Baby It's Cold Outside

Winter has returned to Michigan. A week ago we were in the 60s, today the high reached all of 30 degrees and with the wind chill it feels like 22 out there. There's a dusting of snow on the ground & roofs though not enough to actually measure. The puddles and the bird baths are frozen over so we're filling the teakettle with hot water and using it to thaw the former. The birds are flocking to the feeders and the feed levels are going down fast.



These are the hats & scarves that I turned in at yesterday's K4 meeting - 6 hats & 8 scarves. You'll probably notice a few yarn ends sticking out here and there despite my attempts to tuck them under. It's easier to do the finishing work when I'm at the meeting and busy talking and laughing with the other members.

Given the change in the weather, we packed up 35 hat & scarf sets, 20 other adult hats, 9 baby or toddler hats and a couple baby sets for Virginia to drop off at FISH in Oxford where they will be handed out to people who need them. I have another set on the needles and I brought home yarn for four more scarves that will turn single hats still in the bin at the Sr. Center into sets.

I'll keep working on hats & scarves, but I'm also going to pay a little more attention to my personal projects for a while as Xmas is a'coming. I'm down to the ribbing on the second sleeve of Megan's sweater so that should be done this weekend - at least the knitting. I'll take it along to the knitting / crochet class on Monday to run in the yarn ends and tack down the neck ribbing. I always make ribbing for the neckband twice as long as called for and fold it to the inside and tack it down as I like the looks better than a bound off edge at the neck. Once that's off the needles, I'll probably pull the fair isle vest out of the PIPs bin and see if I can remember what I was planning for the armholes on up. I'll need to get my calculator out as this is a pattern that I'm designing as I go. Once that's underway, I want to frog a couple more of the wool sweaters from garage sales and make another felted bag - probably just like the Big Bad Bag I made back in June, but a little deeper so I can cart around a developing Rag-Tag afghan and all the yarn needed for it as I have enough small balls of yarn left over from hats & scarves to make a couple afghans. Now that I write all that out, I think I'm going to be busy between now and Xmas