Finished project

I have finished the "World Stripe Wrap" from the Rowan magazine. Just in time I might add. It is so light and soft and having it on my lap while knitting was just fantastic. Hard to believe something so light and soft can be so warm. If knitting this again I would add about 6 stitches to the pattern and keep the first and last 3 in garter stitch. Even after a good steam the edges still want to roll, this after 2 rows of crochet were added. The fringe takes care of the ends but you could start with a few rows of garter stitch here as well. If you were to not add the extra border stitches, I would then slip the 1st stitch of each row to make it so much easier to find where to crochet the edge. I knit in my ends as I changes colors, it really does not show on the wrong side and I can not imagine working in all those ends later. I think this gives the best look. I worked 2 full repeats of the rows as written in the pattern.

It is bitter cold here I hear the furnace running and when it does I know that dollars in the form of the gas bill go along with it. We are however so grateful to be warm. Hubby said this morning it was -16 and there has been little improvement since that. When I put Sam and Vera out the trip is sure fast, no sniffing all the snow drifts and the like. They know it is much nicer inside. This is about the only positive I can see with weather like this.

This is a large old house but we have worked hard to make it as energy efficient as we can, new windows, storm doors and a new fuel efficient furnace and still I could take a grand vacation on what the gas bill is each month. Lucky for us we have two zones in the house with two thermostats. One for the nice cozy family room in the basement. I call it my knitting workshop right now. Yesterday I sorted yarn found the unfinished items to be worked on and just enjoyed the coziness of the place. Looks like more of the same today.

Snow, snow, snow we seem each day to have more arriving, our bird feeders are loaded with birds and I know they depend on us this time of year. I particularly like the look of the cardinals their bright red against the snow. Several years ago I gave husband a brass snow gauge for the yard, we now have 2 feet and it continues to come down. Perfect knitting weather.