Random Sunday

It's Random Sunday. 

1.  We took our Christmas tree down today.   It was a little dry, so it was time for it to go.  I was hoping to keep it up until Valentine's Day, but then remembered we would be going to Saranac Lake next weekend for Winter Carnival, so this was the weekend to take it down.

2.  Andrea finished her first sock on Wednesday during spinning.  Isn't it a beautiful sock?  And doesn't she look happy?   I am very proud to say that she made it using some of my hand painted yarn.  

3.  I discovered this week that we have a new family member.  Travis and his girlfriend Alyssa have a new puppy- a purebred Newfoundland.  She is 6 months old, weighs 80 pounds and her name is Begonia.  They did not name her, she came with that name.  I will get to meet her next weekend.  I don't think I will be knitting her a doggie sweater.  And I can't imagine how Gerard and Seamus will react when she comes to visit. 

4.  It was 45 degrees outside yesterday-downright balmy.  A lot of the huge icicles on the house are now much smaller, which is a good thing.  We're back to cold weather again, but it was nice to have that short reprieve from the cold.  It gave me hope that spring isn't too far away, and if I still lived in New Jersey that would really be true.  

5.  I realized I have not posted a picture of my January socks, so here they are.  I am thinking that if I continue to knit lace socks I need to get myself some sock blockers.  

This is a pattern from the Interweave Knits sock book, and the sock yarn is Fleece Artist.  It was a fun pattern to knit, and wasn't terribly complicated.

6.  I have started my February socks.  It's my favorite Double Eyelet Lace pattern from Mountain Colors,  and I am using some of my hand painted yarn.  This is a great pattern because three out of the four rows in the pattern are knit, and the one row of lace is pretty easy to memorize.  I'm almost done, so I imagine I will be making more than one pair this month.

7.  I started my February scarf.  It is the scarf I had planned to make, which is Lynne Vogel's Starry Nite Scarf.  I have three of the 19 blocks done.  After making three panels using these blocks, a pointed edging is knit and sewn onto the scarf.

8.  I'm leaving you with a poem which explains why I never go to bed at night, I am constantly toiling upward in the night, you see.

"The heights by great men reached and kept, 
Were not attained by sudden flight, 
But they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling upward in the night." 

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow