Winter has arrived!

Winter has been slow in arriving but it’s finally here, dropping a couple inches of snow a day.  It’s not much but it adds up and the quail are most appreciative of Ian’s dedication to keeping the bird feeders full.

This is what a snow angel looks like made by an 80-pound black Lab.

This is said black Lab.

I finally finished this cowl.  I like it being wider on the ends, hoping it will keep more of my neck warm.  The idea is that you fold it in half but I think I’ll just scrunch it.  The pattern is from Ravelry but too problematic to share or to even repeat.

And in the vein of keeping busy in the house, I moved my loom and cleaned up the lint from dish towel cotton.  I brushed it up and vacuumed it up and there’s still some left.  I need a better brush because there’s a lot still there and more under the other loom.

My job today was to get my workshop loom dressed for the tartan workshop next month.  I have chosen Campbell of Breadalbane.  I like Campbell of Argyl better but it has one more color and for a learning experience, I think a tartan with four cones of yarn is plenty.  It’s going to be a very wide scarf.  Ian wants one so if I can get the hang of this and master a steady beat, I’ll order wool and do it again, but in Argyl since that’s his family name.

We went furniture hunting on President’s Day weekend.  Our 7-year-old set is shot with springs coming out of the cushions in three places. There’s nothing to be done but to replace it.  We had gone the weekend before and anything we liked started at $3,000 like this Mission-style sofa build in an Amish workshop. This is baseline wood and fabric.

We had four businesses on our list for this trip but two people had told us they were pleased with Ashley so we went there next.  Both of us went nuts over this set in three colors.  It was comfortable and the price was right, plus they were having a 25% off sale for Presidents Day.  I wish I could say that we knew about the sale but it was just dumb luck. When I was saw the sale signs I remembered that this is the big weekend for furniture sales.  Ian was ready to take this set and leave, but I started to worry about it fitting in with the rest of our house.

In the end this is what we bought, including the accent chair in the foreground which is from another set.  We have two more weeks before delivery and already I’m starting to worry about keeping an off-white couch off-white.  I need to read up on Scotchguard or else have someone come in and do it for us.