Guess What? More Snow!

This is that pretty kind of snow-wet, sloppy, fluffy, and sits so prettily on trees and things. Right now there is no ice, so roads are clear-just wet and yucky. I am sure they will freeze tonight, but right now traffic is going pretty good.

This is a shot from across the road and across one end of the ravine.

This is across the road at my neighbor's entrance. Isn't it pretty?

So guess I will continue on my spinning project. The birds are fed and are grazing nicely. No need to go out any more.

I Saw Some Color Somewhere Today!

41 More Days Until Spring!

Yes-more snow is predicted tomorrow. I am not even going to comment on it.

Today I saw my first bluebird and a meadow lark. It was memorable because it is nice to see the colors in this bleak, gray, blah day. The meadow lark was especially pretty with that golden yellow that is the color of goldenrod flowers.

After my company left I did sit down to do my Sunday spinning. But I decided to just go lie on my bed and read. I am almost finished with a book, and you know how mysteries are at the end. I just want to read it until the conclusion of all this mess that has created. Usually then I don't want it to end, but they always do.

I got a cute email from one of my girlfriends today. But for some reason, the picture did not copy over. But here are the words:

National Girlfriend and Sister's Week I am only as strong as the coffee I drink, the hairspray I use, and the friends I have. To the cool women who have touched my life. Here's to you! National Girlfriends Day If you get this twice, you know you have more than one girlfriend. Be Happy! PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR GIRLFRIENDS

It is good to be a woman: 1. We got off the Titanic first. 2. We can scare male bosses with mysterious gynecological disorder excuses. 3. Taxis stop for us. 4. We don't look like a frog in a blender when dancing. 5. No fashion faux pas we make could ever rival the Speedo. 6. We don't have to pass gas to amuse ourselves. 7. If we forget to shave, no one has to know. 8. We can congratulate our teammate without ever touching her rear end. 9. We never have to reach down every so often to make sure our privates are still there. 10. We have the ability to dress ourselves. 11. We can talk to the opposite sex without having to picture them naked. 12. If we marry someone 20 years younger, we are aware that we will look like an idiot. 13. We will never regret piercing our ears. 14. There are times when chocolate really can solve all your problems. 15. We can make comments about how silly men are in their presence because they aren't listening anyway. Send this to all the bright women you know and make their day!!!!!

The picture is an older woman smoking a big cigar, lounging across a doorway with her foot up on the side, and there is some kind of red thing on top of her head. She wears big ugly black glasses.

So have an outrageous week wherever you are. I am going to be home spinning, knitting, or something. I wonder how much it would cost to buy a second home somewhere warm? HMMM! Yeah-right!!!

Only 44 More Days Until Spring!

I LOVE my new sock blockers that I got for Christmas. This is my first try on them, and man!, they make the socks look good after they are blocked! I am sold on them!



Okay! These are the January socks! They are made from Zauberball, and I love this yarn. I did not get a matchy-matchy pair, but close. I did a three-purl spiral around the leg and the top of the foot. I LOVE the way the colors bled into each other and did not create a hard stripe line. The first sock had one hard stripe line when I picked up the gusset and started around the top of the foot again. But the second one still had the softer gray that did not look as hard.

See-not identical twins. But close.

This is my DUH! project. This is my yarn blocker made of PVC pipe that came from a pattern in a very old Spin-Off. If anyone is interested, I can find the copy and give you dimensions. Anyway, I have always had a little difficulty keeping it together, and it is a pain to get the skeins on it and set up. I almost always do this on my deck or my screened porch. You know, for dripping. Well, obviously, it is very cold outside. The last batch I did on the blocker froze. Okay, what to do. So I put it in the bathtub in the hall bathroom, and it is a tad-bit wonky! But it did the job without a lot of mess on the floor, and now I have nice pretty skeins of blue/green/turquoise yarn.

Now this is my February sock(s) started. The pink is my real project that is going to be a gift. I don't think that person reads my blog, so I am safe. It will be a plain-Jane sock whose pattern is in my head. Easy-Peezy-knitting. Should go pretty fast.

The one on the left is from my left-over Zauberball. I thought-just make a pair of baby sockies and then put them in your give-away box. Well, I swear I had some extra red from the second sock I knit for myself. I cannot find it anywhere. So this will probably end up as a Christmas tree ornament. The last choice I would make, but hey! you only have to knit one!

I just had a power surge that blacked out everything for a while. So I will quickly wrap this one up and get it out to the world. Sigh! More snow tomorrow and a bigger chance on Monday. This is one whacked out winter! I am almost ready to move south-er.

I also have a Toyota matrix. My older brother sent me three emails yesterday with concern about the recall. The last I heard I didn't really have to worry. Then last night I found a news report show on cable that really got me worried. So I guess I will make a trip to my local Toyota place real soon. I will keep you posted. One interview last night was with a person from a car magazine. He said that several brands of cars-not just Toyota- have a problem with the gas pedal. He said that yes, it is a problem that needs to be addressed. But all the makers of cars with the problem need to be targeted-not just Toyota. Well, that's a comfort, huh? Sorta, kinda, like the terrorism thing. The bad guys are out there, and you better watch out! I guess it's the old "keep them in a constant fear state" issue that has always bugged me about "them".

We still have patches of snowy-icy stuff on the ground. I did slide down yesterday on the sidewalk ice as I was headed out the door to go to the spinner's meeting. Today is a light rain and it is cold and yucky out.

We had a very good spinner's meeting. I met some new folks. Someone once said that coincidences are a way for God to remain anonymous. Well, I met a visitor yesterday that has my first name, is named after her grandmother(as I am) with the same name as my grandmother, from the same place in Oklahoma that my grandmother is from, and they have Choctaw blood. The stories were almost identical. What do you think about that?

Well, before the power surges again, I am going to finish this out. I got an email of a poster that is available on etsy- Keep Knitting and Stay Calm!

The Sun's Shining!

My poor kitties have cabin fever. They did go out a little bit on Friday during the snowing, but they have not been out since. They go out the kitty door to the screened porch, sniff the air, hunker down and watch the birds, and then come back in the house. This morning they ran up and down the hallway, chirpling, and hissing, and acting like bad kids that are cabin locked.

We probably got about 6 or 7 inches on top of the ice. Nothing has melted yet in the yard. The street is somewhat passable, but there hasn't been any plows up here. I think they are primarily trying to get major routes taken care of.

I think our minds are tricky things. I normally don't go out very much during the week. Maybe once a week to the grocery store. I try to eat out that day also. I go to the knit group on Thursday night if the weather cooperates. But I began to feel "trapped" yesterday. I walked out a little bit during the last coupla days, but really it shouldn't be any different than normal. I guess it is the fact I really cannot go anywhere right now. On regular days, I have a choice, and I generally choose not to go out.

So yesterday morning I decided this was a Sunday like all other Sundays. I turned on NPR and sat down at the spinning wheel. Once my programs were completed I turned on podcasts on ITunes. I finished the blue yarn, and I am now almost plied. Once that is completed, I can skein it, block it, and then fret about what I am going to knit with it.

I did a load of laundry this morning, and that needs to be completed. But I think today is going to be "Finish the plying day". I will try to get out to the store this afternoon after more melting on the street. I am out of birdseed. They are frantic.

Happy Monday! Have a good week.

Let's Look At Pretty Pictures!

This is the wool I dyed with brazilwood. I try not to tell my environmental friends that I use this wood. But isn't it totally different than using a plant dye? I think it is beautiful. The reddish brown is a merino/English angora blend. The orangey is Romney fleece.

This is after the rain/freezing rain/ice/sleet fell at about 8 a.m. this morning.

This is while the snow is still falling. I have filled the bird feeders twice today, and they are all in a frenzy to get as much as they can. It is totally amazing how fast they are eating. I would say visibility is really limited to my yard. There have been few cars passing on the road. Believe it or not, my mailwoman delivered the mail!

So thank God, we did not get a power outage last night. I kept waking up in the night and listening for the furnace to come on. And to hear the refrigerator humming. The poor people in Oklahoma got slammed like last year. I can only shake my head. Some silly weather person says this is normal El Nino weather patterns, but I cannot ever recall a swath of red across a map of the U.S. showing ice from New Mexico to Kentucky and further east into the mountains. I have seen pockets of ice-like we had last year-but never a complete pathway of ice that moved from west to east.

