Valentine's Day Tulips

I never got around to taking or posting a photo of the tulips hubby got me for Valentine's Day, so here they are:My hubby is the BEST!!

Our snowfall this year has been pretty minimal, and the temps have been extraordinarily mild. During most winters, we have a week or two of below zero (Fahrenheit) during the day and awful cold at night, but this year, just a few really cold days at night, and those actually occurred in December 2009, so officially last year. The weather has really been warming up lately, causing a lot of snow melt. But, another storm front is moving in this evening with a predicted 4 to 8 inches of snow, so maybe we'll have some more pretty weather tomorrow and hopefully a snow day on Tuesday. Unlikely, but maybe.

Knitting Olympics

Well, lookee here. It's amazing what one can find in one's stash. This is some Knit Picks Gloss that I thought I had used:

I made hubby's binary hat out of this, but the stash has been sitting ignored in a basket on the fireplace hearth under a pile of purple Lamb's Pride. I thought this was some silk tweed that I was saving for a hat, but to my surprise and pleasure, it's Gloss. I know I still have the silk tweed somewhere, but Gloss is nice and soft, too, and I like it for colorwork.

I also have a ton of Lamb's Pride that I am loathe to use because of the itch factor:

(Yes, your eyes aren't deceiving you: we finally got snow!! Two snow days this week ~ Tuesday and Wednesday ~ which is unheard of! Which means we have several feet of snow just off the driveway. Photos taken on snow piles.)

And some Plymouth Yarns (acrylic I think):

I have been debating about entering the Knitting Olympics, and to be honest, I wasn't sure if the Yarn Harlot was going to host it again: it is a TON of work, after all, and right now she is at Madrona. Usually I don't do well speed knitting, hence the reason I abandoned Sock Madness after the first year.

But I have long been thinking about an ear-flap hat, and I just might entertain the idea of making one, or at least starting one, for the Knitting Olympics.

Yesterday I looked through my patterns, searched online, and found one by Kristin Nicholas (season 2 Knit & Crochet Now TV). The pattern is simple enough and free, but I think I will modify it, especially the fair isle pattern. I love Kristin Nicholas's patterns/colorwork because I am very drawn to strong, bold, graphics and colorwork. Many years ago I made a Fair Isle Pullover (Icelandic style) from the book she edited, Knitting the New Classics, when she was at Elite Yarns. The pattern was well written and worked wonderful despite some of my changes to the colorwork patterns.

Back to the hat. Feedback on Ravelry suggests that the size needs to be modified by either casting on more stitches or by moving up a needle size, so I will have to play around with this a bit.

I spent a fair amount of time today calling LYSs to inquire as to the status of merino worsted weight solids. The LYS farthest from here (about 10 miles or so) has some, but they are only open for a few more hours, so it's pretty doubtful that I'll get there in time, and if I am going to do this, I'll need to cast on soon, if not during opening ceremonies.

Evidently my stash has some solids that are worsted weight or DK, albeit none in merino. The color selection of the Lamb's Pride would work best with my winter ski jacket (purple/grape), but I would definitely need to line a hat made with Lamb's Pride before I could wear it. Just trying on the Bella's Mitts made with LP Bulky raised welts.

Maybe I'll make a pair of plain socks instead. I have some Lorna's Laces I've been thinking about using though I've been more inclined to use this for a scarf: