I’m not going to complain about the 0.9 degree weather with the minus 30 wind chill today.  Or the snow that is expected tomorrow.  Because all of that is such old news.  Who needs old news?

But I will clarify that in my last post, no one seemed to realize that the pictures of the heater I was showing you at the end, were because the pipes inside the baseboards froze and burst.

Two holes in the pipe and so lucky that nothing flooded and we caught it quickly.  And boy was I ever thankful that Paul knows what the heck he is doing.  What could have been a several hundred dollar emergency call to a plumber, was a $30 piece of copper pipe that Paul replaced himself.  Whew.

And lucky me, I got to help by taking the million and one heating element thingys off the old 6 foot long copper pipe and put them back on the new 6 foot long copper pipe:

I’m really terrible – such a complainer and grumpy about the boring-ness of it all (after all, I could have been knitting).  Paul is very patient.

And this morning we woke up and discovered the need for this (again):

After we thought we had all our bases covered, another frozen pipe (inside a closed closet) that, again thankfully, was caught even earlier and this one didn’t burst.

But here’s a good thing about the snow…..

This is Jake in Virginia, who hardly gets to see snow and loves it soooooo much….

Isn’t he just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen and makes your frozen face melt into a smile?

Also, on an “inside day” with the doodlebugs, they practiced counting by making tarts for the Queen of Hearts with play-doh:

And so all this boring, monotonous, every day, all day cold stuff is helped a lot by the knitting, which I’ve been doing a lot of.  I finished my Heaven and Space shawlette and gave it a cozy blocking by the fire:

(I have no idea what happened but all my pictures on the dress form came out crooked.)  I am mostly happy with it and a tiny bit unhappy.  I love the color. I love the pattern – easy and great for tv knitting.  I really liked knitting with the yarn, Cozy Soft.  However.  The yarn is 75% acrylic and 25% wool, which means the fabric will not really relax like I want it to.  I wanted it to look like the pattern picture, but even though I stretched it out flat, the acrylic is making it scrunch back up and get all wavy and bumpy.  While this looks ok, it looks “only ok” and my preference would be for it to lay flatter.  Next time, which there might be, because I really really like this pattern, I will use wool.  Or wool/alpaca blend, because I love alpaca and it would be so cozy.

I also made a sample Homesock for an upcoming class:

I made a pair for my sister for Christmas.  They are funny looking when you aren’t wearing them and look like they won’t fit, but they stretch right out and fit nice and comfy and snug.  Sized for toddler to adults!

And then I started my Tea Leaves Cardigan, which I’ve had in my queue on Ravelry for a long time and have always wanted to knit.

(I know.  Shocking that it’s purple. But it’s an awesome, deep, heathered purple.)  It is a top-down sweater and I will be teaching a class for this as well.

And last night I taught a colorwork fingerless mitts class:

Although teaching a full mitten would probably be more appropriate.

Two classes to teach this weekend and I’m hoping to finally make some cupcakes!  Stay tuned….