Thursday, February 10, 2011

Ohwell...

.... so things aren't so super here at Casa Black'nGold, n'at. But fair's fair, and three turnovers, well, what can one expect? And just because it helps to have a sense of humor about it:
The Morning (not mourning) File (my personal favorite is the last).

So looking forward to July (fingers crossed) and training camp at St. Vincents.

Worse Sunday news was that Geno Malkin is out for the rest of the year. Kiss the cup good-bye. Then there is Crosby's mystery concussion. (If someone is side-lined with a concussion for 6 weeks.....hummmm?) He hasn't been that fragile, so, it is probably safe to assume that there is something else amiss (or afoot).

But on to better things. Just to confirm...there ARE good peeps in the world.

Saturday was a hellish weather day here...lots of ice, freezing rain, and sleet etc - amidst sunshine. Major roads in and out of town were closed due to black ice and accidents. (There were 11 accidents and one death in about an hour and a half stretch, before the roads were closed, on Saturday.) My 80-year old mother is having issues of her own. She lives in her own home, however, none of us live close by, so when she is iced in, there's nothing much we can do about it. (She won't let us hire someone to help because it will "offend" a neighbor---please don't ask. If you have elderly parents this will make perfect sense.) When a younger friend called to see if she wanted to meet for coffee, my mom told her she couldn't get out of her icy driveway. About an hour later, Carol, and her husband Frank, arrived with tools, and proceeded to spend 3 hours(!) extracting the driveway and sidewalks from ice. Good grief...I'm not sure my siblings and/or I would have spent 3-hours! Anyway, Carol is a knitter, so she has a little thank you care package headed her way...(chocolates for Frank). These kinds of folks restore my faith in humanity. Truly.

But I have something to show for our "global warming" weather....BTW does anyone else find it interesting that if it snows (any amount)--it's global warming;
if it is hot, it's global warming;
rain, global warming;
cold, global warming;
if the cat pees on the carpet, global warming....

Seriously, can it be, maybe that it is just February in the northern hemisphere? And just to add some interest, we are currently 9 inches BELOW our normal snowfall. Oh right, global warming!! I forgot. However, one's nose hair crackles when you walk outside.....Pretty typical for this time of year. I'm old, I can actually remember!!

Anyway, I appear to be on a hat "kick". First a Cable Crossing (Rav link) hat:

It is a Loopy Ewe club pattern. I used Sanguine Gryphon Bugga (it has cashmere!!). You cast on 200 stitches, and a very clever cable pattern draws it in.

The designer is from Central CA, and clearly doesn't need a hat for warmth, because as I started the pattern I realized that it was a "beanie". In other words it doesn't cover one's ears!! If you live here...and you'd like to keep your ears, you do want them covered. So I knit an extra round of cables (and I think I'd knit a second extra round if I did it again.) This should be available in a couple months on the Loopy Ewe web site. The cables are a PIA, but the effect is lovely.



Next up, is a "pillbox". I always liked the way they look, but could never find a good standard pattern. I like this one Winter White Pillbox (Rav link), and I had the yarn in my small stash.


I like this hat because it is not tight to the head, and it takes longer to develop "hat head". And frankly, as I said earlier, if you want to keep your ears, you need a very warm hat when the temperature is in the single digits.

I used Reynolds Blizzard, a chunky alpaca/acrylic blend. It knits up really fast. I needed about a skein and a third, so about 90 yards of chunky.

Mods were that I eliminated a pattern repeat and I added two rows to the brim.

I will probably make this again, but I'd like to make the brim a little tighter. So a smaller needle or a few stitches less...I'll have to see.

So there you have it, that's what I've been up to. The tendinitis is still flaring occasionally, but it is much improved. I think the Kauni sweater kicked it off, so I am very careful how much I work on it.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Love to make hats, never wear them. I love that cabled pattern, very neat. Enjoy your Global Warming!! I am praying every day that some warming shows up soon! Nose hair crackle!!!! Ha Ha!

kemtee said...

Nice hats. I would like to make hats, but since I look incredibly bad in them, I just don't. You wear them very well.

I watched the replay of Malkin's injury and all I can say is "ouch." He's a great player and it's a terrible shame.