Ping Pong anyone?

Looks like someone dropped a truck full of ping pong balls. However, it's actually snow-covered, prickly gumballs from the cheap trees that the builder of this subdivision used to line the streets.

Let It Snow!

We had a major snowstorm here a week ago. Not completely unexpected for January. No snow days for me, though. It's nice to be able to work from home when a personal emergency arises, but that also means working from home when a weather emergency arises. Lack of commute time did give me a smidge of extra knitting time, though.

My daughter wrote "Let It Snow!!!" on our back deck on the 21st.





What is unusual for around here is that there is STILL a bunch of snow on the ground over a week later. Normally the weather warms up & the snow is gone within a few days. Yesterday's warmth did finally get the back deck message melted into un-readable, more than a week later. We still have shaded drifts that are over an inch deep next to the house or sheltered by the bushes, though.



Now the weather forecasters are saying we are due for more. This looks to be the snowiest January in recent memory.

2011 Already?!?!?

Where did 2010 go? It almost seems like we skipped it. There are still knitting projects from 2010 that never made it into Ravelry, so I am behind there too. Even taking that into consideration, though, my knitting output for 2010 was rather pitiful.

For today, though, I am going to look ahead to 2011. Resolutions are such an all-or-nothing proposal. (i.e. "Well, I messed once, so now I'll just abandon the whole thing!") So I am making plans instead of resolutions.

For 2011, my plans are:

• Do more knitting
• Finish adding 2010 projects into Ravelry
• Take pictures of all knitting projects that are currently lacking photos
• Get back in the habit of photographing my knitting progress
• Update this blog more often
• Add new projects to Ravelry as they are started
• Don't buy any random yarn just because it's a "good deal"
• Did I mention DO MORE KNITTING?
  
  

Sunday Snow

We had Sunday Snow to follow Saturday's rain. This are the same trees as the Saturday Sky picture for March 28th, less than 24 hours later.

The same trees again, a couple hours later. We got a heavy, wet snow that temporarily weighed down the bushes & branches, but was almost gone by noon. The spring flowers don't seem to have suffered any ill effects from it either, thankfully.

Happy New Year!

Here's the first sunrise of 2009:




The sun in my window woke me up at a much earlier time than I would have preferred, but it made for more morning knitting time.

The Sun Has Risen

Have a glorious day, Everyone!

(Sunrise viewed from my backyard, December 25th, 2008)

It's December the What?!?

I hope everyone is safe, healthy & happy this Holiday Season!

Fall Folliage For Friday

The latest batch of wind & rain has taken a toll on our Fall colors, but here are a few pictures from earlier this month.

Friday Fall Folliage

The late afternoon weather was so nice yesterday that I decided to re-use an idea from an earlier October post.

The Main Event (a.k.a. Part 3)

Because I order the book & event tickets over the phone, I walked down the hill from The Studio at 6 p.m. to pick up my book & my tickets early. Here are pictures of the growing crowd, at 6:15, 6:30, & almost 7:00




I wore my Icarus shawl to this book signing, since no one in Kansas City would have seen it before. The hand-dyer of this yarn, Rachel of Dyeabolical, now has her own website for her roving & yarn.

(Excuse the blurry photo -- lack of experience modelling, plus Knitters have trouble keeping their hands still anyway.)




I first encountered Stephanie Pearl-McPhee when she visited St. Louis in 2006. At the time, I'd only recently picked the needles back up, & had yet to read any knit bloggers or knitting books, so the sock photo thing was new to me then. This time, I had a much better idea of what was going on. (Stash = yarn, for one thing. Not my first thought a couple years ago.)

The view from the other side of the sock, & perspective from the other side of the podium, can be found here, as if you didn't know that already.

Stephanie was her usual witty self. We all listened, & laughed, & knit. I haven't laughed so much in ages. My knitting may not care how loud I laugh, but I hope I didn't disturb anyone around me. They were laughing as well, so hopefully not.


In between the laughter, it was amazing how quiet the crowd became at more serious moments. There was a perfect blend of insightful in between the amusing.

It was great to be part of crowd where it was the most normal thing in the world for everyone's hands to be busy, & it was taken for granted that knitting adds to concentration, rather than knitting taking anything away from the experience.


We all kept knitting while waiting to wait in line. (I forgot to ask the bookstore folks if any of their other crowds for author signings were as patient as ours was.) I briefly considered counting a four hour drive as a special circumstance worth "pre-boarding", but decided against it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I was having too much fun to cut the evening short. Besides, continueing to knit & wait meant that I got to see Delores On the Fibertarian Tour.

