Smells like Fall

It's that time of year again when the crisp smell of the air hits me, leaves are starting to fall and I start thinking cold weather accessories. Oh wait... I do that all year long.



Last year at Stitches I bought this huuge hank of lace weight yarn. Why? because I mistakenly thought I was going to make one of those pretty lacy shawls like CA Dawn makes. Rrriiight! Like that is going to happen.



I have had my eye on this hood/ snood/wimple/cowl or what ever you want to call it, for some time now. Wavy Feathers Wimple (Rav link) is a lace project, and we all know how those usually go for me. Still, all in all it seems to being going pretty well for me. The original is made from Quvit, which we saw at stitches for a mere $70 a teeny tiny ball. Mine is a merino wool if I remember right, and somewhere in the 6 or 7 balls of yarn I got out of it there is a label. Probably not going to keep me warm in the dead of winter or even on Polar Plunge Day, but I should look awful darn cute in it.



Raine spent Saturday night with me and decided she was going to take up knitting, again.

"For real?" I say.. " and you're going to finish it? Remember the bean bag you never finished?"

"Mommy lost the bean bag" (naturally she blames her mother)

"Ok" I say, and I dug out some chunky yarn and chunky needles, taught her to cast on and gave her the refresher on the knit stitch. 3 rows later I was fast asleep on the couch!

She went home on Sunday and well, there are still only 3 rows.

Not content to have an unfinished sweater, or the unfinished wimple and now a stole, and probably some other stuff I don't remember, but I needed the mindless knit of a scarf too.

I bough some Noro at Stitches this year specifically for the Noro Stripe Scarf by Jared Flood (Rav link). Of course, I never do things exactly the way they are written and I had to make my own modifications here.

To start with, I like my scarves skinnier than what Jared recommends so I started with 36 stitches, and I hate starting a row with a purl so I made it even. I love that it is mindless but doesn't look like it is mindless. And a girl can't have too many scarves now can we? I'm thinking maybe if I have enough yarn I may make a matching hat too.

Now to just figure out where to set up my sewing machine this year to start my hats for homeless project.

My -How the time flies

Seriously, I had no idea! I know I tend to lose track of time on this un-natural shift but really!

I've not been idly losing time, oh no. I decided I needed to paint my living room. And well if I paint the living room then I need to paint the stairwell...three flights of stairwell....yahh right!

What started out as a simple paint job very quickly turned into an ordeal, then a major project. "Well if you're going to do it then do it right and paint the trim" Not really planning on that. and then, "Oh you should get six panel doors for in here" yah...didn't plan on that either. Plus I planned on hiring someone to do the stairs since the ceiling is like 25 high! "Oh no we can do this!" Well we did and it looks great, minus the fact that my hand rails aren't up yet and I have quite a bit of touch up to do around my new doors/frames. Painting, yah...not so much a fan...I now need a vacation from my vacation!

Brodie spends a lot of time doing this...

and he is looking at this little guy, who seems to like to graze right next to my deck!

I got this far on my jacket, ready to start the body on sleeve #two when I realized I was making something I will never wear, it is two big and....

Oops! It has a big boo boo on part #1 right at the begining of the body where I missed several stitches and had a big hole.

So I ripped out sleeve #2 and stashed the whole damn thing back into the closet.

Impluse knitting!

I made this hat and scarf in a twisted drop stitch pattern. In the time honored fashion of winging it without a written pattern.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

A Fridged Winter Solstice??

Jumpin Josephat is it ever cold!!

This must be by far the coldest winter solstice that I can ever remember. I am sure The Farmers Almanac could tell us otherwise, but I can't remember one this cold ever in my life. Tonite it is -4 degrees!! Not including the wind chill of course. And we have so much snow that poor Brodie has to leap frog through it because it is up to his chest. Unfortunately he can't get back to his favorite potty spot. Uncle Twiggy shoveled out a section for the dogs...needless to say two out of the three are still adjusting to the snow shock. 

The frigid wind is another story. It is so painful to be outside that even Brodie doesn't want to be out.

I am so glad that I bought those boots when I did, my tooties have stayed nice and warm in them.

You just can't seem to take a picture of cold. 

While the wind howled outside I made this headband for a last minute Christmas gift for Mr Man, it matches his Mossy Muffler.


And this Drops 86-10 headband for Vicki, to go with the Woven Cord scarf (Rav link) that I gave her for Christmas. (we have already exchanged at work so it is safe to show you this)

Another Christmas Surprise came in the mail. CA Dawn, not to be outdone by TN Dawn in the gift giving department sent me this little beauty along with some of the best smelling strawberry soap that she and her husband made together! Not only does her soap smell fantastic but it is heavenly on the skin!

This has certainly been the Season of Surprises for me!!

Dawn this is beautiful thank you!!! You must tell me which pattern this is.

I am now off to brave the fridgid cold weather to look at a couple of townhouse, then finish up some odds and ends so I can get the kids prezzies wrapped and ready and out of the way.

My Boss is a Funny Guy!

Ya'll know I was rip roaring pissed the other day about my ignorant neighbor ( they refer to him as the meat thrower at work), so yesterday when I came into to work my Deputy Chief asked me what I drove? Huh?? I only have the one choice..."I say my truck" He says "Really? I thought you drove something else? " and takes me into the parking lot to show me....


Special Parking granted by DC Dave!!! Ok- so I did fly my broom to work the day before but I would have sworn I left it home yesterday!


We decided it was taking up too much space in the parking lot and moved it into dispatch.


Mossy Muffler is making slow progress but I did get to work on it for a while when I was at the Endo Doctor this morning. I am getting to the point where I will have to frog some more of that sweater.

Boot sock number 2 is almost done. I should be able to finish this either tonite after work or tomorrow before I high tail it to my brothers for some Turkey Day vittles! (I'll be taking that muffler with me).

I am pretty excited about it. This is the first Thanksgiving I have had off in about 5 years. This year we are going to have a full house besides, it seems the whole clan, what little there are left of us, will all be there. My poor sister-in-law (bless her sainted soul for putting up with all of us) does all the heavy work and hosts every year. This year her birthday happens to fall on Thanksgiving so she gets screwed with all the cooking. I figure the least we can do is the clean up. She will probably threaten us with pizza again.

I hope everyone has the camera batteries charged and ready for tomorrow. I expect to see some great holiday pictures!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Gobble Gobble!