Quiddity

I Can Has Furz?

The barn cat where I take my riding lessons is a real sweetie.  Toots always comes to say hello, and loves any attention you give her.  She also has the thickest, softest fur.  Or should I say "had."  A few weeks ago, as she was sitting on my lap, I thought perhaps I should bring something to comb the mats out of her coat.  Turns out, she needed a LOT more than that.  Behold.

This is more than a week after she got trimmed!  Poor thing, I think she's a bit cold.  I know she's definitely embarrassed.

Saturday Excitement

While it was nothing in comparison to what the people in Fargo are going through, the excessive rain that fell at the end of last week made for an interesting Saturday around here.

For an area suffering under prolonged drought, we've surely had a lot of rain lately.  Last Wednesday wasn't too bad, but it picked up on Thursday and Friday.  On Saturday, it was torrential all morning.  Around noon, it began to let up, and there was hope that the forecasted clearing was about to begin (even though it never did - phooey!)  Just as I was finishing a very late breakfast, there was a big blue flash and the power went off.  I thought maybe lightning had taken out a transformer, but Jim was already running for the front door calling out that a big tree had come down.  Turns out, he was right.

I'm standing on my front steps, so you can see how close it was.  In fact, the tree belonged to our next door neighbor.  I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but the tree missed the house, and even the tall fence, hanging up instead on the power lines.  Here's a closer view.

The main power line snapped in half, landing in the driveway across the street from us, flinging sparks as it went down.  Our drop line was pulled right away from the house, and lay across the front lawn.  

The tree that fell is one of the hundreds that line our street. "Victory Oaks" that were planted after World War I, they are big, beautiful, and unfortunately mostly dying.  That neighbor has another, bigger, one that we are worried about, as does the neighbor across the street.  We have two in front of our house, and while they look ok, we are going to have the city come out and look at them very soon.

The fire department arrived promptly, blocking off both ends of the street, as well as the side street that intersects, until they could make sure the power was completely off.  Hey Regan, look - firemen!

One thing about an incident like this, you get to meet your neighbors!  People came from all over the neighborhood to watch the goings-on.  And there was a lot to watch - tree cutting, car extrication, power company employees with cool equipment.  Very exciting.   Amazingly enough, the car had minimal damage.  A front window was knocked out, and there was a bit of slight denting on the top, but otherwise it's fine.  (I think the guy should definitely buy a lottery ticket - his luck was with him that day!)  The power company cut away the smaller limbs, he let all the air out of the tires, and they put a cable around the limb across the top.  A slight lift, and he drove it away.  Very clever. 

After watching them get ready to cut the tree, and talking with neighbors, it was about 3:00 and we decided it was time for something to eat.  Just as we were leaving, Jim remembered something important - the sump pump in the basement.  Our basement is mostly a crawl space, but enough has been dug out and cemented to hold our furnace and water heater.  There's a hole in the floor for the sump, and because of all the rain, it was filling up fast.  In fact, it had overflowed and the appliances were in danger.  Our only option was an emergency run to Lowe's to buy an (exceedingly expensive) generator.  We didn't know when the power would be reconnected, but it didn't matter because we had to stop that water!  Fortunately, we got it going just in time, and all was well.  We even ran a cord to the front porch so we could charge our cell phones and computers.

By this time, having still not eaten we were ready for dinner, so we walked into town (in the drizzle.)  When we returned about 9:00, the power company was still working.  They had told us that if our meter had been damaged, we'd have to call an electrician to fix it and then call them back to rehook the line, which I knew could take a couple of days, which would have been not such a good outcome.  But not long after we got home, they were hooking us to the pole, and at 10:30 we had light!  Hooray!  I may complain about my monthly electric bills, but have to say those guys were good.  

While today was sunny and 70, it's going to turn cool and rain again tomorrow.  And Wednesday.  And Thursday.  I sure hope the trees stay put!

(Almost) All the Details

Usually, when I go on vacation, I take lots and lots of photos, mostly of things like flowers, plants, mountains, and strange animals.  This time, I came home with a grand total of eight pictures, three of which were blurry.  That's what practically non-stop shopping will do to you!

I was in Arizona to visit my Aunt Karyl and her family.  She and my Uncle Jim have three daughters.  Those three daughters each have a husband, and that of course leads to their children and their children's children. I didn't see all the offspring, but did get to visit with all three of my cousins - even poor Sandy who was in the hospital with a bad bout of pneumonia.  But mostly, it was me, Karyl, and Kim out doing our best to stimulate the economy.  Here they are under a fine example of the Arizona state tree.

Over the three full days I was there, we hit two yarn shops, two quilt stores, and various other gift-type emporiums.  Our first stop was Knit Happens, in Scottsdale.  I took several photos, but this is the only non-blurry one (check out their blog for a much better view.)

