Bonne Marie mentioned last week that moisturizer is essential when it is exceptionally cold out. One of my favorite ways to moisturize is with a salt scrub. We're still livin' with the in-laws so I didn't have any of my fancy bottles or smelly smells to add to it, but I desperately needed to make one as my standard methods weren’t enough in the current climate. So I mixed a few tablespoons of olive oil and a few tablespoons of kosher salt in a disposable cup. Stir with spoon and take the whole mess into the shower with you. Spoon out of cup and rub all over body. Preferably not over freshly shaved areas. Ouch. Rinse. I tend to wash before the scrubbing because I want to leave as much oil on my body as possible. When you're done showering, rub the oil and water into your skin before toweling off. You will have wonderfully soft skin. I suggest you clean the tub immediately after this unless you want the next person to use the shower to slip and crack their head open.

Once again a boring weekend in northern Michigan. Nothin' but knitting and Kuntaw with a little Grandma thrown in on the side. I thankfully live in a football free zone. Neither Bill or anyone in his family watch professional sports. Thank God.

I ripped out the Regia socks I started well before Christmas. Shh. I started them with a size 2 and switched to size one without ripping because I didn't like the gauge. I finally decided that it looked like crap like that and ripped 'em. I was also doing them two at a time on two circs. I like two circs. I hate two at a time. I like socks to be something I can just pick up and knit without much thinking on my part...good for when I just have a minute or two. With the two at a time I had to spend a few minutes untangling them and then figure out where I needed to start. I'll stick with one at a time, thanks. I started the socks over again Sunday night and also managed a few rows on Bill's sweater.

Sunday Bill and his brother put together a computer desk for their grandma and I felted Christmas present slippers. We had a nice time, but then Bill and I had to go feed and water the animals.

It's very cold up here. It's been for going on three weeks now, but this morning was the topper. -18F. I heard a funny joke Saturday about the stages of cold.
* Huh, a little chilly out
* Brr, a bit nippy today
* Jeeze, it's cold!

and finally

* F****ck!

Here's where I'm at with Bill's sweater. I think it's turning out nicely. I'm a little worried about the gauge. The instructions say I should get 21 spi with the swatch "slightly stretched". How much is slightly?

Not much is going on this week. I'm training my replacement at work now. I'm not loving it. It's kind of boring. Oh well. I'm done next Wednesday. Yay!

I've done maybe an inch more on Bill's sweater. That's about it. Oh my trainee came back, so it's back to work

Saturday we went to Kuntaw class in the morning. The instructor has really kicked up the intensity of the classes lately. They've been something I can classify as a workout rather than a leisurely walk with occasional bursts of intensity (that's how I described it to my dad last year). That's cool though cause it should offset the weight I might possibly gain from quitting smoking :)

A blizzard seemed to start sometime during class, so Bill & I made just a few stops in TC afterwards and then headed home. It took like a hour and a half to get there. Visibility was very poor. The heavy snowfall continued through Sunday and the wind picked up and the temp dropped. It was a happy 1 degree this morning.

I finally started Bill's sweater Sunday morning. It's the second sweater in this fall's Vogue Knitting for Men. I worked on A LOT yesterday cause it was so crappy outside I didn't feel like going anywhere. I only got through row 15 of the 32 row cable repeat. I probably worked on it a good 5 hours yesterday. I knit so slow it seems. I gave up (for a little while) on a scarf I was make for myself. I need to rip it and start over. It's too wide and I may need larger needles.

Here's the mittens I did. They're made with a DK wool. I got the pattern for free from my LYS. The mittens are the same for the left and right hand.

Secret
I quit smoking 2 days before my b-day. I've been ashamed of this habit for years and I've quit a ton of times. This time I quit cold turkey instead of using Zyban. I'm feeling good about it. Like I'm not a smoker anymore. Last night my MIL & I went to this hypnosis thing for weightloss & quiting smoking. The guy did both together. One of the things he stressed was thinking of yourself as a non-smoker, not an ex-smoker. So that's what I'm going to do. Besides, I don't want my new house to smell like smoke and all my yarn stash :)

Edited to add...
The mittens are a present to myself for quitting. I never wore mittens, always gloves because I could smoke with them on. And boy did they stink!

Sorry so long away. I've been very busy though. I finished the denim mittens last night. They're just perfect. Picture coming soon. I started to wind balls of the baabajoes for Bill's sweater. What a PITA! I brought all the hanks with me and will be running to my LYS on my lunch hour to use her swift and ball winder.

