Here’s my progress so far, on the mid-April KAL. It’s at the end of the 2nd day’s rows. I love that the stripes are mirror images of each other and the contrast-colored stitches, look like little rabbit heads! Everyone at my knitting group last night, thought it was cute! I can’t wait to knit more rows!

Here’s detail of the stitches, too. Just click on the images to make them larger.  I think the blue and yellow look nice together!  It’s very cheerful!

The Rachael Ray dinner was delicious.  I just finished eating it for the second time tonight!  We cooked up 6 chicken breasts, at once, since that would make 2 supper’s worth of sandwiches for the 3 of us.  We only made half a recipe (8-oz of pre-shredded cabbage), of the cole slaw and that was easily enough for 2 night’s worth, for the three of us.

It was also nice, that I’d done most of the hard work, on Monday night, since on Tuesday, I had to work at 5pm.  My hubby and daughter only had to assemble the sandwiches, and serve the coleslaw for last night’s supper.

Emily and I also know now, that in the absence of lemon juice to keep the avocado fresh, we can keep the second half in the peel, face-down on a plate, covered tightly with plastic wrap, to be able to use it the next night.  We meant to buy a lemon, but we forgot.  We also forgot to buy the green onions for the cole slaw.  Maybe next time!

It was definitely worth all the hard work of juicing 3 limes!  They are harder to juice, than lemons.

We had a sunny day today, which was nice, after all of yesterday’s rain.  It’s also supposed to rain tomorrow night.  That’s better than Duluth, MN, who is under a blizzard warning for tomorrow night!  Ugh.  Temp was in the low 50’s today.

I recently finished a new Monthly Dishcloth KAL.  This one was a spring scene with flowers in a field, called The Meadow.  It was designed by Lindy,  She’s only 16.  Doesn’t she do a great job?

I found a knitting contest today, at Modest Purls.  You just have to mention what colors you like!

My April KAL cloth, will be finished soon!  I’m about to go up and knit, now! It’s a pretty spring scene!

Sarah and I are glad we aren’t up in Duluth, MN today.  It’s blustery and cold, with a winter storm warning!  Brrrr.  We had a great weekend, with temps in the 50’s and 60’s, down here!

Duluth Webcam - We found this webcam, after we got home from Duluth, last summer.  It’s fun always getting to see what the weater looks like, or how many people are watching the boats go through, or even seeing one of the big ships going through the canal, if you are lucky!

This month’s dishcloth, was an “illusion” cloth! That means we knitted the design twice, once in the lighter color and opposite in the darker color. So, when it’s on an angle, you only see the design rows, to make a picture. Here’s the front of the cloth. You can sort of see the design.

Here it is, from the backside. You can see the design, this way, too.

Here it is, viewed from more of an angle.

Another view from an angle. Isn’t it a neat effect? I’ve never knit an illusion cloth before!

Officially, this winter, we’ve had 82 inches of snow. However, that amount is again inaccurate, since we have 5-6 inches of new snow, out on the driveway, yard and sidewalk. Argh. It’s been snowing for about 12 hours now! Might I remind you, that it’s officially spring now, too? I might have seen a robin, but I’m not sure. I saw a bird in a tree, that looked like the right size and the right shape, but I couldn’t see the color of the breast feathers, since the lighting wasn’t right. Darn it!

Pictures of the socks. Finally! I finished the second one, on 2-27-08, but was too busy, to get the pictures posted. They keep my feet warm, and are very pretty. I wore them to my knitting group last night!

Yarn: Sandnes Garn Sisu Fantasy #6547
Needles: Size 2 dpns (Chia Goo Bamboo)
Pattern: Silver’s Sock Tutorial

I already did another Finders/Keepers cloth. I think it’s as addicting as a ballband is! Although it will probably look better with 2 solids, than a solid and a variegated, since the variegated yarn would be hard to see, in the “hidden” row! This one is in blue and ecru, to match my kitchen.

Here is the 2008 March KAL, from Monthly Dishcloth KAL. It’s called, “The Empty Tomb.”

“They found the stone rolled away from the tomb…” ~ Luke 24:2

The stockinette stitch in the lower left-hand corner, is the stone being rolled away. The purl stitching, that resembles a tree, is the empty tomb and the rays are the radiance of the Lord rising from the dead! It’s very appropriate, since Easter is at the end of this month!

Man, it’s cold outside. The last time I was outside, I about froze, and the last time I checked the temperature, it was about 13 degrees F, outside! Brrrr. It’s supposed to be MARCH, not January! On the plus side, all the roads, that had deep, frozen ruts, have greatly improved, so driving around is fun again. One had to drive over those rutted roads, very slowly, or take the long way, driving on better roads.

Our neighbor is a sweetheart. He’s been coming over to help us chop the ice and packed-down snow, that was covering our driveway and at the moment, it’s 90% dry and clear. He’s also been big help at keeping the storm sewer free and clear of snow and ice, so our street doesn’t flood. We’ve had about 80 inches of snow this winter and the snowbanks were starting to take over the road. Then we had one warm day and 1-1/2 inches of rain, and the water had nowhere to go! That’s all better now, too. Tonight, we are supposed to get 3-inches of lake-effect snow, meaning only the east coast of WI is supposed to get snow, with winds from the East. The clouds pick up moisture off the lake and dump it on us, as snow!

Oh yes, and all of Wisconsin is in mourning right now, since Brett Favre decided to retire. So, it will be interesting to see what happens with the Green Bay Packers next season. I think it was time for him to hang up the cleats. He had a good run!

This morning, I asked a kindergartener, who was talking about football, if he wanted to be the next Brett Favre, and he nodded his head enthusiastically. I thought that was so sweet.

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!

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.