Snow Sandwich

We're in the middle of a snow sandwich. We had the bottom slice of bread (if you will) last night into this morning. Now we are into the snow/rain/sleet filling for the sandwich. Later this morning and into the evening we've been promised the top slice of bread--snow falling at possibly three inches an hour. A cold and cripling sandwich to be sure. The schools are closed. They closed the government in Washington, DC. These are snow days of record breaking proportions for the Mid-Atlantic region.

Again the LWDs headed for the back door this morning. They did go out this time, but the snow was too high and wet for them to make the leap of faith off the step. They did wipe their paws coming back in.




Like on Sunday, we then headed for the front door instead and yellow snow was made at the first bush.





The picture from my bedroom window this morning shows the tree laden down with heavy, wet snow. One branch has broken off already.

Enough about the weather! The local TV stations have pre-empted the network shows once again for "live coverage of our winter storm"and are talking weather nonstop. Sunday it was "snowmageddon" today it's "nor'easter" or "blizzard." They talk weather ad nauseum and now I'm doing the same thing! There's weaving to do . . . after one last picture.

The view from my bedroom window just before dawn

I was out to replenish provisions yesterday. I bought milk, champagne and yarn. I have my priorities straight, don't I! And now I'm set for another day or two snowed in, weaving, knitting, having a Mimosa with breakfast.

Cozy and warm in my studio wearing Vera Bradley corduroy PJs, with a movie streamed to the TV screen and loom awaiting, all's right with my little world.

Bona Fide Knitter

Snowmageddon!

In case there is anybody left that doesn't already know, we had a big snowstorm here in the City of Brotherly Love Friday night into Saturday afternoon, the second in as many months. This one they claim to be our second biggest in recorded history. Who's doing the measuring? And where?

I was so excited to be snowed in I couldn't sleep the night before. I popped up from bed every other hour to check the landscape for snowfall. It was like Christmas Eve in days of yore (when I was a child) when I popped up from bed to see if the landscape around the Christmas tree had changed, in other words, had Santa been there yet.

From my bedroom window:



I was up before daylight with the LWDs (Little White Dogs) for our potty time. When I opened the back door they use, the snow bank was taller than they are.














Two feet high!

They stopped in their tracks, looked up at me and said (with their eyes) "Are you kidding?!!!"











"Wipe Your Paws"

So off we went down to the front door. They are hesitant to step out the front door without being hooked up to leashes. It's a no-no under usual circumstances. I gave them the okay and they stepped out. The shelter of the porch kept the snow accumulation low and they were able to do pee-pees at the first bush.

They finished and ran back into the house shaking every trace of moisture off their newly coiffed coats. They had just been groomed two days before.

So, I had the whole day to weave, knit and look at movies streamed to my TV. Our local stations broadcast the weather all day long for goodness sake! It was like nobody ever saw snow before. The talking heads were in their element. Puh-leeze!

It was the kind of day to "put on a pot." Hearty meals were called for. Ham hocks and butter beans simmering away in my kitchen. After all there would be a whole lot of shoveling to do--NOT!!! We are past the shoveling age. We had our guy come with a snowblower and clear things out after the snow stopped. However, we did do the hearty eating. One must keep ones strength up. We (at least I) had to check the weather from all windows. You need strength for that. It was also a good time to call friends who are usually out and about. Everybody would be home. All that chatting takes strength too!

A work table I ordered had been delivered the evening before and I spent the time between meals, telephoning and looking out windows putting the table together. The table is actually a computer desk, but just the right size not to make too big a footprint in the studio. It also matches the TV table (coffee table) and side table, inexpensive things from Target that fill the bill. Actually I have filled the bill to capacity. The seven-foot loom and its tripod take up a lot of space when I'm weaving. When its free of weaving the loom is dismantled into three sticks and the tripod folds. The whole thing fits nicely into a corner. But while it has weaving on it, quite a bit of the room is taken up. Thus the need for small scale furniture . . . except for the large dog bed in front of the TV.

While I got no knitting or weaving done on Saturday I more than made up for it on Sunday. Lots of weaving, knitting and movie watching was accomplished. Judy, Janis and Melissa provided plenty of talk time as well. It was another wonderful snowed in day.

My studio is cozy and warm and calls to me. Time to start my third consecutive snowed in day.



Bona Fide Knitter

I'm Seeing Red!

Well, it's February. That's why I'm seeing red. Valentine's Day is this month. Hearts. Red. Get it? But let me backtrack a moment. I am getting the studio set up and ready to rumble. Most fiber arts are boxed, shelved, but not quite as sorted as I would like. While trying to come up with a sort method for this sock-yarn-heavy stash of mine, I had many projects and yarns to revisit, fondle and decide where to file. When did it get to be so much?!!!