Speaking of my LYS. She's having a huge sale! At least 25% off everything, 30% off patterns and 50% off some select things. I went yesterday and bought a ton of stuff, mostly enough Plymouth Encore for 2 sweaters and the rest of the DK wool (for 50% off) that I made my mittens out of. I forgot to buy a cable needle, so I'll have to remember while I'm there today for Bill's sweater. I did the swatch for it this weekend and used a bamboo dpn which was just a little awkward. I tried to do it without a cable needle at all. Didn't work so well for me.

I accepted that job I went on an interview for over Xmas. They offered it me yesterday. Finally, back in a real programming position. This CNC stuff has paid the bills and allowed us to build our house, but it certainly wasn't any fun. So, I'll have an hour commute everyday again, but I'm used to it.

Thanks for the B-day wishes. I had a pretty normal day yesterday. The best present I got was that they started building our house yesterday. They had poured the basement about 3 weeks ago and I guess it had to "cure" before they could do anything more. So they've got the walk out all framed in and the floor half done. Next they'll be pouring the floor in the basement.

I'm wearing the chunky turtleneck today. I'm probably going to be too warm as it's going to be in the 40s today. But I just had to wear it.

So I'm back to work today. We had a great time this weekend with the last of the family coming to visit. This part of the family appreciates good beer and we managed to go through 1.25 kegs of beer that I made special for them coming. I ate a disgusting amount of food over the last two weeks and last night was the topper. My mother made these little cocktail weenies wrapped in crescent roll dough for my sis's shower. Ohmygod! They were so good I ate a dozen at least. I don't normally go for food like that, so I don't know what came over me.

On the knitting front, I finished a mitten I've been working on yesterday and started its mate. Oh! I found my Knitting for Dummies book and all the magazines that were missing. They were on top of a bankers box that had an extra lid set over all my stuff, so it looked like it was just a closed up box. I was quite happy, especially since my next project is in one of the magazines. I should be starting it sometime in the next week, a ribbed and cables sweater for hubbie. He picked out the pattern and the yarn a few months back, but I had to many other projects in the cue to start on it.

We celebrated the last of the holidays this weekend. Family came up from downstate and Chicago and we had a wonderful weekend drinking homebrew and catching up. Below is my cousin-in-law's wife, Melissa wearing the Funny/Badger scarf and the hat I made her. That's me on the right.

And I finished the turtleneck. I don't think I'll be doing any super chunky sweaters again soon. I'm not thrilled with the bulkiness of the seams in the shoulders and arms, but hey, it is a complete sweater. I still need to wash it and dry it flat before I wear it.

Today I finished a mitten I've been working on off and on for the last two weeks and later this afternoon after all the family leaves I'll be heading down to my mom's for my sister's bridal shower. And then it's back to work on Monday. I don't want to go.

I've been on vacation since Christmas Eve and I'm loving it. It's amazing how much knitting I've gotten done! Even with the visiting and travel. I finished all the pieces of the chunky turtleneck and am sewing it together. The sleeves were a nightmare! My first ever long sleeves and I was running short of the blue. Well, I had knit most of one sleeve sometime in November (I think) and when I pulled out the sweater and yarn I realized I might not have enough blue. So I started the new sleeve with some extra red stripes. And ripped out the top part at least twice trying to match up to the body stripe. Then I ripped the 1st sleeve and started over to add the stripes. I kept screwing up the increases and then I was almost done and compared it to the other sleeve. It was about 2 inches too long. Rip, rip, rip. I finally got them both done and yesterday I did the neck and started joining the sleeves.

I somehow managed to misplace my knitting reference book (and a bunch of knitting magazines) so the shoulder seams looked dorky. I looked all over the in-laws house for it :( I distinctly remember sitting on the couch with it and learning another way to increase that looked better with the thick yarn I was using. But no luck for me. Thank goodness I picked up the very useful Knit It! mag yesterday. It showed all the major seam joining techniques. So I ripped out one of the shoulders, redid it and managed to join 3/4 of the sleeve before I went to bed. I'm hoping to finish sometime tomorrow.

In other news, I had a job interview a couple of weeks ago and they called me for a second interview. More like a test, to make sure I really know about databases and programming. I went this morning and showed off my stuff. They said I should hear from them either tomorrow or Monday. It's supposedly down to myself and another person, so my fingers are crossed.