(a) sledding/campfire up at the mountain on Wednesday

(b) snowboarding on Friday

Ds2 also went tubing (whizzing down groomed slopes on an inflatable doughnut) at a different ski resort on Saturday night with a youth group, and then had a (not) sleepover afterwards. I don’t know why they call these things sleepovers because they maybe get 4 hours sleep at the most!

I really feel like we’re embracing winter this year and I’m feeling grateful for the snow and our close proximity to more than one ski resort, at which one can ski, skate, tube, snowshoe, snowboard….we are so lucky.

I’ve been reading a couple of good books this week. The one I’ve just finished is Walking Wisdom, by Gotham Chopra. Yes, the son of Deepak. It’s an excellent book about Gotham, his childhood dog Nicholas, his current dog Cleo, his extended family, and his son Krishnu. I loved the discussions he had with his father and his insights as to how enlightened dogs are!

The other book is No Impact Man. I saw this guy’s blog once – didn’t become a regular reader – but his book is excellent. It’s all about his year in which he tried to make no trash or other environmental damage, while living in a New York City apartment with his wife and small daughter. His challenges are many! Definitely worth a read.

And this is my “I have to have something to do with my hands” knitting for now. I did go into my LYS on Thursday but they were still waiting for the yarn I wanted to come in, so I found myself looking forward to a snowboarding day without a project! However I pulled out all the elann micro cotton that I had left over from the mittens I made a while back, and the size 4 Harmony needles, and cast on 114 stitches which I decided would be enough for something useful, like a hat, or a neck warmer, or a bag. Then I just started on some Fair Isle, with no plan other than to keep myself amused.

Salad containers make good storage boxes for yarn. I have six colours which co-ordinate quite nicely and this is what I have so far…

…the next section will be pink on a background of wine. I love stranded knitting, though magic loop with these needles is not working out quite as well as I’d hoped. There’s a lot of twisting with this method and the needles are loosening from their cables. I have devised a new tightening method – I cut a small rectangle from a roll of drawer liner that I have in the kitchen so I can get a better grip on the needle tip. I’ll be keeping it in my needle bag from now on.

And finally, another class sample for those adventurous souls who’d like to try some ribbing in their first project. And now I really do have to leave you for the night because I can’t keep my eyes open any more.

We joined some other homeschoolers today for sledding fun. We built a campfire and someone had brought a huge pile of sticks perfect for toasting hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire. My family brought vegan “marshmellows” of course. Tiny, but tasty after a few seconds in the flames. That hat that ds3 is wearing in the photo says “meh” on it. I made it ages ago for ds1 – he wore it once. At least it’s getting some use now.

It was a very mild day – we were able to stay out for hours without freezing! The sledding helped, as you get pretty hot trudging up the hill, ready for a whizz down, and the fire was great, especially when the clouds came over and it cooled off mid-afternoon. The parents who remained the longest crept closer and closer to the fire and our snow pants started to steam! Damp gloves were held over the fire like marshmallows. We came home ponging of campfire smoke, so much so that I had a bath in the evening because the smell in my hair was annoying me!

I set up the crockpot this morning so we had Boston Baked Beans waiting for us when we arrived home, which we ate with Boston Brown Bread that I made last night.

As for the yarn play, this is Bernat Mosaic and it’s turning into a pair of easy fingerless mitts for the seniors knitting class. I’ll type up the instructions and it will be one of the projects they can choose from once they have learned the basics. I made the first one last night and the second should be finished by bedtime tonight.

A perfect way to spend a winter Wednesday.

I’m sure you don’t need another photo, so I’ll just link to my Ravelry project page.

I also sewed buttons on to the two cellphone cozies that I showed you recently. No new photos there, either! And the buttons were somewhat uninspiring as they were ones I had in my “miscellaneous” box. The purple banana fibre bag will get a new button, though, as I plan to give it to someone and I want it to look properly finished.

I had a bit of fun at the weekend, setting up a new WordPress blog for a local homeschool support group. It used to be a website hosted by Freewebs, but I rarely bothered to edit it. Now that it’s a blog, I think I will be more motivated to keep it current. Rather than set it up as one of my own personal blogs, I started from scratch with a new name so that in future someone could take it over by simply giving them the password. Of course, that means that I have to log out of my own profile and into the homeschool one, and vice versa, every so often, but that’s easy enough.

Once again, it’s late, I’m tired, and for some reason I am deferring getting into my comfortable bed. Don’t know why I do that! Time to hustle the kids in the right direction and hit the sack myself! Hope your Monday was marvellous and your Tuesday will be terrific.

(Just changed my header photo. This is one that ds3 took one day from our back deck. Drastically cropped of course, as there’s limited space up there in the header, but I think I captured the best bit. And now you can read the text better.)

It was our third Friday at the local ski hill today. The boys have their snowboarding lesson, followed by free time doing as many runs as they want before the lifts close for the day. So far, the only boy who has managed to stay the maximum amount of time has been ds2, so the last two times his friend’s dad has brought him home. I’ve left earlier with the other two.

I get to put my feet up in the lodge, which sounds much more sophisticated than it is. There are only two buildings: one where you go to pay for your lift passes/equipment rental and get your helmets/boards/boots, and the other which has a lunchroom and toilets downstairs and a cafe upstairs. This cafe is where I have spent my time the last three Fridays and I have been fortunate enough to grab the only couch in the place. Most of the seating is plastic chairs or picnic benches, so the couch is a real boon if you intend to spend a lot of time in there. It’s a three-seater so I only take up one-third of it, all set up with my knitting bag which usually has more than one project in it, plus my iPod and a book. And I also have a thermos, which today had a green smoothie in it, and last week had chai tea.