So now I've seen all the yarn, the kits and projects started (read UFOs) and unstarted I actually have. There is way too much, actually an overwhelming amount. But I have a new plan of action. Many of my UFOs and some FOs as well will never be all they can be because there is something about them that I didn't like, a mistake, an ugly color, started before my skill level matched the project, some finished and never worn, whatever. I am going to be doing a lot of frogging! I am going to be doing a lot of repurposing of frogged yarn and also of new yarn which will be recatagorized from knitting to weaving and from sock yarn to sweater, shawl or afghan yarn. I am finally going to focus. I am also going to shop my stash this year and as Tim Gunn says, "Make it work!"

I must confess that yesterday I bought yarn. It was Patternworks' fault! I had to buy yarn to get the free pattern for a cowl I cannot live without. I bought three balls of black yarn to make the cowl. And last night, just before the red month started, I went back to a mouldering KnitPicks cart that still contained handpaint Merino yarn in reds I've been hemming and hawing over and bought it. That's it! I'm done! Well, except for some Lion Brand Homespun I need to go with some I already have that isn't enough for the two shawls I want to weave. I am limited to buying only yarn needed to match some I have that isn't enough for the project in mind.

And then I checked out some of my red stash . . . My plan is to frog a red afghan I started some months (a year? longer?) ago that has a mistake that is driving me crazy. I'm not even two inches into it. I should have frogged and started over long ago knowing my OCD tendencies! So today it gets frogged and sometime this month I will restart it. After all, this is the red month.


Bona Fide Knitter

It's Twenty Ten!

The first month of 2010 is half over and I am dutifully doing what I set out to do this year, move into my newly constructed "studio" and bring some order to my hobbies. So many hobbies, so little space. Actually I have space but just too many hobbies that require a lot of stuff. Right now I'm dealing with the "fiber arts" as I call my hand knitting, antique sock machine knitting and stash. Then there is my newest thing--weaving. Christmas 2008 I got a seven foot triangle loom and matching tripod stand. I knew I was in deep doggie doo when I had no space big enough for setup. And then there are the four sock machines and the sock yarn stash that had overtaken the space needed to use the sock machines.

This past summer I had the garage converted to a room I can devote to the fiber arts. It will also house my play doll collection. That is the play doll wall pictured above. I've gathered up yarn stash from all its hiding places and now to organize and store it in an orderly manner that is also pleasing to the eye. That has not been accomplished yet so no pictures will appear at this time. There is prior-to-organization chaos of which I do not want photographic evidence. Get the picture?

I am about to relinquish my title as the "Queen of Unfinished Projects." Please don't jump to the wrong conclusion. I don't intend to finish them all. I am going to take an idea from a podcast I heard and unravel them. Yes, unravel them! I'm sure you all have a UFO (or two or more) that you know you will never finish for one reason or another. Face it. Bite the bullet. Ravel, rest it and start over or ravel and re purpose that yarn! Thank you Jasmin of the Knitmore Girls podcast for causing that idea to finally sink in.

Speaking of podcasts, I grew weary of a few that I liked in the beginning and have narrowed my favorites to Cast On (Brenda Dayne), KnitPicks (Kelley Petkin), The Knitmore Girls (mother and daughter GiGi and Jasmin) and Sticks and String (David Reidy). I tried a new one this week, Savvy Girls (two sisters). So far, not bad. I'll listen to a few more episodes before passing judgement on that one. I also have three non-knitting related podcasts that I follow faithfully: The Splendid Table, Grammar Girl and This American Life.

So here we are, a year and a month later, and I have woven my first triangle shawl on the tri-loom. No pictures yet. I have the fringe to finish before I take it off the loom. In the meantime, watch this You Tube video that I turn to when I need calming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M99sSC8TIOc

Bona Fide Knitter

December? It Can't Be!

I have been living real life big time in the last few months. My knitting has suffered and also benefited from it. By "real life" I mean suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, taking arms against a sea of troubles, going through the heartache and thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. Forgive me Mr. Shakespeare. It's been a rough few months in my life and that's enough said about that. On to knitting . . . and not knitting.

Lo and behold the vanilla vanilla socks got finished. That's one good use for ER waiting room, hospital and nursing home visits. The trouble is those visits do not lend themselves to the concentration needed for Kitchenering ("Kitchenering"?) the toes. Too many interruptions. So no pictures of the completed object yet. Further, the 2009 beach socks are moving right along. They should be completed before it's time for beach socks 2010, I should hope. The Butt Ugly Shrug is coming along as well. Lots of time in front of the TV hunkered down knitting. It has given me a good excuse to order the "blocking blocks" from KnitPicks. They should be here any day now and I can block the body and sleeves, sew them together and pick up stitches for the ribbed collar and band.