Anyway-just wanted y'all to see that we do get bad weather here. I guess it is close to 4 inches of snow on top of the ice right now. But it is still snowing heavily. Keep warm!

Yes, We Are Having A Problem!

My computer is having a major nervous breakdown. It is time to go back to the computer doctor. Unfortunately, we are having a major icy, messy, storm tomorrow, and I don't know if I should take her now. He normally has it back within 24 hours-which is tomorrow-but I don't know if I can get to his house to pick it up. So I may be a little bit slow in writing this week.

I have dyed a dab of wool with the brazilwood. It is gorgeous. I did a blend of merino/angora and it came out a browny red color. And since there seemed to be a little color left in the pot, I threw in some of my Romney, and it came out a pretty peachy, orangey color. I think it is gorgeous. It is a different color with wood than with plants, for sure.

I have started working feverishly on completing my second sock. I would like to have it finished this week. Which means I have to get busy. I am on the foot, but the pattern slows me down. I am also knitting on the stocking that our sock club is working on now.

Yesterday I went by SH's house to catch her up on the stocking project. She missed the sock club meeting, and I took the pattern by and went over everything with her. She was almost finished with the lace bit when I left. She was babysitting the newest baby and she was fussing a lot during the whole time. SH's husband kept picking her up and walking her so we could spend more time with the project. After we ate lunch, he gave me a software program to install on the computer that will organize all my genealogy stuff. That's one of his jobs is doing genealogies. So another project to get busy on.

My son called me last night to catch up on stuff. I told him about the software, and he thought that was an excellent idea. I am the last person in the family to know all about the family stories and who people are. I think I need to explore how to record some of the stories and then they will be preserved.

So I am getting ready for the ice mess. I am not emotionally ready to handle what we went through last year. I am hoping this will not be so severe, and that it won't last so long. At least according to last night's weather report, it appears that we are only going to be below freezing two days. We are going to have single digits at night and 20's during the day. It may get into the 30's on Sunday-for sure by Monday. I hope they are right.

So I may not be on the computer much in the next week. With the possible power outage, and bad roads, I will not be going into town to take the computer to the doctor. We will see.

So keep warm, keep busy, and be sure you have extra water and canned goods in the pantry.

Round Two!

Yes, this Christmas cactus bloomed in November-in fact, Veteran's Day! But last year it bloomed a second time in February. So it is a tad bit early this year for the second blooming!

So go little cactus! Bloom whenever you feel like it! I love the structure of the double flowers! It is really gorgeous!

Do you recognize this? It is a rusty pipe that I saw that has lichens growing on it. I love the colors and the patterns.

Tonight our LYS is sponsoring a kit-making class for the Haiti relief. A local church is collecting "health" kits that include items like a wash cloth, soap, a hand towel, nail files, etc. They will send them over there for personal hygiene needs. This is our regular Knit Night, so a perfect time for us to do this.

Sunday we resume our monthly Sock Club meetings. I am kinda looking forward to this. We haven't met since November. So it will be nice to get back into the routine.

My friends CJE and AE are having a tough time with one of the moms. It is a really hard time emotionally for them, and some tough decisions are being made. Also my friend CF has been helping a friend out that needed some nursing care at home. He ended up in the hospital over the weekend and surgery on Sunday morning. He is not recuperating well. So my energy is sent to my friends to help with all their needs. Keep good thoughts for them, and send positive energy their way.

The rain has started and the cooler weather may be returning. I have certainly enjoyed having the warmer weather to do some clean up tasks in the yard. My neighbor came over on his tractor to scrape my driveway. It just seems to be an endless, bottomless pit of picking up, pulling out, scraping, piling up, straightening, and making things tidy. But some day I plan the yard to be less care and maintenance friendly.

Of course, I got an email that it is time to order potatoes. My back aches too much to think about that now.

Well, I guess I will get dressed and go into town to do some shopping for the hygiene kits for tonight. I think I will swing by Hastings and look at magazines while I am at it. Actually, I really just want to take a nap. But I will go out in the yuck. I got things to do.

Later.