Mid January Thaw

The last of the snow on my driveway finally melted away in the rain today.  I am not sad about that at all!  After the first day of being on the ground it gets so dirty and nasty looking that I have wanted it gone for a while now!  Of course in it's wake the snow has left giant mud puddles for dogs and kids to run through, so now I am making a career of moping floors, rather than shoveling snow!

As we had a couple of days of very warm temperatures and rain, rather than snow, I seem to have been bitten by the spring cleaning bug. Cabinets in the kitchen were turned out, the laundry room was emptied of all but the impossible to move things and scrubbed down and then the boys and I cleaned out their closet.  They are at that difficult age where it is really difficult to decide which of their treasured toys are still treasured and which they will look at and declare "How did I ever like that?" and "What ever made me think that was cool?".  We found some things they had forgotten they had, and created a huge pile of things to go to a charity.  I think that everyone is happier now that it is more organized, although we still have some tubs of things to go through over the next couple of weekends, it looks so much better now!

For Christmas all three got Rigid Heddle Looms, I keep trying to get everyone into something yarny!  The Other Brother finished his first project, a bookmark for me!  He wants to make fancier things, and the timing for a post from The Yarn Harlot couldn't have been better, because there is a lot you can do with a Rigid Heddle Loom!  I suspect that I am getting fancy dish towels from one child during this coming year.

My knitting life is still a little on the slow side, at least on what I can show you!  (Yes, there are always secret projects that don't make it to the blog, or at least not yet!)

My  MIL Christmas yarn is starting to turn into Some Kind of Wrap.

I am putting button holes all the way up on both sides, and if it works out the way I think it will, that should mean a million, well maybe six or seven, different ways of wearing this when it is done.

I am just a little further on the socks, I have the heel turned on the second and then it is the home stretch to the toes.

TDQ has been very insistent that she wants a specific "thing" for her birthday.  Yesterday we stopped into a big box craft store to get the right colors (even if I did grossly misjudge how much yarn her "thing" is going to take and will have to go back!)  I am always disappointed of late at the lack of what I would call real crafty things in these stores, and the yarn section is down to one, very small, aisle, filled with acrylic and one brand of sock yarn.

Can you tell what it is yet, other than driving me crazy I mean?  Hopefully by next week a chunk more of it will be done!

Have a great week, I have another busy one in store for me, but hope to get at least some knitting off the needles.

~M