While I knew it wouldn’t take long to finish the toe and do the kitchener, at the end, last night I was just too tired and after lots of frogging, finally got it all good and just set it down for the night. Today, I finished the sock, over a 2-hour period, while watching Barefoot Contessa and Paula Deen on the food network, until I had to find a computer to get kitchener stitch instructions.  Today, knitting went without a hitch!  It helps to be more alert and wide-awake!

Will add pictures, after supper!  I promise!

I’d been knitting away, on the foot part of the sock.  Tonight, I tired it on and I’m to the base of my toes!  Oh joy!  If I get enough time tomorrow night to knit, I can finish my sock!  Woohooo!  How does it seem that endless knitting can all of sudden be done?  I turned the heel last Sunday!

This was designed by Susan Schaefer of Harvest Moon Designs. It was a fun knit. I loved working with 2 colors and how the pink made little windows, for the green to show through.

Here’s a close-up of the stitch detail.

I used Sugar’n Cream rose pink and dark pine, with US6 needles.

From the newspaper today:

76 inches of snow this season
35-3/4 inches of snow in February alone
Measurable snow on 11 of the last 18 days.

With Monday’s snow of almost three inches, the season’s total rose to 76 inches and moved into the No. 6 spot, only 1½ inches behind 1961-62. First place (94 inches, 1904-05) seems safe — for now, anyway.

It’s just too much snow! LOL! We are running out of places to put it, and it’s way too early to think we won’t have anymore snow! Argh! I can’t remember such a snowy winter.

Back in 1985, right after I bought my first front-wheel drive car, Marshfield, WI got 17 inches of snow. It was the weekend of November 30th/December 1st. We didn’t see grass again, until spring. That was the big kahuna, though. No other snowfall that winter, had that much accumulation!

In December 2000, we got 51.9 inches of snow, in that month alone, but in January, February, and March, we hardly got any snow, so the roads were clear and dry and it wasn’t such an inconvenience.

This year, it snows like every other day and the plows can barely keep up, not to mention that every city is running out of salt! Argh. I can’t wait for spring!

On Sunday, we had temps in the mid-30’s and 1.56 inches of rain! It turned our sidewalks into mush, for the day and flooded the street. In the picture, you can see some city workers, with a shovel and a front-end loader, cleaning the snow away from the storm sewer, so the water could drain off the street!

I just realized I didn’t post my February KAL dishcloth, and I have a smaller version of it, to post, too! LOL! It turned out to be a heart-shaped box of candy, with a ribbon! What a perfect design for February! It was designed by Susan Mrenna of Knit A Little, and entitled, “Valentine Candy Box.

I must admit, it’s kind of fun, doing the heel, after the monotony of 2×2 ribbing for 5″.  There’s many different steps and each step doesn’t take THAT long and boom, you have a heel!  Now it’s onward to the toes, and wanting to finish is then my motivation at that point!

It’s only taken me 3-1/2 weeks to get to this point, from starting the sock, too!  Woohoo!

We were stuck in the house today, because of a winter storm warning.  There were so many differing guesstimates on how much snow we would get! LOL!  What snow?  We got mostly rain, just a dusting of snow!  It was 35 degrees most of the day, and raining and all that water had nowhere to go, with our huge snowbanks and all!  So, the city had to come by to clean snow away from the drain, so the 6″ of standing water could drain into the storm sewer!  What a mess.  Now everything that was slushy is freezing, since the temp is in the 20’s now!

I wonder if the icy roads and sidewalks will warrant a 2-hour delay in the morning?  Hmmm.  Probably not.

For dinner tonight, we had chicken, broccoli, and brown-rice casserole!  Yummy! (and yogurt and basil and oregano and Parmesan cheese!) . Plus we had a salad, too.

On Thursday nights, Emily and I like to gather with other knitters at Bahr Creek in Cedar Grove.  We’ve missed more darn Thursdays, because of snow, and it’s driving us crazy!  It’s 15 miles away, so snow can be an issue.  Argh.  Tomorrow, this is the forecast.

