I finished the alpaca and corriedale I recently spun. Nothing fancy, just a wash for the alpaca, but I tried to full the corriedale a bit because parts of it were loosely spun and loosely plied.

Before and after, they don’t look much different!

Before and after, also don’t look much different, but the washed one is a bit fulled, as I’d hoped.

good bones! good deal!

Had to have this (the pics are fuzzy, sorry),

Passed a yard sale on the way to refrigerator shopping on Saturday and found this workbench chair for TWO DOLLARS. It has such potential. I love the knobs and the framework. It’s even pretty comfortable. The leatherette is some butt ugly (and greasy filthy), but picture this with matte black metal parts and some flashy bright seat coverings (I’m thinking maybe orange and pink).

new fridge!

Right now, this instant, the delivery guys are taking apart the old fridge and about to put the new one in. It is a very UNsexy appliance and I got a utilitarian model. What is great? This…

More pictures and modifications over on my Ravelry project page.

I should probably block it, or at least give it a vinegar rinse. My hands turned shades of blue and green when knitting… But for now it’s on my head. Maybe it’ll add some interesting highlights, what do you think?

really old socks

Is 30 years really old for socks? Mom and dad brought these back from Germany for me in 1980. Emily wanted to see them, so…

The elastic is starting to wear out a bit… but they still stay up well, and they come to my knees! The heels are only just starting to wear a bit, maybe I should darn them before next winter.

the cold has caused…

Us to finally replace the dryer hose, and more importantly the vent cap (which was broken).

Perhaps a bigger crack in the tub surround. I’d caulked a couple weeks ago (so nice to get rid of the old and moldy) and put a bit of caulk on some crack that developed a couple months ago… but then, yesterday…

Really, it’s time for a new surround, but the duct tape should hold us for a few more months.

And all that heavy rain caused a big bubble on a wall near the ceiling last week.

(I had pics! I thought I downloaded them! I did not… but I did delete them off the camera)

It was about the size of a newborn baby. It was full of water. We punctured it and then, like a bad cyst, the whole thing exploded. Now it just looks scabby on the wall. In the summer we’ll repaint. By then the sheetrock should be dry, eh?

There was no ice dam… DH rakes the snow off that roof all the time. Just a fluke, perhaps.

Chevron hat, which I saw a bit ago at Purl Diva. I think it’ll be a good choice for this yarn, because I never wet it after spinning it, and it is surely full of some energy! I think the chevrons and garter ridges will help the biasing. Can’t tell yet if it’ll be too big, if so, I’ll full it a bit…

I should finish that pullover for DH, but I totally modified the pattern, and even though I took what I thought were great notes, now that I’ve started the second sleeve, I can’t tell if I meant K2, W&T, and on the next round K2 past the W&T, if I counted the wrap or not in the two stitches. I suppose I could look at the other sleeve… I don’t think I hid the wraps that well!

There’s an ice jam moving down the Kennebec River. Here it is earlier in the week in Augusta (it’s 5 pm so don’t embiggen the photo!)…

fashion maven eh? What you don’t see are the bare knees and German knee socks from about 1980.

The jam is more dramatic a bit further south… it’s centered in Farmingdale/Gardiner now, and the coast guard has sent cutters upriver, but they can’t get under the bridge in Gardiner… It was front page news today because of the smelt shacks… (oooh, just found that video and put it above!)

Big news here, eh?

That’s 6:57 this morning. A friend in town said it was minus 28 at his house… he’s in a bit of a cold spot.

And so, a poem for you all. This is all over the internets, substitute your place/temp/etc at will.

It’s winter in Augusta
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At twenty-five below

Oh, how I love Augusta
When the snow’s up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut

Yes, the weather here is wonderful
So I guess I’ll hang around
I could never leave Augusta
‘Cause I’m frozen to the ground

Window at work… not the sun! Just a light on another building…

just in the nick of time

DH got me some slippers for xmas, they were too small, the store didn’t have any that fit… and I’ve been loving my mukluks (as slippers and even out once in a while)… but look what came yesterday,

warm and furry shoes that will also serve as house slippers. Notice no socks. I wore these to work today and was so hot in them that I had to take my socks off! Coming home in zero degrees and shortish pants, I was thinking I should have put the socks back on…

mittens!

I like mittens. Gloves? Not so much. Something about the fabric between my fingers hurts my hands (ridiculous, I know). But wool gloves and wood chopping/hauling in the winter? Not such a good idea. And in the leather work gloves I pretty much feel frostbitten in about 2 minutes. So I did some internet searching and in the end found something at American Science and Surplus. (great name, no?)

Welding anybody? What’s with those grommets? These are a little too big, and too much leather between thumb and palm.

These smell, and feel, like an old and stiff baseball glove. They might be OK with some softening. Again, grommets?

The best ones? Dutch leather mitts,

See, warm wool inside. And they cost ONE DOLLAR FIFTY CENTS!

I think somebody (and perhaps some other bodies) might enjoy this place… you can get fake skulls, gas masks, bugs in lucite, fresnel lenses, all sorts of odd optics, and screaming flying monkeys! (OK, so I got one of those monkeys, purportedly for ds’s pal who has a monkey thing, but I think it’s coming to work with me instead).

music!

I went to the Liberal Cup last night to hear the Grassholes (great name, huh?) with a friend…

They were pretty good! I was surprised that the pub was not crowded, but we got to enjoy sitting just across the dart pit at the bar drinking our stout…

Stay Warm!

Since I can never stay up to watch Saturday Night Live, I am so glad they posted this… I mean, weren’t we all waiting for it??

I watched the original on Thursday night at a party, with a bunch of young people. It was pretty interesting. One was wearing a visual pun, I didn’t get it… do you?

Her partner’s shirt didn’t take any explaining though…

(The first one is an mp3 player)

Bit of knitting

A quick cap for charity. I think the navy is Galway, the inside is Encore. Not super fond of the line where the liner is stitched down, but it goes away when it’s on a real head. I did two purl rows for the turning ridge, and that little trick works very nicely.

field full of wishes

Saw this yesterday at Vaughn Woods…

Somebody was wishing we’d just go home…

(you’d probably have to embiggen to see him stomping off down the trail…)

I like him anyway

the new “do”

(Ignore the wrinkles and focus instead on the antlers up in the back of the garden…)

It’s a tad lighter today. At least in some spots. Vanity, eh? I do love a short haircut!

(I chucked my “album cover” because I really wasn’t sure that the photo had a creative commons license. It’s a fun thing to do though, see this post if you’re interested.)