This bright, cheerful store was loaded with brands of yarn I'd never heard of before, along with many I had.  Choosing something was difficult, but I stuck to my task and came out with 4 skeins of Wisdom Yarns "Ballad" in a beautiful bright turquoise; 4 skeins of Dale Baby Ull in a soft steel gray; 1 skein of Alpaca with a Twist "Socrates" in 'Jennifer's Yellow'; and 1 skein of Filatura di Crosa "Superior" in a soft pink.  The Ballad is waiting for me to decide what it will be, and of course the Socrates will become another pair of socks for me.  But the other two items will both be turned into gifts.  I can't wait to get started!  (You most likely have noticed that there are links instead of photos.  This is because I didn't take any.  Sorry.)

Our next stop was the biggest quilt store I've ever seen - Quiltz.  While I didn't take any pictures of the huge pile of fabrics I bought, I did take some of the store.  However, they seem to have disappeared somewhere.  I didn't take any of the things I bought.  Suffice it to say that I'm good to go when I get ready to start making more bags.  Cute, cute stuff!

The next time we went out, we stopped at a smaller quilt shop - 3 Dudes Quilting.  But this didn't mean they were lacking in things to bring home - I got another nice (non-photographed) pile.  In addition to a fabulous selection of fabrics, the 3 Dudes also had homemade cookies on hand to tempt us.  We met two of the 3 Dudes, and found them both friendly, funny, and extremely helpful.  My cousin says this may very well be her new favorite quilt store.  (She is an extremely talented quilter!)

We spent a nice afternoon in Old Scottsdale, and found some interesting things to buy, even though the place has become overrun with tacky "Native American" jewelry stores.  But my favorite place was the Sugar Bowl Ice Cream Parlor - mmmmm, banana split!  

The last stop for this trip was at the tiny, but fully packed, Arizona Knitting & Needlepoint shop.  One skein of Mountain Colors "Bearfoot" in the Harmony Lake colorway came home with me.  (Sadly, again, no picture.) 

So ended the shopping.  In between, it was wonderful to be able to spend time with Karyl, Kim and the rest of their families, shopping, knitting, sharing meals, talking and laughing.  The days flew by, and all too soon it was time to come home.   I did manage to take one picture of a plant we do not have here in Georgia - this pretty pink oleander from my aunt's front yard.

Oh, and one other thing I have a picture of is the pair of socks I finished on the airplane coming home.

• Waffle Rib Socks from "Sensational Knitted Socks."
• Three Waters Farm handpainted fingering weight in the "Wildberry" colorway.   This yarn was a gift from my friend Greta.  I love the colors, and really enjoyed knitting with this new to me yarn.  I'm hoping they'll be coming to Stitches South, and if not, that I'll see them at SAFF again this year, because I really want some more.  Thanks, Greta! 

Now, as far as I know, I'm home until the beginning of June, when I'll be going to the John C. Campbell Folk School with Claudia.  In the meantime, I'll try to take some pictures.  All these links are making me a bit crazy! 

Arizona!

Wow, you people are good - LOTS of you guessed the right place!  Or maybe my clues were too easy, but either way, thanks to everyone who stopped by and entered.    Thanks, too, for all the nice congratulations on my Blogiversary.  I'm glad to be here and happy to have "met" everyone.

I had a really nice time with my aunt and cousin.  We hit two yarn shops, two quilting stores, as well as random gift-type shops.  I've been lazy since getting home, so photos of my adventures will have to wait (I'll try to get my purchases photographed tomorrow.)  In the meantime, I suppose you would like to know who won the contest.  Here's how I figured it out.

First, I made a list of all the correct answers, and then used the random sequence generator to provide the winning number.  That turned out to belong to - Kitten With A Whiplash.  She will be receiving the bag, calendar, and yarn.

But I couldn't leave it at that, so I made another list of all the other commenters and rolled the virtual dice again.  This time, it was Lynn who came up the winner.  Because I've yet to dig through the stash for the perfect prize, and because I happen to know she loves cross stitching, I'm leaving it up to her to decide if she'd like to me unearth a skein of yarn or would rather have something from my cross stitch stash. 

Thanks again for playing along.  Oh, and for all you Tucson people, I'm sorry to say I was actually a lot closer to Phoenix.  

St. Patrick's Day

Which also happens to be my FIFTH Blogiversary!  Hard to believe I've been doing this for five years.  Over those years, I've made so many friends, both those I've met in person and those I know only virtually.  You have all enriched my life, broadened my knitting horizons, and swelled my stash.  While many of us have been sucked into the black hole that is Ravelry, Blogland is still my favorite place to visit every day.  Thank you for being there for me all these years, and I look forward to what lies ahead.

