Week 5 - Already???

I simply cannot believe it's February already!  I had thought I was doing well to pay attention to my world and I must have blinked - that's the only explanation! - and January is gone!  I will try to pay closer attention to February! Promise.

For the last 11 years I've participated in an international sock knitting competition called Sock Madness...it has grown to over 2000 people from all over the world who enter this speed-knitting contest.  I have absolutely no expectations of winning nor even coming close to winning.  The first year, I'd only been knitting for less than 6 months and had only knit one or two pairs of socks....I've knit hundreds of pairs now....thanks for the competition.  Each February 1st, the registration is opened for this year's contest.  I signed up - surprised?  We got the supplies list - oh, goodness, it's colorwork again this year.  Let me tell you, I'm not a fan of colorwork (for those of you who know nothing of knitting, colorwork involves using different strands of yarn -kinda sorta all at once- to make pictures, or designs on the fabric you are knitting).  I've never been a fan, and I don't see me being one in the future.  

The first warmup pattern came out today in preparation of the start of Sock Madness 12 sometime after the 1st of March.  One is not required to knit any of the warmup patterns but this one called to me.  So I grabbed some self-striping yarn I had and cast on this pattern.  The pattern name is Nogardaton by Adrienne Fong.  Here it is so far, the first three rows of the cuff.  I'm using a self-striping yarn called Canteloupe and it's so cute!

The 3rd row of this contains bobbles....most of the time I can't stand knitting bobbles but this designer has come up with a fairly easy way to do them and I'm really liking this. 

It snowed most of the day yesterday...didn't accumulate a lot, but the fields are dusted with a layer of white.  The schools in this area closed for today and the library policy is that when schools close for snow, we are closed for snow.  So I woke up today to no work!  I have spent the day doing stuff I haven't done in a very long time.....I sewed most of the day...yep, I sewed!!! I worked on a table runner for a friend...it's almost ready to be quilted.  And I made a row from last summer's Row by Row Experience that makes me smile - the Gecko row from a shop in the Phoenix area....Tell me you don't smile when you see this one.

We had a little gecko that lived in our doorbell in the Philippines and he only came out at sunset....one day, he did not come out...maybe he packed his bags like these guys did and went on another adventure...

Thanks for stopping by.