The S Word

Yes, that is exactly what you think it is. Snow. Our first of the season.

Today was a raw and ugly day in Chicago. While I was smart enough to bundle up with the fleece hat and gloves this morning, I thought I wouldn't need them to cross the street to pick up lunch this afternoon. Once safely back in our office building, it only took about 10 minutes for me to regain feeling in my ears. (OK, I really should have worn the hat!) But let me think about more pleasant times than today's wickedly sharp and gusty winds.

Just last weekend we had fine, warmish weather. Perfect weather for a road trip. So, some of us SnBers went to Marengo to visit The Fold. We knew that Toni Neal would not be there, but none of us was seriously shopping for a spinning wheel. We just wanted to check the place out and get out of the city for a day. And we wanted to get some Socks that Rock, too.

L to R: Jamie (with her eyes closed...darn!), me, Rachael, and Sarah, all displaying our purchases from the Fold. This photo was kindly taken by Toni's son, a charming, college senior for whom we never learned a name. But, he was nice and put up with us crazy women nattering on about yarn and fibers, a doctoral thesis, and why women's feet feel the cold more than men's feet. There was also another special guy there whom we invited to be in the photo, but he just didn't want to join us:

Eric the German Shepherd Dog. I'm sure if I had been holding a piece of bacon instead of a skein of Socks that Rock, Eric would have been in that photo like a shot.

So, my personal haul from the Fold was several skeins of Socks that Rock in the Red Rock Canyon and Carnelite colorways, and one XXL skein of Trekking.

In the Socks that Rock, I wanted to shake things up a bit and go with a colorway that I'd normally not get. I don't have a lot of warm bronzey-type colors, but I'm starting to branch out now. The Trekking is for a pair of fingerless gloves for myself to wear in the office next summer. (Yep, I said summer. It gets so freakin' cold in the office where I work that my hands, fingers, and nose become numb. The Clapotis was made in fairly conservative colors so I could wear it in the office, and the fingerless gloves should be a close match, hence the blue color of the Trekking yarn.)

It didn't take nearly as long to drive to Marengo as I thought, either. I know I'll be going back to the Fold after the holidays to check out the spinning wheels a bit more, and I'm sure at least one of the other SnB women will come along.

Project Update

The lace bolero found a home...with Shannon! I think it looks a lot better on her that it ever would on me.

Now Shannon just has to "pay it forward" for someone else.

...On the needles...

I've got several projects on the needles right now and would just love to be able to concentrate on one.

That deep red object on the left is a Katrina Rib (what I keep calling the "Cookie sweater"), then there's a sock (since there's only one finished...and I'll have to redo the toe shaping on that one 'cause I'm not liking how it fits or looks on me, then it's not a finished project), and finally there's a slipper-to-be-felted for my nephew. I'm just not feeling organized and together these days with my projects and I don't like it.

I will admit that one of the big reasons I knit is to feel a sense of accomplishment: to know that I've achieved something with my talents and time. I did finish knitting a baby sweater and hat last weekend, but I haven't been able to truly complete it and send it off because I haven't had a chance to go to the fabric store and pick out some stinkin' buttons for it.

And, I really, really want to be knitting away on a lovely lace shawl to wear at my company's holiday party next month. Yeah, like I'll ever get the shawl done in time with all the holiday knitting I have to do. As if!

Awww, I guess I'm just cranky today. I haven't had a cigarette since October 29 (4:48 PM Central Standard Time on October 29, to be exact) and have only today come to realize that I really do need those little nicotine patches to function well right now. I realized this more than halfway through the afternoon when I was desperately trying to resist yet another vending machine splurge and trying to figure out why I was so crabby and driven to stuff my face today. Then it hit me: I forgot to put on a new patch today. A hah!

So, I think I deserve some undisturbed knitting time for a while tonight. I guess I'll be a trooper and work on the slippers tonight. *sigh*