Brrrrrrrrrrr

It's cold.  I'm a Winter/Fall type of person (hello, handknits!) and normally I enjoy the cold but this is one of those times where I just can't completely get rid of the chill. 

It's Winter in Iowa, what do I expect?  The minions actually had their first Snow Day of the year yesterday and compared to last year, I think we're in much better shape in that department!  The hubby even stayed home due to adverse road conditions so the Dreams in Fiber family had a nice little extra weekend-ish day together which is always nice.  Did I stay indoors and get warm and cozy?  Nope.  I went out and took some pictures of the drifts and what-have-you in between shoveling.  We had a pretty good one right in front of the house.

I was perusing the sidebar yesterday and noticed that I haven't updated my KnitMeter yet.  I knit how many miles last year and here I am in February already and I have a pathetic 0 miles knit.  I suppose I should remedy that since I have done some knitting this year.  In fact, I have a few photos to share today. 

First up are the belated Christmas socks for my MIL.  She's had them for a little while now, but who's keeping track?  These are a hand dyed 3x1 rib. 

Next up, I finished my Mom's Christmas Cowl (sshhhh, she hasn't seen it yet!) at the Sticks and String Event.  I wanted to use it as a sample of my Subtle Signs Cowl and managed to BO and weave in ends about 20 minutes before it started.  Nothing like a little deadline knitting!  It's washed and blocked now and ready for giving.

This cowl utilizes a Brioche stitch which is something I have to pay a little more attention to so I couldn't take it around as my purse knitting basically because I didn't want to screw it up and anyone who has knit Brioche before can attest to the fact that you don't want to have to tink back and/or fix a mistake!  The yarn was actually a skein that I had reserved for myself, but I am dedicated to Stash Busting this year (I did a pretty good job of it last year so I thought I would keep the momentum going) and this skein seemed to fit the bill so I wound it up and CO.  I can always get another skein later.  Incidentally, it's Mountain Colors 4/8 in the Sierra Colorway.  And I have a bit leftover so perhaps I'll make a coaster or something out of the remainders :)

The Sticks and Strings Event was a lot of fun.  There was a fantastic turnout for Vendor Night and I got to meet new people (some of whom were wearing socks made from some of my patterns - very exciting!) and I got a good chunk of knitting done.  As luck would have it though, I have not been on my best behavior when it comes to CO for new projects so most of them are still in various stages of completion.  I finished up a handspun mitered mitten for my Aunt and am to the gusset of the second mitten.  I am onto the foot portion of my poor neglected second FiFa Sock.  I knew I wanted to make a pair of thick socks for both minions for Valentine's day so I let them pick out "special yarn" from my Stash for their respective pairs before last weekend's event.  On Saturday, I CO for and finished little man's first sock but I, well, I don't know what happened because even though my gauge/measurements were fine (supposedly) it ended up way too small for him so instead, this pair will be gifted to little miss once I CO/finish the second sock.  Little man was very gracious and didn't want me to have to rip out the entire sock and start over so he told me to give this pair out of 'his yarn' to little miss.  He got to pick out new yarn from the stash for his much larger pair that I really want to CO for but am trying to finish up a few other projects first...  I did start and finish a handspun earflap hat for little miss though and the yarn for little man's hat is wound and ready to go.  This is her Princess Garden Party hat - she helped pick out the dyes and we poured them onto the fiber together; I spun it up and this was the result. 

(Yes, that pile of snow is really taller than little miss)

 

I suppose I should do something productive like start laundry or organize a closet or two...  Maybe I'll knit just 1 round first ;)

One good thing about Winter (in addition to the stellar Core workout that shoveling provides) are the unmistakable tracks left in the snow.