It is Surly’s birthday!  Yay!  In honor of my favorite sister’s birthday, here’s a short stroll down memory lane.

You can see at a glance that these two are going places:

On the Tarmac

Yes, we were Air Force Brats.  The little one is Sally, of course.  And notice the cute matching outfits.  I’m sure our grandma had something to do with that!! 🙂

This next photo captures Surly as a sweet young thing – in her early college years:

Great Hair!!

Few would suspect that Sally and I once dabbled in the cinema 😉 .  Here is our only “starring role”: in the blockbuster Jurrassic Park:

The Rainey Sisters in a Faux-to Op at Universal Studios

We were told to look “fierce.”  We told the guy that there is no way we would be anything but scared out of our wits!!  That trip to L.A. was one of our first “road trips” and really, really fun.

Have a fantastic birthday, Surly — there are many great memories to come!!

…from The Monkey Sisters!

You are not seeing double!  Susan made a second Sock Monkey Project Bag for sister Surly.

We are finally getting the snow that we deserve!  It is a winter wonderland here and out east, but makes it a hassle for a lot of people (we have a parking ticket to contend with as DD’s car was on the street when they plowed 🙁 ).

I have been working on a humongous and very slow project for the last month+ (to be revealed later), but take a break from time to time to knit up something fast.  I made an impulse buy from Webs for a very expensive Noro yarn: Nadeshiko in the “red-denim” colorway.  $25 per skein!!!  I bought two.  As luck would have it,  someone in my knitting group was wearing a beautiful cowl called Seyfert – the perfect pattern for this yarn.  And free (thank goodness!!).

So, here is my $50 cowl!

I really love it and have worn it often!  I had part of a skein leftover so I knit up a matching hat:

The hat is a little tight but kind of cute.  About the yarn: it was full of knots – three in each skein!!  For that kind of money, you would expect better.

Hope you all get to work on time today – drive safely!!

I blame Kim.  For all sorts of things 😉 , but this time I blame her for my knitting obsession of the last couple of days.  She sent me a picture of a cute new project from CiD Hanscom for a small project bag…

Here is the result!!

My Little Monkey Shines knit in Ella Rae

Yes.  It is a Sock Monkey Project Bag!  My husband said, aren’t you over those yet??  Yes.  But it’s a Sock Monkey Project Bag!  It was fun to make and putsy to finish (which you can tell by looking, I’m sure).  I am going to line it when my fabric arrives from Amazon:

Here are some more pics:

You use plastic needlepoint canvas to give it its shape.  They make circles so the bottom was easy to do.  I think this would make a good holder for a ball of yarn.  Fun and cute, with very clear directions though I really think it needs to be lined.  Nice little project!

PS: To Mary Lou

Sock Monkey Ball Gown Minnesota State Fair

For those of you who live in California and have been hand wringing over 55 degree weather, step aside.  🙂  It is truly bitter cold here right now.  The wind picked up yesterday to blow in an arctic air mass and it is C O L D…15 below wind chills.

Here is a quick and cute neck warmer if you need one during this cold snap: Wham BamThank You Lamb Neckwarmer.

I used one skein of Berroco Borealis and large needles (Sz 13?, 15?).  It knits up in a evening – so start knitting!! 😉

PS – I actually gifted this one.  It was a belated Christmas present.

PS2 – It’s much colder today!! 🙁

Sally and I joke about this nickname for me — “It’s the big one we don’t like.”  BUT, I just added a simple, free pattern to Ravelry and thought I would share it with all of you.  The Biggest Cowl Ever.

The ‘Biggest Cowl Ever’ in Loops and Threads’ Dewdrops, Color Smokey Quartz (71 yds/85 gms, 5 skeins, sz 13 needles)

See?  Big.  Really big.  But I wear it and love it.  It sparkles!  My daughter had a cowl like it from a store so I borrowed the concept. 🙂

I wore it with my coat yesterday in the killer windchill and did not bother to wrap it around my neck, but wore it long.  It was really warm!

You can subtitute other bulky yarns or hold two yarns together.   Anyway, it knits up in a couple of evenings and is a fun fashion forward accessory to add to your wardrobe!!

We joined 7.9 million viewers to watch the Season 3 premiere of Downton Abbey, again amazed by the grandeur of the home and the splendor of the fashions.  My hubby and I laughed at what our house would be named: Dumpy Abbey did not sound quite classy enough, so we settled on ‘Downtrodden Abbey’ to describe the grand mess of our home and the squalor of the fashions.  🙂

A compilation of some great Lady Grantham quotes:

Yes, there are still two Rainey Sisters in case you were wondering. Sorry I have been so absent.

As you may recall, in one of my last posts, I was trying to decide whether to use some lovely glass buttons on my Burr cardigan. The problem was that I feared they were too heavy. Despite repeated attempts to convince myself that they were fine, they weren’t. Many of you offered opinions and suggestions. One was to use grosgrain ribbon to reinforce the button band. The problem here is that the button band is unusually wide — I didn’t think I’d find ribbon that would work well. So the beautiful glass buttons are now in a bowl looking beautiful, and a different set of buttons from my button stash are now in place.

This cardigan fits very well, and I am pretty pleased with it. I made it using a modified bottom up contiguous method, so that the set in sleeve was knit in as I went along. It was an interesting experiment, and I think I’d definitely try it again. It required a little thought to plan out, but the actual doing was relatively simple.

I have a silk scarf that goes well with this cardigan (shown in the last photo). I’ve had it a long time — I bought it at the same time that our signature Rainey Sister photo was taken.