February Snow and Skeins

Happy February. . . . the month of Groundhog Day, Abraham Lincoln's Birthday, Valentine's Day, President's Day, and now. . . Big Blizzard Day, Feb. 1, 2011!

With the help of a neighbor, I was able to get the approximately 15 inches covering the walkway cleared to look like this:

Then on February 4, another five inches fell. . . and more snow on February 9. . . really unbelievable for this part of the country! Our snow shovel got a workout! (To say nothing of the leaking roof!)

Oh yes, in February, there is also the birthday of my niece Alice, my friends Zita and Mary Beth, and . . . ME!



What with the frigid temps and icy streets, I was able to take advantage of the "snow days" and enjoy the birthday present I bought for myself: a tabletop Hornshaw yarn swift!



Look how pretty it is! The wood grain is so lovely, the stain such a nice color, the finish so smooth. . . I rate this purchase an A+!! The little pegs can be easily moved into whichever holes make the right size opening for the skein size.

I won't even say how many skeins of yarn I have in my stash. . . but I grabbed some to start winding.

Back row from left: 1 skein Kudo (Plymouth); 1 skein of 40% merino/40% silk/20% bamboo Saxon indigo dyed by Bex at True Blue Fiber Friends; 5 skeins of City Yarns Lava Hand Paint (Punta Yarns); 1 skein Silky Merino (Malabrigo) and
Front row from left: 4 skeins Flicker (Berroco) and 1 skein Nazca Wind (Plymouth).


Here you can see the swift in action, with the Kudo skein being wound. My daughter gave me the little winder a few years back, which is a tremendous help. (My husband had been my "swift" up until now, patiently holding the yarn between his upheld palms. . .)
And here is the lovely little Kudo cake, ready to knit! I am planning to make the one-skein infinity scarf pattern (Plymouth #1898).

Voila! All finished, plus a few more skeins that I decided to wind. I love that swift! The hand-paint in the upper left, and the dark colored skeins below it are all Baby Alpaca Grande. The dark ones (which are a forest green) were wound directly from an ancient, unfinished project which I decided to frog, because I don't have any idea what pattern I was using.
The skein in front is Borealis (Berroco) which will make a lovely warm hat.
Flicker (which is 87% alpaca, 8% acrylic and 5% other), is quite lofty, and it wound into a tight cake. I decided not to wind the other skeins, as I'm afraid that it might get stretched out. I'll probably wind them by hand, or right before knitting them.
I decided to start the Berroco infinity Ping cowl in the new spring "Weekend and Weekend Chunky" booklet, so I cast on and got this far. (Flicker and Weekend have the same gauge.) I did a provisional cast on so that I can graft the ends together.

These three lovely little skeins are some unidentified hand-paint yarns. Where, oh where did the skein labels go, oh where oh where can they be?! Well, never mind, they are single skeins in my stash, which will be used for future cowls, scarves or handwarmers!
The Nazca Wind was a skein I needed to wind so I could finish my sweetie's Valentine project, an "A's Manly Scarf" (pattern by Johanna K. Sarten) made with 3 skeins. This is a very soft alpaca yarn in a chocolate brown/black color. I wonder how it will hold up next to a scratchy beard?

So, now that I have my skeins wound, wish me luck with advancing on some projects. Which one to start????

Uh, oh, Look What I did. . .

Uh, oh! There's no good story behind this. Just slipped on the ice in front of my house. It's been a month, kind of a blur actually, what with the break, the surgery to put pins, plates and screws into my ankle, and recovery. Three more weeks of the cast and I should be good to go!