On Being A Sheep In Maine:

First off: let's just say that today's weather is beyond crappy. Yesterday's decision to stay in and avoid the scary raindrops seemed somewhat ill-advised this morning as I realized that I was out of Coffee Mate and other weekend supplies. I needed to go out, but we are in the midst of a mega temp. decrease. The rain drops are now ice drops. This Sheep can't survive without her coffee, so out she went. The car was frozen shut and almost took my arm out at the shoulder on the first yank. After warming up the car, an attempt to rescue my mail was abandoned once it became apparent that the mailboxes in my happy little condo village were also frozen shut. I just know my last Ebay win is trapped in there wondering why I don't rescue it from the frozen conditions. Thanks to four wheel drive I made the emergency supplies run and am now home, safe and sound, but it was a trial.

Suffice it to say, I will not be yarn shopping today. However, I did start a new project last night so I will be occupied as I huddle inside. Here's the thing: I have a tendency to knit items that are straightforward and useful. I think that's the "Maine-ah" in me. For example, last winter, I needed warm socks. So I whipped up these using a two needle pattern and some left-over singles of a targhee/silk blend spun up the previous summer:

Sheesh, I almost killed myself contorting into a position for the photo that didn't show my messy house in the background!

Simple, useful, and purposeful. I have a matching hat, as well. But lately I've been seeing some really cool lacy patterns being posted on various blogs and I'm getting the itch to do something girly. A couple of summers ago, I went on a silk-spinning binge and have skeins of the stuff lying about. I thought that would make for a nice scarf, however I thought it might make more sense to test out a pattern before consigning my purty hand-dyed silk to what might be an unmitigated disaster. Fortunately, I found an unused skein of Caron Simply Soft that was left over from a shrug I knit for a co-worker and thought that this might work nicely for a test run. I'm working up a pattern from Crystal Palace called "Arches And Columns" originally designed for their Soiree yarn. (soon to be discontinued, I'm told) After fiddling around with the gauge for what seemed like hours, I settled on a size 8 needle rather than the 11 recommended and have come up with this:

What looks like a mistake in the middle there is really just a need for blocking. I swear it!!!

It seems to be coming along well and I like it. I'll finish this up, and then start digging through the silk stash to see if I have something suitable. Otherwise, I guess I'll just have to go shopping...sigh!

Hopefully, tomorrow will look a bit better weather-wise and The Sheep can stumble out into the world to get some errands run. I still need Tung Oil for the bobbins and yarn for Son Of Skinny Scarf!!! MLK Day couldn't have come at a better time!

Enjoy your day, whatever the weather may be!!

SA