Although this post appears to be a current entry, it was written several days ago from the comfort of my living room easy chair.  Right now, I'm visiting relatives in a place far from home.  And therein lies the cornerstone of my Fifth Blogiversary Contest.  All you have to do is leave a guess in the comments as to where I am and you could be the winner of these fabulous prizes:

• Schaefer Anne sock yarn.
• Sock bag to hold the yarn  
• Calendar to keep track of how long it takes you to knit socks from the yarn 

 And see - green for St Paddy's Day, too!  

Because I want to make this contest a bit easier I'll throw in a couple of hints about where I am.

1. It's a four hour plane ride from Atlanta
2. It's in the continental United States 
3. It's a lot hotter than it is at home 
4. There is unusual (to me) vegetation 
5. There is also some unusual (to me) animal life  

If more than one person guesses the location (and since I've given you the clue that it's in the U.S., the guess need only be what State) the random number generator will pick the winner.  (And some of you already know where I am, but you can enter, too.  Just say hi, or have a nice trip - but DON'T give it away!)  I'll be gone until Friday night, so leave your comment by midnight (EST) of the 20th.  Good luck!  And have a fun St. Patrick's Day, too.

I'm Still Here

I haven't really fallen off the face of the planet, although it's seemed like that at times lately.  After a flurry of finished projects and subsequent posts, you have likely noticed the blog silence.  It's not that there hasn't been knitting, it's just that I've been working on a project that sucked up almost all of my free time for the last ten days.

Said project is now finished, but it's lace, and you know that doesn't look like anything but a mass of string until blocked.  And it isn't blocked.  But I'll give you a hint - look here.  For those of you not on Ravelry, it's the Halloween Mystery Shawl from Goddess Knits.  (I don't think it's up on her site now, though, because it will soon be released for sale.)  I loved knitting it, and can't wait to wear it.  Hopefully, that will be next week while I'm on vacation.  Yes, that's right, I'm out of here once again.

This time, I'm heading to - oh, wait, I'm not going to tell you.  And the reason I'm not saying is that next week will be my Blogiversary, and of course, there will be a contest!  So come back on Tuesday (which also happens to be St. Patrick's Day) for all the details, as well as a photo of the swell prizes.  Here's a hint.

Ah, but perhaps there's even more!  Have a great weekend!

Oh Baby!

Considering that I don't have any young children or grandchildren, there certainly has been a lot of baby knitting going on around here lately.  And more is planned, too.  My cousin's daughter is having a little boy this Spring, and I have a few things planned for his arrival.  First up, a Baby Surprise Jacket.

• Socks That Rock Mediumweight - "Bella Coola" colorway.  This slightly heavier than fingering weight yarn is perfect for a baby sweater.  Soft, machine washable, and just the right color.

It seems I can always find just the right buttons at Knitch, and this time was no exception.  

These pretty little dyed shell buttons were the first thing I saw and they were perfect!  Thanks to Steve for spotting them for me.  

Almost nothing is faster to knit then mittens, and when they are kid-size, they go even quicker.  These will be in the mail to my niece tomorrow.

• The yarn is Louet Gems 100% superwash merino, a light worsted weight.  The mitten pattern is from Knitting for Peace, and the flap part is adapted from the ones I made for myself a few weeks ago.  I love this yarn.  Very soft and just a joy to knit with.
• I used the technique here for stationary jogless jogs.  It works really well, except I think I pulled the yarn a bit too hard on the transition round, thus skewing the mittens a bit to the side. But when the mittens are worn, it isn't noticeable, so it's all good.  I sure hope they fit!   

 Thanks to freezing overnight temperatures and lots of shaded areas around the house, there are still patches of snow on our lawn.  I also saw some as I drove around town today. It's quite interesting to see the snow and just a few feet away, blooming trees.  It is supposed to be 77 here on Sunday, so that should take care of any remaining white stuff.  I'll miss it, but have to say I'm more than ready for Spring to take hold completely.  Except for all that sneezy, runny nose allergy stuff.  Ahhhh-CHOO!

 

I Was Suctioned Down the YouTube

I don't usually go trolling YouTube for videos, but these two crossed my path today, and both made me laugh.

First, Frostie the dancing cockatoo

 

And then, there is the cockatoo who really told his owner off.  (Sorry, they didn't allow a direct link.)

Hope these make you smile.  Back soon with finished knitting.

A Whole New Day

As often happens, after gray, snowy skies yesterday, today is bright and clear, with not a cloud to be seen.  It was extremely cold and windy this morning, not to mention icy, so I was happy to stay home until it warmed up a bit.  The temperature went up a bit before sunset yesterday, and everything that melted turned to ice.  Fortunately, most of the major roads were quickly in good shape, but our driveway stayed icy until well after noon.  