The first three photos in this post were knitted as class samples for when I co-teach the seniors’ knitting classes in a couple of weeks. The first one came out too small to be practical for a cellphone, even my little one, so I made another in blue which was wider and longer. It still needs a button. The red hat is a generic rolled brim style and the plan is to get the students who choose to make it to personalize it for size, so they’ll have to do some math.

This little purple bag is made with the banana fibre that I bought in December. It didn’t use all of it. I made it with a particular person in mind for my Pay it Forward thing.

It was a bit rough to crochet but I like the texture. It needs a big button on the front to finish it off.

The Marble Drop Stitch Scarf is almost done. Currently it’s about 46 inches long and there’s not much left of the skein. It’ll need a good washing to stretch out the pattern so it can be appreciated better. Now that I have such pretty needles, I feel like they only deserve nice yarn!

I’m not sure that this qualifies as “nice” yarn. The colours look good but it’s Bernat Mosaic again, which I already know feels a little rough – sort of like Noro, from what I hear, not that I’ve knitted with Noro myself. Having said that, I did make some long armwarmers last year which I have worn and find them quite comfortable.

I think that’s it. I see I have typed this all in “Heading 4″ which means it’s probably all Bold and rather over the top, but I won’t know for sure until I hit Publish! At least it should be easier to read. Feeling tired after my early start and long day, and I didn’t even snowboard, so will be getting off this computer soon.

Have a great week!

first evening's progress

As I have five Pay it Forward gifts to make, a speedy project like this is perfect.

12mm needles - tee hee

By the end of the second evening, the cowl was finished. It’s wide, so probably will have to be worn doubled over, though on a cold day like today it would be lovely to pull it up over your nose.

Second evening - all done

Now I should probably resume my class sample knitting.

my bedroom window

I attended a meeting this week of a local group that is dedicated to keeping seniors learning in their retirement years. I am co-teaching a series of knitting classes starting early February. I have a list of my 8 students and have seen the classroom and the other facilities which are available. Unfortunately there was a glitch and the newsletter has conflicting information as to the dates and times of the classes. I had two phone calls today about it, so have sent out an email to all the students to make sure they know when to show up!

Knitting at the moment, therefore, is mainly samples for the class. I made a small cellphone cozy last night. I may make another as I’m not happy with the neatness (or lack of it). I’m also making a simple roll brim hat, knitted flat of course, as we probably won’t get as far as knitting in the round. I also plan to make a ribbed neckwarmer that can also be used as a headband. I am writing my own patterns for these as I make them so I don’t breach any copyright.

I don’t have a laptop so I was delighted to find out that there is one available for me to use in the classroom. It is a PC, however, so I shall have to get my kids to give me a class on PC101 – Getting Started – so I can at least look up sites like Ravelry and knittinghelp.com (essential for all knitters).

Four balls of yarn may have jumped into my arms in Wal-mart today. We were there because the boys were buying an Xbox 360. I don’t often buy yarn there because, let’s face it, it’s not the best stuff, but they had some Bernat Mosaic (Aura colourway) and some Colorama (black and white) which I thought I might be able to use. I had a nice surprise at the checkout as the Colorama was only about $1.49 a ball.

One of my Facebook friends posted a “Pay it Forward 2012″ status which said that the first five commenters on her status would receive something handmade and in return I had to post the same thing on my status. So now I am hoping to receive something from her by the end of the year, and I need to make something for five of my friends in the same time frame. Of course it doesn’t have to be knitted, which is always my first thought, it can be something really simple depending on your hobby or skill.

Before I go, I shall just show you my new gadget which arrived in only 3 days from elann.com (it helps that they are in the same province as me). This is larger than I expected and will come in useful in the bag with my Harmony needle tips, as they don’t have the sizes printed on them. If they get mixed up I will be able to sort them easily.

wooden needle gauge

Happy knitting!

My Knitpicks Harmony needles feel really nice. I know you’re not supposed to switch brands in the middle of a project but I was merely tolerating the Denise ones until the Harmony ones arrived. The needle tips look a little dull in the case but it seems that after knitting with them a while they get shinier. The Drop Stitch Scarf is growing well and considering it’s quite narrow and the stitch pattern is lacy I think that one 100 gram skein will make a long-enough scarf.

Pretty, eh!

Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you’re excited about today!

Didn’t measure it but it’s a good size and I’m pretty impressed that I guessed things well as far as symmetry was concerned. Just a couple of quirks – the red wasn’t quite enough to finish a whole stripe on the right hand end, and the final edge was 4 rows wide instead of 2 so it didn’t match the other end. Better that than waste some yarn.

Compare this to the mat I’ve been using in the kitchen for too many years to remember…

When I made this, I had been quilting for years and had a bunch of gingham fabrics, so I cut them into strips and crocheted them into an oval mat. It’s definitely showing its age now, but I won’t be replacing it as the new one doesn’t go with the colour scheme! The tarn mat will probably go in ds1′s bathroom as he always floods the floor when he showers!

I have also edited the blogroll, deleting or adding where appropriate. I have checked all the links so they should all work fine. If you read my blog and have one of your own, let me know and I can include it here.

*Of course, you’ll only be able to see the sidebar if you’re on my main page. If you’re reading this in Google Reader or something similar, then you’ll have to click through to the site. If you are looking at my blog page with just this one update, then you’ll need to click on the NicolaKnits blurb up there at the top to see the whole thing – look carefully, the knitting picture obscures it somewhat! I really must look for a new picture which is less fussy.