Life Is A Funny Thing!

 It has been multiple months since I wrote.  Thank you to all of you who checked up on me.  All is well here.  Well, actually it is quite cold and we have snow on the ground.  Many people are still in their homes.  On Tuesday I had a doctor appointment a thirty-minute drive from home.  The forecasters were telling us scary things about snow. In South Carolina, if you can believe it!  I was watching the sky like a hawk all the way down, and then all the way back.  The very moment I was pulling into the garage one small  snowflake landed on the windshield.  Funny.  I went in and told Dear One that I had seen a snowflake.  He was not overly concerned.  Thirty minutes later I looked out the front door to see if the mailman had dropped off mail yet and there in front of me were honest-to-goodness snow flurries!  I knew that was the end of my driving for a while.  As a Vermonter, I have done a great deal of driving in the snow. I am not afraid of snow.  Ice is another story.  I am VERY scared of ice and roads and driving.  Well, to go on a bit...since snow is such an anomaly here in South Carolina, I did not want to do any traveling at all with inexperienced snow drivers on the road. So we have stayed home.

Dear One was supposed to have bloodwork this morning but it was canceled as the doctor's office was still closed. two days after the storm  Finally they opened the office sometime after noon today so he could reschedule.

The months since I have written have been very hectic.  A few activities every week with every other moment filled with knitting projects.  If you want to see the projects go to Ravelry.com and look at my notebook. I am trying to keep it up-to-date though sometimes I fail.

In the fall I learned of a sweater knitting fit class.  Since the last three sweater projects I made for myself (the ONLY sweaters I have knit for myself in recent memory...) were all significantly poor fitting, I decided to put myself on the waiting list for that class.  It is really sad to work work work on a project and then not have it turn out the way you hoped it would.  I had told Dear One that I wanted to take the class and all through the fall I was more careful with my personal account spending so I would have enough funds to take this class. I told Dear One he could pay for the yarn and I would pay for the class.  The yarn was likely to cost more than the class...even though class was pretty costly.

Well, as the new year came around I decided that this year...a big number for me...was going to be the year that I worked hard on my health,  worked harder on organizing and cleaning the house, and the year I was finally going to use up all the yarn in my collection bins.  As I began the clean out/hoe out/organize project  in early January I found suitable yarn for the sweater I want to knit.  I had spent a GREAT DEAL of time looking for a sweater pattern I wanted to knit. The class requirement, if I got into the class, was a top down and either raglan or yoke sweater.  I was hoping to knit a cardigan since I don't enjoy showing off my belly when I take off a pullover sweater.  Just too icky.  So a cardigan was on my wish list.

Finally I found a sweater pattern.  And the best news was that not only was it a cardigan, it was knit in the round and then steeked!  Best of both worlds...a little bit of flat knitting at the beginning then joining in the round and the rest knitted round.  Ending with a steek and button bands.  My thought is to put on the button bands before cutting the steek.  Anyone who has done that is more than welcome to give me advice.  I am thinking of reinforcing the steek with needle felting.  Anyone with experience with that is also welcome to give me advice!

Last week I learned that I had gotten into the Fitting Class!  I am so thrilled.  I have knit swatches both flat and in the round and they are soaking at this very moment.  When I finish writing I will put them, along with the socks and compression hose they are socking with,  in the "Drain and Spin" cycle in the washing machine, then block.  Full steam ahead.  

There is a little sweater in with the beginning fit class packet.  Since a lady at church just had a baby, I think I will cast on a sweater for that child and see what I learn with this little raglan top down sweater.

Back to the snow:  yesterday I took a few photos.  The one I liked the best was the icicles hanging off the Mexican Petunias in front of the house.  This is a picture of them:

As usual, it is not a good photo, but I think you can see the icicles.

This is the view of our deck.  Unbelievable.

May you all be safe and warm and comfortable.  Hopefully I will get it together and write more often.