Keeping In Touch

The ducks are coming up from the river to check out the birdseed. We don't feed them, but at this time of year they are almost friendly.
I'm planning a St. Patrick's Day party to try to get some of our old band friends together. There is work in keeping in touch.
People are always amazed at my ability to capture and listen to podcasts. It's not remarkable, but I did get in early, thanks to CBC. I think the hardest thing is trying out new ones, especially if it is because your favourites are not posting as frequently or have closed shop.
Step one: ask a friend for a good podcast. This includes recommendations from other podcasters.
Step two: find it in itunes and subscribe. It's free, what's the risk? It can take a few shows for you to decide if you are happy with it.
Step three: and this is the one I have failed to do a few times: Subscribe to the blog show notes. You may not want to read them or may not feel you need to, but they will let you know when they post. You can go over to itunes and update your podcasts. It feels great to get the email, or the note on Google Reader: we have just made a show and we don't want you left out.
My newer podcast is the Knitmore Girls. It took me a while to get used to their voices and the way they share, but it's great fun and now it's familiar.
My favourites are the Knit Girllls which is a video cast and Round the Twist with Carin who used to be on the hilarious Lime and Violet, but I don't think we're supposed to talk about that.
Lala and Leslie from the Knit Girllls are just the type of people I want to sit and knit with.
Cast On with Brenda Dayne is one of the first knitting podcasts and she eloquently shares her opinions and her fabulous knitting and life in Wales.
That's already a few hours of podcasting for your walking and housecleaning and just watching and knitting.
If you're a non-knitter, my favourite podcast is To The Best Of Our Knowledge by PRI Wisconsin. It's part way between Ideas, Tapestry and Spark. That's a lot of links.
Can you tell that we have no TV reception? We watch shows on DVD, but that's downstairs. I don't like to go into the basement if there's good daylight.
The snow drops refuse to open. The weather has been shifting from cold and clear to warm and windy. I don't blame them.

Is this witch hazel? I love it. One of the trees on our short dog walk. I'm feeling well enough to walk the big black thing, partly because she's too arthritic to go for our long walks.

There has been knitting. I finished the hat and had the taste for another quick project. Fish dish for scale because we don't have a cat. These are two legs of the Blu Jeans from Mason Dixon's second book, Knitting Outside the Lines. I went into my stash and weighed the denim (after I had rolled it off the cone). Luckily I had enough. I'm not thrilled with the acrylic contrast, but it's in the stash.

The directions are to wash the pieces after you knit and before you sew. They shrank in washing, but only in length. I know this is a controversial topic, but I decided to throw caution to the wind and follow directions. The cotton denim yarn will continue to fade and soften with subsequent washings.

I'm happy how they turned out. They are probably about a 6 month size, whatever that is. I embroidered a little fly and pockets. Embroidery was my first craft when I was pretty wee and we decorated our pillow cases.

The baby shower is in March, so I'm set. Just some baking to do. We bring frozen meals to showers now, did you know that?

The little jeans are my prayer for a healthy second baby boy. I look forward to seeing the great people my husband works with.

I have a day shift tomorrow and will get to catch up with my own team.

With choirs and meetings, I am out visiting quite a bit this year. My plan is to be more connected.

This Wednesday is the Chilliwack Common Threads Knitting Circle. I hope we get a few more out. We all know knitters are the best people and I want to meet some local ones that I may like as much as I do my blogging friends. Let's keep in touch.