The first thing I saw this morning was some icicles hanging from the gutter outside the bedroom window.  The sun was far enough up to have already started melting them, and I loved how the light shown through the ice.

After breakfast, I dressed and walked around the yard (narrowly averting broken bones from the icy driveway.)  There was (and still is) plenty of snow on the lawn and some of the bushes.  In fact, the kids across the street, having depleted their share of snow, came over this afternoon for a snowball fight on my back lawn.  Anyway, here's some pictures I took this morning.

See - plenty of snow left for throwing!  I should have built a snowman yesterday.  

This last Saturday was the monthly meeting of the Peachtree Handspinners Guild.  It's always fun to sit and spin with friends, but this time the program was a quick lesson on how to knit top down sweaters, presented by Leslie Bronson.  She provided us with a handout that included directions for making different sizes of top down sweaters, and while we knit, gave the basic idea behind this type of sweater.  There were also lots of knitted sweaters for inspiration.  I used some Lion Wool and size 7 dpns to create this.

It was fun working on this small scale, and I quickly "got" the idea behind the way the increases work.  This exercise made me wish I could immediately cast on for a top down cardi for myself.  But other things must be finished first - primarily my niece's mittens.

My final note here is intended for Ms. Hockeymom.  

Dear Hockeymom.  I'm holding your property for ransom. Until the return of my valuable, and possibly antique, aluminum stitch holder, THIS will remain hidden away among my knitting notions.  You have been warned.  (snort)

Big, Fat, WET Snowflakes!

It doesn't snow very often here.  In fact, I can't remember the last time we had significant snowfall.  Last February, there was a dusting that was gone within a couple of hours, but that was it.  However, today made up for the lack in other years.  It started as rain, but by 11:00 snow began to come down fast and heavy.  The flakes were huge and full of water, and absolutely lovely.  It kept up almost without stop or slacking until about 6:00.  Twice there were thunderclaps and flashes of lightening - a rare occurrence of "thundersnow." 

I went to Knitch for the usual Sunday knitting group, and was joined by five other brave souls, in addition to all the usual Sunday workers.  We loved seeing the flakes falling outside the second story windows while we knit and drank hot chocolate (with marshmallows and whipped cream!)  While I was there, Jim took a walk into town and around the Agnes Scott College campus.  He took a lot of pretty pictures, but these two are my favorites.  The first is the new interfaith chapel, which was dedicated at the end of last school year.

Of course, some of the students had to come out for fun in the snow.  I guarantee it was cold, even though one of the young ladies didn't seem to think so.

I got home about 3:00, and we took a long walk around the block.  You'll probably notice the wet spots on some of my pictures where the lens took a direct hit from the snowflakes.

Our house.

A branch of crepe myrtle in the backyard.

Ever optimistic, Jim thought he might be able to sled down the hill, but it was too slushy.

I love when the snow settles on the trees.

While it hasn't been too warm yet, some flowers have started to show off their blossoms.  I think they'll recover, but it's always hard to see them covered in snow.

Overall, I think we got about 3" to 5" in our yard.  The streets remained just slush, and the fear now is that they won't dry before the temperatures dip into the 20's tonight.  Atlanta drivers aren't known for their skill when it comes to driving on snow, and ice is just that much worse.  Of course, all our hills and curvy streets don't help.  There are lots of trees and branches down, but at least around here, they didn't cause any trouble.  We were without TV for a short time as our satellite dish was filled with snow, but right at sunset the snow stopped, and we got just enough sunlight through the trees to melt it away.  I'm supposed to go riding tomorrow morning, but I believe the area south of here got even more snow than we did, so most likely that will get cancelled.  I know the schools in that county have already cancelled classes.  But here in Atlanta, the streets should be clear by noon.  That's the way it usually is - beautiful snow that lasts only a few hours.  

While watching the snow at Knitch, I finished knitting a Baby Surprise Jacket that will be a gift for a family member's new baby.  The seaming still needs to be done, and then I'll post a picture.  And while I didn't finish anything on my trip to California last week, the socks I took along were finished the day after we arrived home.

• Embossed Stitch Socks from More Sensational Knitted Socks.
• The yarn is my favorite - Numma Numma Toasty, in the "Pumpkin Butter" colorway.  Yummy!  

Tomorrow, I'll be starting my niece's mittens.  And then maybe I can finally finish the lace shawl that's been languishing for too long.  

As the week progresses, the temperature is supposed to rise, so that by the end of the week we'll be having 70's.  I enjoyed our brief, pretty snow, but I'm definitely ready for Spring!