First Day of Vacation...

...and it's raining. Bleh. But the nice thing about rain and 40-degree temperatures is that it melts the snow from my roof, which was getting to dangerously heavy levels up there. Several times today I have heard "plooooff!" and seen an avalanche of soft mushy snow come down. I have a little skylight in my bathroom that I haven't been able to see out of since November, and now I can. It's great.

Yesterday, before the rain came, I happened to look out at the birdfeeder and saw an interesting sight. Can you see it?


One of the blue jays had apparently decided to make a snow angel!


I'm glad I got a shot of it before it melted away. It's still out there now, but not nearly as well-defined.

On the knitting front, I am at 26" on the hamster blanket. It's getting hard to photograph because it's so long, but you get the idea. I have decided to stop at 30" because then, on the stripey panel, I can have 6 stripes at 5 inches each, and begin and end with different colors (as you can see from my notes).


I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO sick of this panel, and it just seems endless. I could not imagine making anything bigger than a baby blanket like this. Still, stockinette-stitch-with-a-garter-edge is one of my very favorite blanket patterns--soft and textureless and perfect for snuggling up underneath. If I had the stamina I'd make a twin-sized blanket like this-- but if 30" is driving me batty, I can't imagine what 90 inches would be like.



I also made some bread today. Yum. It's the kind where you add any kind of carbonated beverage-- I usually use vanilla seltzer-- and pop it in the oven and in about an hour or so, mmmmm bread. I drizzled some honey into the batter as well, which makes it even yummier.


I'm drooling just looking at the photo.