Finally!

Snow! Real snow! Typical snow average in this area is about 12 inches over the winter. So far we had gotten 2 inches. That was it! I guess Mother Nature figured that she better get on the stick before winter ended. It looks like we've gotten about 6 inches. I'm happy to report that school was cancelled today. I'm also happy that the snow held off until last night as DH and I went downtown to the Caps game at 3:00 yesterday. We typically drive into DC on the weekends, but we were afraid that they would call a snow emergency which means that you cannot park on main roads. If you are parked on one and don't move your car, you get towed and a hefty fine. We drove to Greenbelt and took the metro in. Everyone on the train had Caps jerseys on which was nice. Unfortunately the game totally blew. The Caps are #2 in the Eastern Conference and #4 in the league. They got spanked royally, losing to Florida 6 - 2. Ouch! How can an ice hockey team from the deep south do that!!!

I haven't been up to too much these days. I have been working on my two projects a lot. My Chunky Cabled Tam is going to hibernate until I figure out what to do with it. Here it is in it's current state:


I love this hat on the cover of Knit 1. Mine looks a lot bigger. It is very bulky--two strands of Manos held together on size 11 needles. The pattern called for 3 skeins of Manos and I have run out of yarn! 4 skeins will amount to one expensive hat! When I try this on, the slouchy part of the hat literally hangs down to my shoulders. I think it is just too big. I'll have to take it to my stitch 'n bitch group on Wednesday to ask for advice. I don't know whether I should get another skein and finish it, or to frog back and do one less repeat of the cable to make the top smaller. That would also keep me from having to get another skein. So I've put the tam aside to finish the Opulent Raglan. I am now on the hip increases below the waist.

I love this sweater! It fits like a charm and the yarn is like butter on the skin! It is Bristol Yarn Gallery King George which is 45% merino, 45% alpaca, 10% cashmere. My row gauge is off though. I'm getting more rows per inch. I'm a little worried that this sweater will grown in length when it is blocked. Alpaca has a tendency to do that. Merino has good memory so I'm hoing it will balance out the alpaca. At any rate, I ended up ordering two more skeins of this yarn. I am on the 5th now and only have 3 left. I can see using at least one more on the body so the 8 I bought won't be enough. I hope to get this finished by the middle of March.

I ordered the yarn for Sylvi. According to the yardage, I will need 10 skeins of the yarn I chose. I ordered 11 but Webs only had 10 so I got what they had. I'll have to make sure that my swatch is accurate. I want to do some modifications which might require more yarn. The color I got is called Valentine and they have another red, so I may get some of that and do a dye job.

Cold weather makes me pull out the crock pot. We've had some good stuff from the slow cooker in the last few weeks. Our favorite so far has been Pepperoncini Beef.

Here's the recipe:

1 - boneless chuck roast (mine was 3.5 lbs.)
2 - 14 oz.cans low sodium beef broth
1 - 16 oz, jar pepperoncini
3 or 4 peeled garlic cloves

Make some cuts into the surface of the roast. Slice the garlic cloves and put the slices into the cuts in the beef. Place the beef in the crock pot and pour in the broth and the pepperoncini with the juice. Cook 6 - 8 hours on low. After cooking, pull out the beef and shred with 2 forks. I also pulled out the pepperoncini and removed the stems. Return the pepperoncini and beef to the crock. Serve on crusty rolls. Top with Provolone cheese and put under the broiler for a couple of minutes.

Here is the finished sandwich, served with Provolone and broiled on a Chiabatta roll with some spicy Chipotle mustard!

Good stuff!

Samantha has found her old toys! There is this particular toy that she loves and I can't find them any more. I've bought her a bunch of them over the years and they eventually get destroyed. We found 2 of them in the house. She is like a kid with a security blanket with these things.


She carries it around the house. I'll hear her meowing repeatedly and there she will be with the toy in her mouth. The other day, I noticed this:

Her toy was on the piano stool! Of course the next morning I saw this:

She basks in the sun every morning on the piano stool so I guess she needed her toy to keep her company!

I will leave you with photos of the snow, taken from inside the house!




Kitty Cam: Greg is a little more greedy with his toys. He collects a number of them and puts them in his favorite box.