The Cold Weather Continues...

       We have been in the deep, deep freeze for over a week. The temperature hasn't been *so* bad (-12 day, -15 night), but the wind has been from the North-west and has been bitter. As a result the wind chills have been in the -25 to -30 range. Brrr. It is hard to be enthusiastic about - anything! We haven't had a proper frozen January for a number of years, so we are spoilt.

Kitty likes birdwatching too!

        However, I'm making progress on making a few new things to wear - most recently a red top to wear to work, but I have a lot of other things to work on. I have a pattern and the fabric for a knit jacket and skirt in a golden brown cotton, and a print knit material for the top and another skirt, and a slinky sort of snakeskin which I really should make into a dress, rather than another top for the suit. I think, at least. I like the McCall's 5974  (although *why* the designers all seem to feel that everyone needs a few yards of fabric wrapped around their middles to make them look good is beyond me). Anyhow, I do have fabric for that, and will make the round-neck one with long sleeves, and then see how it fits, before I try the snakeskin. Time will tell. And all I need is time to get to it!
         The Vesey's bulb catalogue arrived the other day, and it was as welcome as flowers in spring! It's so nice to have something colourful to see this time of year.  Spring will come, I know it. It is almost time to think about starting seeds, at least the really early ones like peppers.
     The garage is serving well as a really large walk-in refrigerator, though on the coldest days and nights we have had to leave the door open to keep the temperature out there above freezing. As a  result our woodpile has been shrinking visibly! We are half-way through the wood earmarked for February, and it's still January!
    We have been keeping busy with dancing, having started with the ballroom again, as well as Irish. Ballroom is fun, though expensive! I've been getting great shifts at work, usually 2 -1/2 days, mostly during the week. Knock hard on wood.

Nothing much to see here....

I finished my Sock Madness Sock, and posted about it, and so I'm in the competition! What they do is divide all 160 finishers into four teams, and then release the patterns one at a time, with only a certain number of finishers moving on to the next heat. There's a lot of rivalry and encouraging chat back and forth, and the first heats are relatively slow, so it begins easily enough.
It does make you knit, though! So last night I finished off a pair of socks I had started in mid-February - just to clear the decks, you know, as the next pattern should arrive anytime after midnight on Friday.


And then, since I didn't have anything (much) to knit, I started a new shawl in Fleece Artist Mo. The pattern is Zetor, and it seems to be a nice lacy thing. I've had the Mo for a long time, it's a lovely amber-golden colour, but I've been intimidated to actually knit with it, as mohair is quite a lot of trouble to work with. However, here I go, and so far I'm having no trouble. The Mo is over 500 m. so it could be quite a big shawl before it's all done, but it will be light and warm as well. It was actually one of those Fleece Artist Combos, with two different yarns dyed the same colour and put together as a package. I think I was supposed to knit with the two yarns together, but I didn't - I made a Travelling Woman shawl with the sockweight and put the Mo away - for now!
I did go to Veseys at lunchtime, and spent up my $50 gift certificate on seeds (and a few peat pots), with quite a few packets meant to be started quite soon in flats. I will get busy with that this weekend, as long as knitting doesn't get in the way. I have my flower seedlings in my little plastic rolling greenhouse in the living room (it keeps the cats from digging them up) and I was hoping I might get a bit of sun this weekend so I could put it out on the deck for a few hours. However it doesn't look great for sun this weekend.