Thursday

Not as cold. Light snow likely in the morning…then snow in the afternoon. Snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches. Highs in the upper 20s. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph shifting to the west late in the afternoon. Chance of snow 90 percent.

So, it looks like we will be knitting at home, yet another Thursday.  On WTMJ this morning, they said 3-6 inches. When is spring coming?  Last week Wednesday, 2-6-08, we ended up with 16.5 inches of snow, bringing our seasonal total to 62 inches, which is up from our seasonal average of 41 inches.  We’ve had 3 inches and 2 inches, since then, too!  Geez.

The only good thing is that days are getting longer.  There is actually a little bit of daylight, when I get up around 6:15am and it’s very much still light out, after 5pm, in the evening, too!  So, we are getting closer to spring.

We’ve been under a winter storm warning, since 6pm on 2-5-08.   The snow started around 9:30pm, yesterday.  We only had a few inches on the ground this morning, but schools were closed anyway, because the worst stuff was coming during the day today.  They were right.  It’s been a whiteout all afternoon.  The newspaper says we have about 13″, but it’s still coming down.  I think this is one of the worst snowstorms I’ve ever been in.

I worked at the clinic this afternoon, for just 2-1/2 hours, for a co-worker who lives 18 miles away! It’s a good thing she didn’t come all this way, only to go home 2-1/2 hours later, out of a 5-hour shift.  The clinic closed at 3pm.

Walking to and from the clinic was a challenge today, because of the snow and wind.  My glasses immediately got wet and fogged up, making it nearly impossible to see where I was walking, so I took them off.  There is so much snow falling and blowing, that EVERYTHING is white and it’s just plain hard to see, with or without my glasses.

Here’s what my house looked like, when I got home, just before 3pm.

Jasmine likes snow, but I don’t think she likes this cold, wet, in-your-face kind of snow.  She was very glad to come back into the house after doing her business.

Picture taken around 7am.  I think she was pleading with me to stop taking pictures!  LOL!

Our Ash Wednesday services were cancelled tonight.  Trust me, Emily and I weren’t going. After walking too and from the clinic, which isn’t very far, I didn’t want to leave the house at all.

I think I’m going to go upstairs and work on the scarf and my 2nd sock.  Knitting sounds like a wonderful thing to do on a snowy afternoon.

We misplaced our cable needles, even though I swear we had one yesterday. I ran to our worthless Super Walmart to try and buy one and the only one I could find was inside of a beginning knitting package that cost $11.28. I refuse to pay $11.28 for a tiny piece of metal!

I really miss our old smaller Walmart that had a HUGE craft section and would have most likely had the cable needle that I wanted in a stand-alone package, like all the tapestry needles I saw there. Sheesh! An 8-mile trip for absolutely nothing!

This is the only cable needle I found at Walmart, in a kit like this:

Beginning Knitter Kit

See the little bent, metal blue thingie. That is the only thing I wanted, out of this kit, not the extra knitting needles, the stupid book, the point protectors, tapestry needles, or the stitch holder, just the little blue thing that is near the round stitch markers. ARGH!

Besides, Emily got one of these for Christmas, so we already have all that stuff. We don’t need it again!

So, what is the use of a SUPER WALMART, if it doesn’t have what you need. I know the old Walmart had more stuff in it, even though it was smaller. Why do I need a grocery store inside my Walmart anyway. I have a perfectly good grocery store only 2 blocks away.

I’d much rather spend money at my local yarn store, anyway. She will get the money, rather than the greedy Walton family.

This is all I wanted. This is $1.22 at Amazon. I would pay more in shipping than it costs and I’m sure I can find it locally, anyway, just not at Walmart and not anymore tonight. Grrr.

I guess it will just be a double-pointed needle, or else I need to kick the kids off my bed, so we can check the floor, to see if that is where it is. Bleah.