February... what more can one say???

Well, we finally have Winter, and I meat that with a "Capital W"!  Temperatures have dipped down lower than I can remember for eons - try MINUS 25F! and with the wind chill it has felt even colder.  Needless to say, on those days I did NOT go out!  Oh, and the snow... did I mention snow?  Now we have only had one deep snowfall (about 10" in one day), but we keep getting more.  We have had a lift in temperatures, one day was even close to 50F, but then it drops again.  It has been a real roller-coaster ride!

The first big snow, January 28th, 2019

So what have I been doing?  Not much on any given day, but I am keeping busy - never bored!  On the days that I am staying in, I am mostly sewing.  I have made long sleeved T-shirts and sweatpants for the grandsons, (no photos) and quite a few items for myself. Here are a few photos:

This is for a challenge.. Cowl neck top made of wool jersey.

This is from my own T-shirt pattern, and the Cardi pattern from New Look 6735

Another from my basic T pattern, this fabric is Liberty of London cotton sweatshirting.

Here I'm wearing the top and Cardi, with a denim skirt that I made to test a pattern.

There were some other items as well, but I didn't keep photos of everything.  Maybe I need to do that... take photos of ALL the things I have made in the past year.  I think I would be impressed!

I have also almost perfected the fit of a basic pants pattern.  I dug out an old sample that I made a couple of years ago, and the fit was almost right.  I did take it to my Garment class in November to get input from our wonderful instructor, Cliff, but when I went to class in December, I found that he was gone (no explanation) and his replacement was not at all proficient in garment construction.  So that was great while it lasted, but I won't go back.  This sounds snobbish, but the replacement instructor knows quite a bit less than I do...  Guess I need to grow on my own now!

I have also been knitting. I finished this Fair Isle hat which is made with the yarns that I bought in Scotland and Iceland on our trip in 2016.

Fair Isle hat

And finally, a bit of crochet.  I friend admired my tea cosy, so I made one for her.

Jill's Teapot Cosy

So when you add all this up, I guess it is a fairly productive winter.

I am also attending quite a few of the weekly Master Gardener classes that will run into April. I go on the days where the topic or the presenter is of special interest to me.  We have recently had Vegetables, Herbaceous plants, and Fruits.  I think I will skip this week's Insects class.  Instead I will go down to my seed starting space and start a few more trays of seeds.  I have already got one tray started with flowers... the Chamomile was up in just 2 days! Now it looks like a few Cosmos and Onions are poking up.

And for the dogs... they are just plain bored.  We get a short walk outdoors maybe once a WEEK!  Every time I want to take them to Wednesday class, the weather is bad (it is a 40 minute drive, so I'm not going on bad roads!)  So we play games indoors.  Today is another lost Wednesday so I had better get out their treat balls for some stimulation.

Until next time..... Blessings.