Winter Storm

This is what we woke up to this morning.  The fir trees have a light coating of ice that luckily didn’t get thicker as the day progressed.  The snow started in the morning and was fine but continuous all day with strong winds.  So far we don’t have drifting yet anyway.  The snow has gotten heavier during the afternoon so wonder what it will be like tomorrow.  The weather people say snow and strong winds with a high temperature of 4 so they are telling us that the wind chill temperatures may be down to -40 F.  Now that is COLD!

John opened up the barn and have places for all the horses and calves to get out of the wind.  The cows are over in an area that has a very protected area that is out of the wind so they will be ok too.  You never know how the storm will finally play out but need to be prepared for the worst.   The large snow blower is on the tractor so now it is a waiting game.

The wind is from the north so the ice is only on the north side of the trees.  So glad we didn’t get more of the ice as that can do lots of damage in a hurry.  I didn’t do too much walking around out there this morning as the wind was too, too cold.

I canceled my PT appointment this morning as it would have not been a smart choice to drive the 45 miles up and back when the weather was marginal at best.  I tried to do my exercises an extra time today to make up for it and hopefully when I go on Thursday the weather will have calmed down by then.    The only time I went out was to take these photos and that was long enough for me. 

Lynn

Purple Dishcloth

 A little over half of a purple dishcloth knitted on the new knitting needles.  Again, Sugar N Cream yarn purchased at Wallmart.

Ta Da, the dishcloth is done.  The final corner (upper right corner) always looks a little funny.  Any ideas out there on how how to make it look like the starting corner on the lower left?  I know it is a dish cloth but but wouldn't mind improving my skills.  I do need to work on keeping my tension the same throughout as some rows are a little farther apart because I am knitting looser.  Maybe if I keep knitting and knitting these skills will come.

On another note - Physical Therapy is helping little by little to increase my range of motion on my right shoulder.  It does get time consuming to do the exercises several times a day but can see the results starting to happen.

Lynn

Broken Knitting Needles

When I was finishing up the yellow dishcloth the tips broke off of both knitting needles on the circular set of needles I was using.  The needle on the left is one of the needles with the tip broken off - the one on the right is a the same brand needle but different size needle with the tip intact.

I dug these 12" straight needles out of my knitting stuff and used them to finish the yellow dishcloth.  I don't like using these long needles as I am always hitting the arms of my chair with them.  They are very awkward to hold and knit while sitting in my recliner.

 When I was in Hastings the other day I purchased a better set of circular needles - the ones on the right in the photo.  The old broken needles were size 7 but the new ones I purchased are size 6.  I have found that size numbers on knitting needles are not universal so the sales clerk measured the ones I had been using with a plastic needle sizer that had holes of the different sizes - must have been the sizes of these Addi Turbo needles.  Anyway my 7s were a little smaller than the 7 Addi Turbo and a little larger than the 6 Addi Turbo.  Since I knit loose at times I decided to purchase the size 6.

These needles are really slick so are very easy to knit on.  They are more expensive to buy too costing around $16.  Don't remember what the Balene II cost but think it was in the $5 to $7 range but if they break after using them for a while it is not worth the cost.  I have made quite a few dishcloths with the set that broke but will enjoy these new slick metal ones for years.

Until Later,
Lynn

Knitted Dishcloth - Yellow

Another dishcloth finished – this time with a creamy yellow of the 100% cotton Sugar N Cream yarn.  Not fancy knitting but it is keeping my hands busy.  It takes a couple of evenings to make one dishcloth as I am not so fast, especially knitting the last half when I have to decrease by knitting two stitches together, twice on each row.  Those decreases take me a while as I am just not too coordinated as yet anyway.  Wish I could figure out a faster way to do them.

Lynn