Mush! Iknitarod, and A to Z doings.

Well, as of this morning, the Iditarod will be starting.  And for a group on ravelry.com, that means the start of the Iknitarod.  You pick a project, and work from the start of the Iditarod to the 'red lantern' (last finisher), to finish your project.  I have participated for a couple years now, and had no real idea what to do for this one.

I normally knit a baby blanket, but had just finished one, so I really wasn't wild about starting another.  Meh.  I have a big blanket I am working on... That's allowed under the rules, but I know, even knitting 24/7, I won't finish in approximately 16 day (about the length of the race...).

So.

Project.

Hmm.

Then I realized, I haven't knit but 1 hat for the December 'stuff' that I do.  One lonely hat.  It needs some friends...  Yep, there is the project!  So, I will be exclusively knitting hatty things for the next few days.  I will keep a little record in the corner of the blog, I won't be competing for anything- but seeing how many I can finish.  Any guesses?  (If it helps, I knit a hat in about 4-6 hours, depending on size.  I also don't knit much about 2 days a week.  WHY does this remind me of a word problem in math???)  
I hope to have at least 20 by the end, but I am not going to be upset if it is more, or less.  Well, if I only get ONE finished, I might be upset, but really, the way I knit, I would hope I could get more than that...  And this will get me going, as I like to knit.  But hats... Not as much.

Also, I finally decided to join the A to Z for April.  I have a couple ideas for themes, one is "retro", the other "blessings", I might even come up with another by the start.  Who knows?

Thoughts? Suggestions?

I even put the letters on my  personal calendar, so I would keep track of which what I write on for each day.  You'd think I'd know my ABC's by now, but keeping myself from writing a Q on a P day or something is a probability.  I have been known to do silly things like that.

I just had a notice I sent out for a group, which promptly was responded to with panicked "THE DATE IS WRONG!"  So, I sent out a change of date, correcting the boo boo.  I am learning to double, triple check things.

But I still screw up.

Go figure...  ; )

What a difference a week makes!

Husband got a wild hair, we hadn't gone to the coast since way before Thanksgiving.  So we picked a day, I think it was like the 4th or 5th, and went coastal.

The weather was great, and the gulls were hungry.

I had sympathy for Tippi Hedren...

Little cloud action coming in.  

Along with the tide going out.

The lighthouse from Nye Beach.  

Wish I could have had closer picture...

I can't remember the proper name for this creature.  

The skeleton washed up on the coast, and they made a mold 

of what it might have looked like. They paint it different colors

every so often.  I try and get pictures of it as the paint scheme

changes, Husband always knows I will ask to go see the 

"Dragonfish".

It was a great day.  A little windy, but it was, oh, about 65 or so, and sunny, nice, nice day.

***

Then came about 2 days ago, in the morning.  The wind had been heavy all day, several places had lost power, then I looked outside to feed the cat, and saw... 

This...

There was about an inch or so.  It was wet, sloppy, cold,

and generally not what I wanted for THE WEEK BEFORE SPRING!

Sorry for the blur.  Just trying to show the snow. 

Stupid groundhog!

In case anyone thought I had fallen off the earth, remember last blog I mentioned being in the Iknitarod?  

I was knitting like crazy this whole time.  I started, then got to the center.  Did my decreases. Ran out of yarn, and realized I had screwed up royally!  I had not read the instructions right, and had decreased once on each side, not twice, as written. which basically made it a big, house shaped, pentagony thing.  Frog, swearing not so silently, and start from the middle, over again.  Decrease CORRECTLY this time.  I finished about 5 pm, local time, with the edging, and was able to have it count, as the first musher of the Iditarod came in last night at 8, (Dallas Seavey) so I was in the time frame. (Whew!!!)  

For a simple pattern, it took a h*** of a lot of effort!  I am now going to knit something... Sockly, I think.  

After I take a short break and write some letters.  I have several folks that I need to reply to.  Let's just say the Month of Letters went better than I could have imagined!  I am not going to write every day, but I am going to make a point of replying to the letters I've received.  And perhaps a few that I haven't managed to get to yet... Urk.  

A letter's a letter, right???

Iknitarod project, MUSH!!!

So, over here on the right is a logo for the Iknitarod.------------------------------------------------>

What it is, is a "race" to knit up an item while the Iditarod is on, from the ceremonial start, to the "red lantern" (i.e. the last musher is in).  I decided, since one of the gals in my volunteer group had a new grandchild, I would give it a blanket. The race coincided nicely.

I had wanted to give the pretty blue one I'd finished.  Well, it was a baby girl, so I changed my plans. The blanket photo below  is the start.  The colors are fairly accurate, medium purple, tan, sage, coral, and white.  I have extra motivation to get this finished, soon, because there will be a baby shower this weekend.  I would like to give it to the new Grandma, so even if I don't get to the shower, it will get to new Mom (who lives in another state).

So, here is the first half of the blanket.  I picked a mindless knit, then I will border it with white crochet on the edges...  I will "foo foo" it up when I do that...  So, needles and hook will be smokin' this week!

I have heard from several people about why didn't I just give the blue blanket.  I could have, yes, but I know that some folks are rather traditional.  I will save the blue for a boy.  Most around here don't seem wild about purple for a boy's blanket, so that gives me this to use for a little girl.  And mostly?  'Cuz I wanted to!