Braided Cowl/Infinity scarf

I finally finished the Braided Cowl that I had started back in November. The idea came from a cowl pattern my sister had seen through a friend of hers - the Challah Infinity Scarf. I liked the idea of a braid to add a level of dimension, and I liked the variety of stitches for the different braid strands. My yarn stash contains way too many orphans - among other reasons I have a habit of buying one skein from the sale bin when I happen upon a yarn store while traveling - so I decided this would be a good project to use a few up.

Another busy winter in the works

It's been a quiet month blog & crafting-wise, but definitely busy at school. This time of year we're in the thick of it, with races and camps going non-stop. We have a group in Europe for another few weeks, another was out west for a while just after the Christmas break, and everyone else is traveling weekly around the northeast and Canada, for day trips and longer race series. And, we have races here at school, or rather, over at Mt. Ellen, on the trail where the kids train. I'm on race crew, which means every time the school hosts a race at the mountain, I'm up helping with timing or acting as start or finish ref. We had a big week January 19-23, hosting 4 consecutive days of races (should have been 5, but the Monday races were postponed). It was a long week of long days: I was on the mountain by 7:30am each day (7am on Wednesday!) until 2 or so, then at school until 6pm. Kind of crazy, but I enjoy watching the kids race. And, this is a pretty great view for those mornings my office work requires a pre-opening chairlift ride:

Sunrise from the top timing shack at Inverness

House Project #5.5: The Wood Stove!

It's 37 degrees out; a few days before Christmas (Happy Festivus!) and we're already enjoying the first thaw of winter. Lovely. But it's made better by the fact that I now have the wood stove in. I love wood heat. I grew up with a wood stove, and there are two in my mom's house now. Someday I'd like to have wood heat be my primary source, but for this house, it will be supplementary, and for this winter, it will be sporadic - on the weekends after skiing, or on damp, grey days like today. Since I hadn't planned to have it in this winter, I didn't order wood, although my mom was kind enough to let me have a bit of hers. I may try to order a cord later in the winter, but it's non-essential, so I'll probably just wait until summer.

On my needles: Braided cowl

Three orphan/leftover balls of yarn, three different stitch patterns, one braided cowl. Stay tuned for the finished piece!

Because I need the challenge: three different stitches, simultaneously knit.

Oh, and I resurrected the Christmas light garland that I started a while ago (okay, okay, it was last summer's knitting project). It only has a few lights left - surely I can get it done for this holiday season?

Barely three lights left. Man, sometimes I'm such a procrastinator when it
comes to finishing projects!

(And no, I haven't quite finished the sunshine socks from the CO trip with the school - just a few rows to go on those!)

Furniture Face-lift: Dresser and Jelly-jar shelves

A coat of paint can make a world of difference for some pieces of furniture. And, when the local hardware store sells paint returns for pretty cheap; most gallons are $5, and most quarts are $1, I'm usually not too picky about the colors I'm getting for cheap.

Luckily I've scored some decent colors (I am kind of picky!), and earlier this summer found a gallon of light gray and quart of purple. I used the gray as a primer coat on the front door I scored, mainly to cover up the red that doesn't quite go with the house color. The door still hasn't been hung, but we're getting closer.

There are two pieces that needed a little face-lift now that the two rooms have been painted: my dresser, and a shallow shelf that is going to go in the guest croffice. The gray was perfect for both pieces and against the room wall colors, and the purple was a good accent against the gray for the dresser

House Project #7: Back Bedroom

I finished painting the back bedroom just before Thanksgiving. I was house sitting through the holiday, so could leave the place in a bit of shambles (sorry sister!). From the look of the living room last week, you'd have thought I was a hoarder. There was a bit of a path here and there, and boxes and tubs and furniture all over the place. Of course, looking into the two rooms getting painted showed they were nearly empty, negating any hoarding fears.

Here's the room when I moved in. Curtains are long gone, and the cover of the
baseboard heating unit has been straightened

House Project #6: Front Bedroom and Guest Croffice

Back before my sister moved in at the beginning of September, I painted the room she's living in.

Front room, prior to moving in; the drapes are long gone - I put up a mini-blind
and added new curtains.

On my needles: Sunshine Socks

Remember the two skeins of yarn I dyed with mom on Mother's Day last year? I knit up a cowl with the skein that we dyed purple, blue, and green, but the yellow and orange sock yarn skein has been sitting, project-less for a while now. Since I've learned to always travel with something to knit (thanks, mom!), I figured I may as well get started on something small and quick, and what better to bring while traveling than a pair of socks. A three hour and a half flight from DC to Denver yesterday, and I'm already this far on the first sock:

They'll be a pair of simple crew socks, with a K1P1 rib cuff and a K3P1 rib throughout the body of the sock. The pattern is the Yankee Knitter Designs Classic Socks pattern, which is pretty much my go-to at this point. It's easy enough to remember most of the instructions for my size, and easy enough to modify with different stitch patterns and in how long I make them.

There is enough down time between proctoring study halls, wandering around the village, and (hopefully!) skiing a day or two, that I should be able to get most of the way through the pair.

Front Walk Facelift

The original path; functional but underwhelming.
The flagstones were all partially overgrown with grass.

The majority of the academy students, save the youngest group and the Nordies, have all headed off to November ski camp in CO. I'll be headed there next week, but for the time being, I have some time on my hands. Granted, it should be used to wrap up first quarter grades and comments, but really, I have until Monday at noon. Plenty of time!

So, with an hour or so to kill today while it has been lightly spitting snow, I figured I may as well finish up the front path. I gave you a little preview last week, and then picked up the sand and sorted out the flagstones earlier this week. You're in for a bit of a long post, but it's mostly pictures!

Let's rewind some, since the preview was missing a lot of the key work that had already been done. I have been planning to redo the walk for a while now. It isn't my favorite part of the yard, and while it functions perfectly well, I wanted to clean it up and feature the really nice flagstones more prominently.

This summer I acquired a big ol' pile of 1-inch gravel that I planned to use to surround the flagstone. Add in some free bricks from my sister-in-law's mother, and all I ended up paying for were the five 50-lb bags of sand I used to help settle the gravel. I love low cost projects! I finally got motivated last week to get started. We're well into stick season, which means it could snow any day, and the temps were cooling off. Motivation enough to get the path done.

Happy (Belated) Halloween!

This year the sister and I went in on a joint costume. I came up with idea earlier in the year, and with a little planning, some tween-dress shopping, and last minute embellishments, our costumes were complete.

Guess those 90s ice queens!

Perfection on skates