open letter

Dear Mother Nature,


I really do love you. You make my flowers bloom and my grass green. But sometimes, you can lay it on just a little too thick. You're giving us the 4th snowstorm in 10 days. Haven't you heard that it's called the "wet coast" out here? At the rate you're going, we'll have to rename ourselves the "white coast".


If I promise never to wish for a white Christmas, can you please turn off the snow?

thanks,
Dotty

PS. My patio furniture thanks you, too.

ready for Christmas

The last Christmas knit is off the needles.


Pattern: Elegant Cat Cloth by Tawnie's Knits
Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter cotton
Needles: 4.5mm straights
Notes: Did a garter stitch border instead of the moss stitch. Made some changes to rows 13 & 49. If you knit the cloth per the pattern, the cat is reversed from the image on the website so I knit the second one by reading each row backwards.

Since I had the kitchen cotton out, I crocheted myself a quick tawashi.


Pattern: improvised from this pattern - tawashi (the PDF won't load on my computer)
Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter cotton
Hook: 5mm
Notes: Made just for fun

Here's a snow update picture:


The snow is officially higher than my knee high boots so my pants get wet. We have to go out and drop off some presents today and then we're coming home and watching movies until we have to go out tomorrow.


Phoebe wishes everyone a Meowy Christmas and hopes Santa drops a can of sardines in her stocking tonite.


Ricky sez: "Bah Humbug! Turn up the heat!"

It's Santa time!

Two days and counting down to Santa's arrival -- the boys are pretty stoked!

I've done almost all of my Christmas knitting -- the only thing left to finish is a pair of socks for Tony. Sock one is done and sock two is three inches in. I'll have a bit of knitting time tomorrow and on Christmas day as we head into family events where the kids will be off playing with their cousins and grandparents, so I'm hoping to be able to cast it off on Christmas day.

More updates with knitting photos to come after my last day of work today!

snowville

Did you know that shovelling snow can seriously cut into your knitting time? I still don't have the wash/dish cloths done yet. Usually, they're a fast knit but we've been busy moving phenomenal amounts of snow around. Remember what my backyard looked like Wed morning?

Fast forward to yesterday morning:


And this morning, I woke up to this:


So what can you do but strap on the cross country skis and go for a shuffle around the neighbourhood.


I've never gone skiing on our street before so this was a special treat. We went down every side street and it's downhill back to the house so the gliding was fun. If it's not too icy, we'll go out again after supper to look at the Christmas lights.

chilly

I got up this morning, made some tea and nearly choked on it when I looked at the outdoor thermometer (the big numbers are Celsius and the smaller ones are Fahrenheit).


BRRRRRRRR!!! Seriously, it is cold. There is frost on the inside of the windows. There's no frost on the outside because it's so cold, there's no moisture left in the air. My car makes funny creaky noises when I'm driving. Kinda scary! I hope it doesn't fall apart. There is a snowfall warning for the next day or so. The fridge is stocked and I've got lots of yarn so I'm ready!

Christmas knitting/crocheting continues. Hubby was trying to figure out what to buy for a 15 year old girl. I gave him a bunch of suggestions but he didn't like any of them until I suggested that I make something (me and my big mouth). Thank goodness that crochet is quick.


Pattern: Queen Anne's Lace Scarf by Khebhin Gibbons
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted in Velvet Grapes; 1 skein (last one in my stash)
Hook: 6mm/US J
Notes: approx 6.5 ft long

I also finished the market bag.


Pattern: French Market Bag by Polly Outhwaite
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted; colour Kiwi; 3 skeins
Notes: Miscounted and ended up with 216 sts. Did my own thing with the handles.

I threw the bag in the wash and it only partially felted.


I've got a front loader and there's just not enough hot water to felt things so I'll need to run it through again.

I've got one more Christmas gift on the needles. Just something small so it'll be finished before Christmas. Right now, I'm going to dig out my long underwear and throw another quilt (or 6) on the bed.

snow day

I took this picture around 10am - before another 2-3 inches of snow fell. It is crazy out there. Hubby had to shovel snow twice and we've almost run out of ice melter.

Hubby and I braved the snow and went out for a little last minute Christmas shopping this afternoon. We were looking for a stand for our new TV. We didn't see anything we liked. Everything is either hi-tech (glass & metal) looking or old fashioned ugly. Then we had a look at window coverings (can't have any glare on the new TV). We also found shoes for hubby! He's got size 13 feet and there's not much of a selection in that size. We got lucky today so I made him buy 2 pairs.

I'm (unofficially) Christmas knitting.


This will become a really nice market bag once it's felted. It's the first time I've used Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted and I absolutely love it to bits. It's so soft and heathery and cozy. I want to make myself a sweater with this yarn. I'm madly searching for the right pattern. Got any suggestions?

you know it's cold when...

... the lock on your car doors freeze solid. So I had to climb into the car via the trunk. I have a little Honda Civic sedan so it was a very tight squeeze.