Sanity knitting and snow

Snow has slowed our section of the world. It is rare that we get this much. It has been so gorgeous to watch and enjoy, 5-6" of lovely whiteness.
I am shocked at how long it has been since I last posted on my blog. It has just been an awkward time right now. I try to be cheerful when I blog, but I have not felt very cheerful.
I have been knitting like crazy, but it has been sanity knitting. I have lost myself in several new designs. It has kept my mind off of the ups and down of my FIL health.
Jan 2nd found him in the hospital with pneumonia and it has gone from bad to worse most of the time since them. It has been a very exhausting, emotional time for all of us, but especially my Michael. Keep us in your prayers. Poppy is a long ways from out of the woods. Right now he is on dialysis and they are fairly certain that it will be a permanent state. He will be 88 Friday the 12th and he is really bummed about being in the hospital on his b-day.
So it has been a lot of sanity knitting for me.
Here is a Baby Surprise Jacket that I made for Gracelyn. It was for Valentine's Day, she is a little sweetheart. This a great mindless knitting project that just comes out so lovely. I used a variegated yarn and a solid and alternated the colors by knitting two rows of each. Here is one for little Asher. I have not given it to him, yet. I am trying to design some cute basketball shoes to go with it. I am hoping that the basketball buttons and shoes will appease the manliness of the daddy.Here is a shawl that I knitted with one ball of yarn. I bought this the end of December. I wanted to design something that would take one ball of this yarn, trust me, two balls are too much for a shawl. I just went all swoony on the color combos in this yarn. It is called Zauberball and it is a slow variegating yarn that changes colors in long sections. It only has 460 yards in the ball. It was a dream to knit with. I have a ball of Noro coming to do another one. I know that I hate the scratchiness of the Noro, but the colors are so yummy that it just sucks you in!
I have been working on a new design for some bulky Knit Picks yarn. Here one is in Lamb's Pride Bulky yarn. It is mine.
Here it is in Knit Picks Comfy Bulky. It is for Cindy. I knit mine, tweaked the pattern and knit Cindy's. At first, I was only going to knit the band for her, but I got carried away and knitted it all. I really love this yarn. It is a great combo of Cotton and Acrylic and is super soft and definitely comfy.
Happy sts to you all!