Sunday, January 31, 2010

Skating Anyone?

Hi Knitters,
Gotta love that cooooold Wisconsin weather when that's where you live. The Collector got ice skates for Christmas this year. She is so excited about them. My husband decided to make our own backyard ice rink in honor of the new skates. He did a bunch of research on how to make your own ice rink. He went with three of the kids over to Home Depot and gathered all of the materials which included a huge tarp, wood for the edges and brackets to hold everything together. My son and a couple of his friends worked on it one afternoon and made good progress. My husband then finished it up.
We have a cement basketball court in our backyard so that's where it made the most sense to put the rink. They filled it up with water over a week ago, maybe even two but it just finally froze hard enough to get a good smooth sheet of ice. For the past few days The Collector has been skating and skating and skating. Our neighbors have been over skating and they even made up a skating routine for fun. It has been hours of outdoor fun.
This morning is the brightest, coldest day and TC has already been out for hours on her rink. This afternoon her cousins are coming over to spend some time skating. I think that calls for some homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate! I need to get busy with the baking.

The Collector is wearing one of my favorite knitted hats, The One for All Hat. This hat has a knit in lining that is so simple and extra warm. The hat has one of the cutest ever pom-pom sets on top, too. I love this hat and have never really gotten a good photograph of it. When I saw The Collector had it on today for skating I thought I would try to capture a better shot of it. The back shot above is pretty good. The One for All Hat is a great first cable project to boot!


Here is the Ravelry page for the One for All Hat!
Outdoor winter fun is always good when you live in a cold climate like we do! Being outside, even when it's cold, just makes you feel better all around. I hope the backyard skating rink becomes an annual event. The cute dog next door, Maddie, enjoys the skaters, too. She stands there patiently watching as they go by. Occasionally the kids take a break and give her some love which is what she is waiting for.

My sister lives on a lake so she has a backyard skating rink all of the time. Do any of you have a backyard/homemade skating rink?

Hope you are getting outside a bit on these bitter cold winter days.
Talk to you soon.
best, susie