Gratuitous knitting content

It started snowing yesterday afternoon, at about 3pm... it is now 5pm the next day, and it is still snowing. As in still falling out of the sky, still piling up on the ground, and still wreaking havoc on the roads. Have I mentioned that I don't like snow? See, I grew up in Vancouver, aka the 'west coast', the 'wet coast', and sometimes even 'lotus land'. There is a reason for this - it almost never snows in Vancouver! Oh, sure, there's enough snow on the mountains (most years, anyway), but except for a few random days in late winter, all the snow stays conveniently out of the city and on the mountains... and on those rare days that it does fall in the city, we do the only rational thing - close all the schools and most businesses, and declare a snow day... admittedly, not everyone is able to take snow days off, but even an inch of snow is enough of an excuse to not show up until noon!

With all this snow outside, you'd think I could at least make use of the at-home time by finishing one of the many knitting projects that I have on the go... but alas, even that is pretty touch and go right now... As you can see, I finally finished my Noro Vine Leaf scarf (k, I actually finshed it right before I left England, but it took me until just last week to actually block it into shape and then tie in the ends), and then I started, frogged, and re-started my fingerless gloves... in a completely different form than I had originally planned. When I was shopping in John Lewis before I left, I came across the cutest fingerless gloves... burgundy cashmere, with a lace panel up the back and a solid panel - and a cute little crocheted rose pinned on the back of one. I couldn't afford to buy them, but they did inspire me a little... so now my fingerless gloves are going to be more like a topless mitten with a cable pattern up the back (I need something a little less dainty than lace, I think) and about 3/4 of an inch of thumb coverage... and since i can't seem to figure out how to knit in the round without scary ladders forming where the needles join (any tips on preventing this would be greatly appreciated!), I have decided to knit them flat, and then stitch them up the side... here's what i have so far - its been going a little slowly cause I somehow managed to cut the tip of my right middle finger with the dpns that i'm using to make the gloves (my full length needles are in Newcastle): Here's a close up of the cable... pretty basic, sure, but I haven't done cables in a while (sorry for the scary color distortion)... I had been planning to make a few other scarves and hats this spring, but going by my present project-finishing capabilities, I think I may have to jump right into spring knitting... I recently bought Anna's Jemima sweater pattern, which I want to start soon, and I also have a purple One Skien Wonder to make, thanks to my Secret Pal 6 pal... so maybe I'd best just limit it to that, until I can at least make a little progress on them...

Speaking of secret pals, by the way, you may have noticed two new links on my list of blogs... Scarf-o-Matic was my very cool Secret Pal, from whom I received all those fun packages. Ysolda ws the secret pal to whom I was sending packages... I love Secret Pal... there is nothing better than to come back from a day of classes and find a package sitting outside my door, waiting to be opened! It makes even the most grumpiest of days much better!