I rejoined Netflix, only one movie at a time this go round, and I bought a Roku box (since I have no X-Box, Play Station 3, Blu-ray or Ti-Vo) so I can stream movies to my television screen. I'm in movie heaven which makes for mucho knitting time.

The bathroom renovation is almost complete. The main part, the shower room I designed, is totally complete. I love my shower! My next water bill, not so much.

My studio is gradually being filled. I am not liking the wake-up call it is giving me on my yarn stash. I was better off not knowing. I have enough sock yarn to to keep all four of my sock machines humming and two Magic Loops at a time singing forever. I have just begun to move the sweater, jacket, shawl and afghan projects including ones bought as kits. OMG!!! All I have to say about the number of those is I'd better get to knittin'!

I'll leave you with a picture of the chair in which I plan to sit while knitting the winter away in my studio. I just ordered it. Draped in an afghan, a DVD or audio book playing and the knitting should be easy.
Bona Fide Knitter

Woes and UFOs

Can it be a whole month ago that I last wrote? The short month of September seems to have flashed by in a flurry of UFOs and a load of lackluster days. Suffice it to say I've had better months.

My knitting is looooong suffering. The Seaside Shrug, the one I refer to as "butt ugly," has not been touched in many weeks. It was supposed to be finished by now and would be but for the sprained thumb and wrist I mentioned a month ago. Finished, it would have been a warm comfort this brisk fall morning. The needlepoint I started when I couldn't knit remains unfinished as well. I was going at a good clip and then we returned home for what was to be a very brief period before returning for our last Cape Cod retreat for 2009, the month of October. I unpacked the needlepoint for a little show and tell with a friend at lunch a few days after we were home and returned it to the beach tote in preparation for the next trip. It appears the next trip will not be happening this year. Spouse is sick. We are in extreme woe mode.

All the news isn't bad. The vanilla vanilla socks have grown by leaps and bounds this past week. And even better than that, when I returned from Cape Cod my STUDIO was complete! Yes, the garage conversion was done, finished, ready for occupancy. A trip to Ikea for the beginning of shelves and such, a lot of planning and a little moving stuff in happened. However, the room is so nice, so clean and uncluttered, I hesitate to mess that up.

While spouse unloads the van I take pictures of the room.

A little BEFORE and AFTER:

What was once a garage door . . .

. . . is now a bay window.

See all the Before, During and After pictures in my Kodak album.

Bona Fide Kniter

The Days Dwindle Down

. . . to a precious few. September, November . . .

The lyrics to September Song seem appropriate today. I can't believe summer 2009 is, for all intents and purposes, over. Some children are already back in school, a great number started today and some lucky ones won't begin until after Labor Day, as it was way (way, way) back in my day.

The weather here in Brewster, on Cape Cod, is gorgeous today. Seventy degrees, sunny, not humid and a day to read on the beach, or knit beach socks. I will be doing neither. After a trip to the library and writing a few notes, there was not enough time between meals to get it all done. So I visited Town-Ho instead.

Okay, let me explain. Town-Ho Needleworks is a needlepoint shop up the road from here. That phrase has certainly taken on a different meaning in the years since the shop was named. Anyway, it is a wonderful needlepoint shop with rooms of eye candy for the needlework inclined. However, I was amazed at the prices. Years ago, when needlepoint was my obsession of choice, a fine needlepoint kit with painted canvas and Paternayan wool sold for $18. Now a similar canvas costs $45 or more and doesn't include the yarn!

After much restraint I bought a little kit I happened to find at a reasonable price. I had missed it on the first go-round. The second time, while fingering through a container of small kits, all of a sudden the flip flops caught my eye. Flip flops seem to be my theme this summer.



I wondered would I remember how to needlepoint. It's like riding a bike. Once the tapestry needle was in hand and threaded it all came back to me. I am not even tempted to wield it like sewing toes on socks. Maybe that is because it has been so long since I finished a pair of socks I've forgotten how to Kitchener.


One important fact I haven't mentioned is that I sprained my left thumb and right wrist (Don't ask.) soon after I got here and find it painful to knit. Now I have a little project to do until those ouchies feel better and I can get back to Beach Socks 2009, the ongoing Vanilla Vanilla Socks and the Butt Ugly Shrug. (Remember that one?)

Bona Fide Knitter