Snow Day!

I don't know why photos taken with this camera come out so dark. I mean, it looks bright enough in the room, and there's a flash, yet it looks like I live in a cave. A dark cave on a permanently overcast day. Weird.

Anyway, yesterday was our first snow day of the year! And we have a two-hour delay this morning thanks to the wind blowing all the new snow around.

As you can see, snow is fun when you're six. Bug had a good day off, all in all. She did some sledding and helped Grandpa snowblow and shovel the yard. Bobo stayed in and helped me wash and block a bunch of stuff.

I direct your attention to my drying rack system. The photo is dark, but I have a couple of sets of stacking cookie cooling racks that I use to dry my mittens and hats. I usually stack them atop the pellet stove where it is warm but not hot, but in the interest of speeding things up, these are on a chair in front of the stove where the warm air circulates a bit more. It doesn't work for sweaters, but I don't make many of those anyway.

And I finished a freeform hat for the Bug. Their mittens are all done, in a marathon of cramp-inducing knitting fury. This hat's got a rolled brim, earflaps with tassels, and a knit pompon on the top. (Making pompons drives me crazy, so I just knit a couple inches of i-cord and then increased for a couple rows, knit plain, then decreased a couple rows, stuffed with a bit of polyfill and closed it up. Pretty cute, I thought! And no chopped up bits of yarn crumbs to contend with.

I call the hat "freeform" because I didn't have a pattern or anything going into it. I started with 96 sts, knit ribbing for a few inches, then switched to a larger needle in stockinette. I made it a bit shorter than I'd have liked, but I added earflaps so all is well.

Currently on the needles is Bobo's matching hat. Hers will be devoid of pompon since she always wears her hood over her hat, but I'll do something to it for visual interest. Maybe I'll put a flower on the front of hers or something. Eh, stay tuned! And I will have enough yarn left over to make Bug a scarf too.

And before I forget, a big shout out to Friend Bob whose birthday is today! Happy Birthday, my friend! I'll call you later!