Blizzard

This is what our street looked like a few days ago. It was a winter wonderland of frost and a bit of sun trying to peek through. A really nice winter day.

















Today is another story. A real honest to goodness blizzard. One where you can't see out of your yard at times. And that is saying something when you live in town. It must be impossible to see at all in the country where there isn't anything to block the wind and snow.

















The drifts behind the house are growing and changing. And the mini drifts in the garage show just where the doors don't fit as tight as we thought!

I enjoy a good blizzard when everyone is safe and there aren't any power outages. It's Mother Nature's way of slowing things down....

It also gives you time to think of places to go, to get away from this kind of weather! ;)

Click to embiggen the pictures. They aren't that blurry. It's the weather!

Something finished, something started, and a naughty kitty

1st DDIL's scarf is finished. It is a Christmas gift I'm embarrassed to say but I'm doing a Happy Dance that it's finally done! The pattern is Lavender Lace Neckwarmer. I made it scarf length because that is what 1st DDIL wanted. It is from the Knit 'N Style magazine. February 2010. I used size 7 Harmony circular needle.



It is not hot pink. It is dark red. I don't even try for the right color when it's red and the winter weather is set at grey. This was even done under my Ott light. Go figure.





This is the water after I washed it in Soak. Not too bad for fading. Not as much as I expected. And this color is accurate.





This is the 2nd rinse and I only did one more. It seemed good enough. This color is also right.





Here it is blocked and drying. If I get an interesting picture of it after it's dry I'll post again. I'm not holding my breath.


Here's what I think of the yarn. It's 70% mink and 30% cashmere and from Great Northern Yarns. When I got it I was surprised by the feel of it. I expected slippery soft like fur but it had more of a cottony feel. Soft yarn but with a different feel to it than I expected. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't knit like cotton. My hands never ached once while I was working with it. It has a nice fuzz to it and I haven't seen any pilling. As you can see by the pictures it did a bit of bleeding but nothing that was extraordinary. In the 5 skeins of yarn I got there was 1 knot. I don't think this is too bad, although I'd like to buy yarn that never has knots. Unless something shows up with wearing, I like the yarn and it's fun to give a gift that is very different from the average because the yarn is exotic. Or I think so at least! :)




And so I turned right around and started DH's scarf from the same yarn. Just a different color!





And now to show you Teddy. Doesn't he look sweet and innocent? Just sleeping like any normal cat.




Well, I'd be sleeping too if I'd done all this damage in a matter of a few minutes! Yes. He tipped the chair. Yes. He flipped the rug. And yes. He moved the cardboard box off the couch and across the floor in an attempt to get to the tissue paper inside.

Naughty kitty!

Ramblin' ramblin' ramblin'

Many have written very comtemplative new year's posts on their blogs. But I've never gotten into the making resolutions, fresh start deal of new years. It's just another day in my life. No better. No worse. No more special. In my opinion, if you want a fresh start you can do it any day of the year. Doesn't have to be new years day. So whatever works for you is good but this is what works for me.

I've done a few things in the new year though.


I finished a pair of socks that I started about a year ago. Isn't that sad? But they are finally done. That's the main thing.

I've been working on the pile of papers that just seem to keep growing on my desk at work. It's going to be a long month I'm afraid. The computer is telling me to send out 1099s and I don't even have the forms yet. Uff!

I donated blood yesterday. I got my 2 gallon pin! That's a fair amount of blood if I do say so myself! :) The story about what got me started donating blood is this....Years ago my dad had surgery for colon cancer and started bleeding during the surgery. If I remember correctly they gave him 3 units of blood that day. If someone hadn't donated and that blood wasn't available he probably wouldn't have made it through the surgery. So I'm paying it back and maybe by this time I'm paying it forward too! Oh, and he came through that surgery fine and never needed chemo or anything. He passed away years and years later from old age.


And to end my post I'm giving you a look at our backyard again. Plenty of snow and today it's cold and windy. High temp of -12 with a wind chill advisory that it could be as low as -40 wind chill.

I'm going now to find my CuddleDuds.