in which Old Man Winter smites me

Everyone's been talking about the winter blahs lately. Not me! I never fail to chime in annoyingly and admit to liking winter. Well, Jack Frost had his revenge this weekend...

The Madison mini-break was for the most part quite pleasant. A couple exceptions:
1) The state high school wrestling tournament swarmed downtown on Saturday. Not exactly my scene...

2) While heading into the Borders on Midvale Blvd., I was hit by a giant icicle that fell off the roof. Talk about a nasty winter surprise! Very sudden and quite painful. I have a giant goose egg now, but no concussion, and no blood, so I consider myself lucky.

I finished the back of my cowlneck sweater on the road to Madison. Mmmmmalabrigo, of course ("violetas"). I tried using this yarn for Mr. Greenjeans and wasn't happy with it at that gauge, so I switched patterns. A Mr. Greenjeans is still in the queue (in green Cascade 220).

Sarah kindly gave me this beautiful Plucky Knitter cashmere 2-ply laceweight that was too hopelessly tangled for her to sell. Well, my many hours of patient untangling are paying off. The yarn is so soft and lovely, and the colorway is subtle and classy. I think it's "Dark Day"? The pattern is the Woodland Shawl, by Nikol Lohr (AKA the Thrifty Knitter). I'm very happy with this combination of pattern and yarn. I told Paul that cashmere pajamas sound like a wonderful idea. A little overboard, I suppose?