Happy Face, Sad Face

I have some happy things to share and some not so happy things to share. The first thing that makes me happy is this pair of cardinals. (Click on the picture for a close up) His color is so bright and cheery in the otherwise drab landscape.
And even though Mama Cardinal isn't as bright, she's just as beautiful with her more subtle coloring.

The next thing to make me happy is I finished the first Hugs & Kisses Ponchette for my niece's twin daughters. I used Red Heart Super Saver acrylic in the Bon Bon Print. It took just over a skein of yarn. The pattern is from the July 2005 issue of Creative Knitting. I changed the pattern a little. I did purl 1, 4 cable back, purl 1 instead of the purl 2, cable twist, purl 2 written in the pattern. I don't like doing twists. I'd much rather do a regular cable. Other than that, I followed the pattern exactly. I still have to weave in ends and wash it. I think I might put a tassel on the point of the hood. It seems to call for it.

I've started the second one in Red Heart Super Saver Bikini. Very bright colors in both of these yarns. Katie won't lose sight of the twins in these ponchettes! The 100% acrylic yarn was a necessary choice as I know she won't have the time or inclination to hand wash or block them.

Now for the not so happy part. Here is the latest picture of my second 56 stitch sock. Do you see that? The part where the yarn is separated? I found a knot in the yarn. This (as you can imagine) did not make me very happy. I untied it and decided to just knit the two ends together for a couple of stitches so I could continue on my merry way. After a few stitches I knew the stripes would be off by maybe an inch. And I had matched the stripes perfectly! They were spot on as far as the stripes go. ARGGHH! I am in the process of tinking back to where the turquoise stripe starts. Then I'll find where the next turquoise stripe starts in the skein of yarn. Not a hard fix but annoying all the same. And as you can see, I have more than enough yarn left to accomplish this task.

I really want to finish this second sock before the end of March as I joined the Sock A Month Kal 3. You can see the button on my sidebar. You knit a pair of socks a month from February until July. Of course, I won't have a pair for February but I'd like to try to get the other 5 pairs done. Even though I started the 56 stitch pair before I joined, they are still eligible if I finish the second one in March. This will be a good incentive for me to finish some socks.

After all the sub zero temperatures we've had in March, this week has been balmy in comparison. Yesterday was in the high 50's. But when you have warm temps, a couple feet of snow, and then the temps begin to drop again, you get snow fog!

Pretty cool, huh? Not so cool for driving home from work in, though. There were times when I couldn't see more than a hundred feet in front of me. Luckily my drive home is only 6 minutes. And the fog was thick only in some places. Today it's doing some kind of rain/snow thing and the whole area is under a flood watch. Plus the weather people don't know what the nor'easter coming up the coast is going to dump on us. It might not dump anything but we don't usually have that kind of luck. The warm temperatures did take out a lot of snow, though. Of course, that's why we have flood warnings. You can't win around here, weatherwise.

Oh, and that cold I mentioned coming on last week? It was a doozy! Today is the first day I don't feel like my head is stuffed with cotton wool. I'm still coughing and my nose is still a little drippy but I'm feeling human again. I went home from work on Friday and only left the house once until I went back to work on Tuesday. And I didn't even go to my knitting group on Tuesday night because I didn't want to cough all over everyone there. I'm sure they would not have appreciated being exposed to this crud.

Time to wrap this post up and get ready for work. Until next time, knit happy!