Like it matters when you don’t need to go anywhere for the rest of the week. We’ve been out on one dog walk so far today and, if they’re right about the impending doom of a Weather Bomb, that might be the last walk for a couple days. I saw this stripe of blue sky so decided to play with it. No, it wasn’t a hill. The stripe of blue was at an angle so, turning my camera to make it flat made it appear as if I’m near some water. I am, but not that close. Where I live there’s water here and there and over there. It is the Mitten State.

I’m knitting baby things and am not sure how safe it is to share photos since friends of mine are also friends of my daughter and her husband. So, Ravelry will be the only place where baby knits are documented until after the babies arrive. Yesterday I finished to Leafy Washcloths and can say that there won’t be any more of those. Last night I knitted a bib and have a second one in progress right now.

Once this bib is done then I need to move on over to my Wave Ripples KAL so I don’t get behind on that one. At least it’s mainly stockinette for this portion which will have moments of fast knitting before the ripples appear again which slow me down with all that stitch crossing and passing here and there and having to keep track of my cable needle.

2019 Temperature Table Runner

Yesterday I finished January but took the photo too soon. After this was taken the ends were all woven in so it looks better than this now. Sometime in March I’ll knit all of February since it only takes one day to get through an entire month doing it this way. Last year with my temperature blanket it took me almost an hour to knit two days since I had almost 300 stitches per row. I like this way better.

I’m also knitting away on another KAL – two actually. One is the Sunshower Shawl KAL and the other is Wave Ripples. Have you heard of them? Sunshower goes on all year as Jimmy Bean’s Wool sends out each month’s yarn selection along with the instructions. Wave Ripples is a much shorter KAL with each new addition being released every other Friday for 8 weeks. Sunshower is designed by Ambah O’Brien and Wave Ripples by Carol Feller.

I’m thinking I might have mentioned both of those before. When you don’t stop by your own blog very often you can forget what you were blogging about.

Both KALs have information on Ravelry.

Ice Cloud MKAL

This was the first time that I have participated in one of those mysterious knit-a-longs and it wasn’t too stressful. The designer of this one is Carol Feller of Stolen Stitches. Yesterday I received an e-mail from her about the next KAL that I had signed up for with her for a sweater. Uh oh. I forgot about that one. I’m not sure there’s any yarn around here for that project so I might have to opt out. I know I’m going to opt out.

I am on the 2019 Yarn Diet. Have you heard of that one? It’s where you cut down on a whole lot of fiber. Lot’s of fiber. You don’t buy any cotton, wool, alpaca, linen, silk, or that ever popular acrylic or anything else that comes in the shape of really long strings. No hand dyed sock yarns, no gorgeous sweater yarns – none of that.

Why? I have a whole lot of it already so I’m forcing myself to use some first. I’ve also got a Diet Buddy. She’s over in Canada. She told me in an e-mail last night that, yes, buying a kit just to get the pattern is cheating. Ok. So, I won’t do that, either.

I’m knitting shawls right now to give away to my mom and sisters. We’re going to a book signing later this week in Ann Arbor. After a little more internet searching I might knit one for the author as well. Turns out, my mom has known the author for a while even before she became a chapter in the book – my mom, that is. She was interviewed in 2015 for a book about how technology has changed. I’ll share more about that later this week or after the signing.

As you can see, I’m still extremely negligent about blogging. My fingers are just too busy knitting.

This is the second Close to You shawl that I have knitted. It’s a free pattern on Ravelry from Lete’s Knits, Justyna Lorkowska.

It’s so much fun and so easy that I’ve already got another one in progress and, as long as I can keep finding these gradient yarns in my stash, I’ll keep making them. I might look for another similar pattern eventually. One must branch out.

In the meantime, the Ice Cloud MKAL is underway. Carol Feller of Stolen Stitches released Clue #1 yesterday. I’m cruising along but put it down for a little bit. I have until next Friday for Clue #2 to be released – or is that two Fridays from now. It’s all secret. We’re not supposed to share photos other than in the Spoiler Alert forum that she created on Ravelry. Did I peek? Sure did.

Just a Tree along I-75

We were up north at our cabin for three days after originally planning on a 5 day trip. We just couldn’t get ourselves together to get up there on Friday night so we finally made it up on Sunday afternoon.

It was nice – sort of – for a northern Michigan December – then it all happened. On New Year’s Eve the snow started. Over a 12 hour period 9″ of snow fell. Hardly anyone was up in our community since there was no snow until then. After hunting season is over the next season is snowmobiling. Without snow, that doesn’t happen. I’m betting there’s going to be a few up there this coming weekend. They better hurry. The temperatures are predicted to go up into the mid 40s on Monday. That will make for quite the slushy mess.

When we went for breakfast on New Year’s Day it was 3 degrees. When we left to head home yesterday it was 6 degrees. I’m thinking of heading back up for the first knitting group meeting of 2019 which is on Tuesday of next week. After that, I may not be back for a while since I plan my trips back and forth on the weather.

You see, I never need to be anywhere bad enough to drive in that nasty weather. After three years of enduring trips during torrential downpours and white-out conditions I can now time my trips between weather events.

Ah, the joy of not working.

This is how my day started out. Nice and pretty. Within minutes it was totally cloudy and no sign of the sun anywhere. Just after lunch the rain came and it’s still raining now. If it were colder, we’d be getting quite a bit of snow. They say we may have an icy Christmas here with a wintry mix of precipitation.

Day 20 of my Advent KAL is complete so I’m back to finishing a sock. I can’t share a photo of this pair of socks as it’s part of a group project. Check back next year for that photo.

Frozen

This week I started another photography course online. The subject is learning how to take better nature photos. Since nature surrounds me I’m thinking it’s going to be fun. The instructor is one that I’ve had before so we’ve already been acquainted with each other. I had to razz him a few times because he doesn’t seem to like to acknowledge that Sony DSLR cameras are top in their field. More than one photography publication has mentioned that the alpha line of mirrorless Sonys are in the lead over and above Nikon and Canon. I even shared a link to one of those articles. Maybe I can wear him down yet.