself to work on something that I have lost interest in for whatever reason?  After all, I can always use that yarn for something else that does excite my creativity.  And this Glamour Wrap does make me want to grab up those knitting needles and start clicking away!