All in all, it was a wonderful evening, & well worth the drive from St. Louis.

The Event Before the Event. (a.k.a. Part 2)

A few blocks up the hill from Unity Temple is The Studio Knitting & Needlepoint store. Yesterday they had a Yarn Harlot Pre-party event. (Ravelry link.) They had a buffet of snack foods out, along with apple cider, which was a welcome refreshment after the long drive.

I'm always up for visiting new yarn stores, & yesterday was no exception. I found some gorgeous locally dyed yarn, which always makes the best souvenir yarn. In what has become a tradition, I also found another Dale of Norway pattern book, different from the one I bought at Nana's Knitting Shop on my Oak Lawn trip.

Road Trip (a.k.a. Part 1)

The drive yesterday went very well. The sky stayed overcast & did not really rain on us until we were almost to Kansas City. The best thing about it, though, was that my dad agreed to do most of the driving. That gave me a chance to knit & to take pictures.



The rain never got very heavy, & there were not the threatened thunderstorms. It was fine weather for travelling, thank goodness.

I'll post a full report later. For now, though, I think I need to go back to sleep. We pushed on through & made it home at 2:30 in the morning, but I'm not so much of a night owl as I used to be.

Happy Birthday to Me.

My mother managed to surprise me yesterday with a knitting book that I didn't yet own, Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified.



Today I'm using my birthday money to travel to see a certain someone whom I missed in Chicago.

Strange Folk, Part 2

(Otherwise known as, The Post With The Loot.)

Finally there is time to finish up the post I started last week about the Strange Folk Festival.

Since Rachel had a booth there, I decided to wear my Icarus Shawl & my African Grey socks in honor of the occasion, to show off how her yarn knits up. I should have asked my husband to take a picture of me all decked out, but I forgot. I did at least think to get a picture of my socks later on that day.


I had several people comment on my shawl, & I pointed them all in the direction of the Dyeabolical Yarns booth.

Rachel's husband was there too, making good use of his time by spindle spinning.


I had to buy some yarn, of course. I bought DK weight in "Blue Beetle" & fingering weight in "Christmas is Coming". (Her yarn is available at Knitorious or on etsy.)
The first 100 people at the Festival got free Strange Folk bags, but I narrowly missed getting there in time for that. They did still have some extra goodies if you bought a bag, though, so I got a free copy of Craft magazine along with my $3 totebag.

I also bought some project bags from Pretty Fun. I love the little gnomes on the ribbon -- very "in theme" for the Festival. This bag will always remind me of a gorgeous September Saturday.

Lastly, I bought some cloth baggies from Gnomeclothes. They are fabric versions of the old-fashioned, pre-ziploc plastic sandwich bags, & are the perfect size to hold a cake of yarn.

Strange Folk, Part 1

Instead of Saturday Sky, here is Saturday Strange Folk. These are some pictures to show the general feel of the event. I hope to find time to follow up with a more detailed post later.





A couple of different farms brought Alpacas. It was my first time seeing them "live" up close & personal.

Quick Post

No Saturday Sky pictures yet. My husband & I are going to the Strange Folk Festival this morning, so hopefully I will bring back pictures from there.

This week has been nearly as busy as last week, but I have managed to squeeze in a bit of knitting. There are no new finished objects to show for it, however. I did manage to finish the gusset on my January Socks (Ravelry link) that I started much earlier this year. They are in Sheepaints yarn from the Loopy Ewe in the January colorway.

I may or may not manage another post with pictures later on this weekend, so I wanted to post a quick update while I had the chance.

Saturday Sky, June 28th 2008

There was no Saturday Sky post last week for several reasons, not the least of which is that I didn't take any pictures that day.

I was disappointed that I wasn't able to make it back up to Oak Lawn for the Yarn Harlot's rescheduled visit. I sent an email to Nana's Knitting Shop to let them know to give my tickets to someone else who would be able to make the trip.

However, not travelling to Chicago last weekend meant that I was finally able to make it to the St. Louis Knitting Guild's summer potluck. That was a lot of fun, so at least I had a yarny weekend, even though I wasn't travelling.





Here is my Saturday Sky picture for the last Saturday of June, 2008, plus bonus pictures of some goslings. These are the first goslings I've seen this year, which is unusual for this area.