Icebound

Ice isn't the only reason I've been virtually silent the last month... but that's for another post (observing chronological order)!

We had our first good snow when I finished up this Christmas gift, just in time for its photo shoot. Just a couple of inches. I guess that would be around December 15. (Why is the snow pink? I don't know. It was 10 AM.)

This is the Ice Queen cowl from last winter's Knitty. The minute I saw the pattern, I knew how well it would suit my mother-in-law. I finished it just in time to ship out for Christmas (and only because I took the week before baby's due date off from work).

Here's a detail -- I love the beading pattern:

To me, Kid Silk Haze is not the crack some people make it out to be, but it was pleasant slipping through my fingers. I don't recommend knitting it on Denise circulars, though. Actually I don't recommend knitting anything on a Denise circular shorter than 18", as the needle tips don't want to meet at a comfortable angle. So it probably has very little to do with the yarn.

On the 19th, we settled in for three days of snowstorm. Since then it's snowed every week, and frozen hard. When I went to take out the compost the other day, I slipped on the crust -- too thick for my weight to break through -- and fell pretty hard. So in a sense we are a bit icebound until the weather warms up (no sign of that happening this week!)