Weather, Stash Busting, Wine

Today is the monthly meeting of my knitting group, Knitters Etc (to whom, by the way, The Big Book of Socks is dedicated), but Mother Nature doesn't like my knitting group. For the third month in a row, the weather is more than iffy on meeting day. This morning, there's a shiny new ice coating on all of the vehicles, windy snow is predicted, and Aberdeen is 43 miles away. I don't want to stay home, but I don't want to spend the afternoon in a ditch either. If I go, I am going to do something that I have been meaning to do for over a year: give some yarn away. A basement re-arrangement uncovered cones of yarn that I bought and then forgot, over 5 years ago. I didn't use the yarn for various reasons (the wool is good for felting but too scratchy otherwise, the smaller cones are acrylic, purchased online in one of those Get 10lbs of Yarn for Almost Nothing- We'll Choose For You sales that I have since outgrown.) It is well past time to face the obvious truth: I'm not going to use any of it. But like every knitter in the world when faced with a destash, I looked at each cone and said, "hmmm... I could use that for...." But I'm not gonna do it- this stuff is outta here. If no one at Knitters wants it, I'll leave it at the Salvation Army (what are the chances out of 20 knitters, that no one will 15 lbs of free yarn?)

And I finished the Aunt Helen Variation Variation socks- they turned out beautifully.

The Blackberry Melomel went into the carboy yesterday, for secondary fermentation. Mead ferments more slowly than sugar-based wines, so this will probably bubble away for 2-4 weeks before reaching the proper specific gravity. The riesling is looking good (it has been moved to the cool basement, and then cloaked in a towel, to keep it in the dark). It is nicely transparent now, and could be bottled in another month (actually it could be bottled now, but we'll wait). It's hard to tell if the Merlot is clear yet- dark red wines are dark (big surprise there), but it's looking good. We'll probably wait another month, and then bottle both of them.

If I stay home, I have book work to do- I'm in the process of checking finished charts line by line (square by square) with my originals. It's just about as much fun as it sounds. I hope I can hit the road.