Home Again, Home Again

There was a major thaw on Saturday and we were able to drive home. The roads were mostly clear until we got to our neighborhood where the snow hadn't been plowed. We parked at the bottom of our cul-de-sac and made several trips up to the house with all our stuff. There has been a bit more meltage the last couple of days, and thankfully last night some awesome guys with tractors came through and plowed our road so Phil could get out to work today. It feels great to be home. I put a pork roast with veggies in the Crockpot this morning and it smells wonderful.  The boys stayed in their pjs all day and I went out to shovel the driveway for exercise. I think Phil will be impressed. I didn't get to spend any time with him last night because my neighbor called and I went over to be with their sleeping kiddos while they took one of them to the emergency room. She turned out to be fine, but their little girl had fallen on her head and they wanted to make sure she was alright. I brought my knitting and swatched another shawl. 

Yes, I even blocked it. I wound this yarn off of a cone (the only way I could pick a yarn from my stash and be sure to have enough for this pattern) that was given to me for weaving and I have no idea what it is. I remembered there was a section in Knitting Rules about identifying fiber content through very scientific means, so I dug that out and put a piece of this yarn through the burn test. Yes, I set it on fire in my sink. Nathan took pictures...

I can just hear my mother now, "You did this inside the house?!" You can't see it here at all, but the yarn did catch fire and burned very quickly. There was little to no ash which made me suspect Rayon (or gasp! Acrylic.) The yarn has a lovely thistle color and a bit of sheen and well, looks fibery... So, I'm hoping it's Rayon. If it is Acrylic, then it shouldn't block. When I pull out the pins, it should boing back to its original size. I also tried the bleach test without much success. It would disintegrate if it was animal fiber and the yarn stayed intact and just lost its color. 

I also blocked the Swallowtail today.

It's gorgeous, but disappointingly small... I think my gauge was off. I have lots of this yarn left

 over, and if I was more experienced with lace I might have been able to make it bigger but I think it will either be used as a cowl or perhaps I can let my daughter wear it... when she's a bit older and won't drag it around. 

Here's a photo of the slippers I made for Phil before Christmas:

They are not quite finished yet. They're really fuzzy and need to be shaved a bit, and I'm going to try and needle-felt them to look like circuit boards. The nice thing about needle-felting is that it can be lifted off if you decide you don't like it. 

I gave only one other knitted gift this year, which was a tea cozy for my sister. (I finished this awhile ago, but didn't want to show it here until I'd given it to her.) It's the Tea Cozy from 101 One-Skein Wonders.

And matching egg cozies (because I had leftover Noro yarn and who wouldn't want to put little elf hats on their hard-boiled eggs?)

Oh, I did give my mother-in-law that alpaca cardigan that I needle-felted those poinsettias on and I forgot that I also made a scarf for Jamie's teacher. (She's a major scarf-wearer... Each one matches her outfit and she wears them all day.) We haven't the chance to give it to her yet.

 Ribbon yarn + Angora yarn+ Easy Dropstitch= Very Nice. I'm giving her the pin too because it's a short scarf and well, doesn't it look like it needs to be there?

This post is getting ridiculously long, but I did want to show you those socks that finally got their heels turned. I got some Knitpicks Harmony DPNs for Christmas (my family is awesome) so I used those instead of trying to do it on two circulars. I started these before I decided toe-up was the way to go, so now I've transferred them back to the circulars to finish the feet.

 The self-striping yarn did some funny things on the heel but I really like the effect on the soles. These are going to be interesting if anything when they are done. Well, that's it for now. Time to dish up the pot roast!