I think it might be the fourth year?

EDITED TO ADD: Contest deadline 6 pm Friday, April 1.

Guess when this humongous snowpile will melt!

Photos from March 3. It has melted a bit since then, but then snowed more, and it’s been cold again. So it looks about the same.

Leave a comment in this post with the date that you think this pile will be all gone.

Two winners: (1) randomly drawn from the entries and (2) the person who guesses closest to the actual totally gone date. If two people guess the same date, I’ll flip a coin. If two people are equally off on the date, I’ll take the one who was closest but not over.

Prizes: Your choice of

• 
  selmalala sock yarn
• 
  meilenweit sock yarn
• 
  4 ounces corriedale, “mandy”
• 
  your choice of a dp or circular needle case
• $25 donation to your favorite human rights, child advocacy, or animal welfare organization. Something along the lines of: MSF/Doctors Without Borders; Amnesty International;York Center for Wildlife; Heifer International…You get the idea

Hints: scout around in the archives…

We still have a fair amount of snow

My neighbor across the street has crocus and snowdrops in front of the house. Here’s where our crocus grow (left) and scilla (right):

These photos are from last week… I’d say there’s almost no snow now where the scilla should be, and about 8 inches where the crocus come up. That blip of blue in the photo is the top of a 12 inch ruler.

The front yard:

(again, last Friday… I meant to write this post last week, and have been lazy about taking new pictures)

a new decade

Perhaps I’m lazy because last Saturday I turned 50. Rather quietly… Had a lovely dinner, co-workers took me out for lunch on Thursday, there’s a great massage coming, received some sparkly baubles for my ears and hand made chocolate, and a friend brought tulips…


They were such a bright note of spring in this otherwise snowy landscape that I kept them around past their time… for the past few mornings I thought “I should toss those”, but then the morning sun would shine through them and the color was still lovely.


supah?

The next night went to Reid State Park to see the “super moon”… clearly a small handheld point and shoot without a tripod is not the way to capture a beautiful image. But it was a great time! And a lot of people came

(can ya feel the power of the waves???)

And here, some video…

Two moons!


I am rather amazed that over 200 people looked at that last one… these really are just silly…

knitting

and unknitting and reknitting and unknitting…

Third start, and then ripped it all out…

Was missing a purl row at the start of the stockinette section… and it was too short (after thinking that before it was too long)…

black and white boys


Sid, sporting a fancy new haircut

And Seamus, that Canoeing Cat, soaking in a bit of heat…

This is entirely for Molly Bee. OK, and for anybody else who wants to see the girls.

Gracie is frequently called Gravy… I’m growing her hair out, with the intention for a harvest… (shhh, don’t tell her too loudly).

But that Zuzu. Yikes, she can be a mess. I went after her the other day with the scissors… got her all underneath, most of her legs, and a bit on the lower sides and her face. She looks silly. But she doesn’t care… She is the most even, settled creature. Even if she has that border collie thing going on. Not so much Ms Gravy, who is a silly poodley creature. But she runs faster than Zuzu, and can turn mid-air, even if she isn’t as intense with the ball… she’ll often get there first. They look about the same size in these pictures, but Gravy’s smaller.

Gravy: Oh yes, here I am. Zuzu (in the background): The Ball. THE BALL.

Gravy: I’m here. I’m looking over there. Zuzu: The Ball. THE BALL.

Zuzu: UM, THE BALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gracie: Look! I can put my foot up too ya know. And I can get the ball.

Zuzu: WHAT? Do you NOT see me pointing to the ball? LOOKING AT THE BALL. THE BALL THE BALL THE BALL.

Gravy: I got it I got it! Zuzu: Dammit

Gravy: Oh, LOOK! I can LOOK at the ball TOO! Oh wait! What was that? Mama’s got the ball in the air! Oh! Oh! Oh!

Zuzu: Yes, I see you have that ball in the air. NOW THROW IT!!!!!!! … Don’t you see where I PUT IT????

Gracie’s hair is at least 4-5 inches long, maybe more… and very soft!

OK, stretching here…

This is not one but two finished things… the oven was cleaned this morning, and I made a big batch of granola to ship off to my mom.

And today there was a pot of beef stew. And yesterday a mini Georgian Feast (thus the reason for cleaning the oven…). Only the chickens, melon and salsa, beet puree, and fancy schmancy green beans, with homemade seedy bread from my incredible baker friend. And wine. Of course.

But I did get the buttons on the Wisp (Ravelry details here).

Am I someplace exotic? Oh yeah… Back side of the Old Federal Building/aka Downtown Post Office. We walked down there to see if the ice had moved off the river yet… not, but it looks slushy. Now I just need to figure out the many cool ways to wear this wispy thing… It IS warm and light and soft! And how to not look like I am a football player.

Before work this morning I blocked out my most recent FO, Wisp. It didn’t fit on the giant piece of insulating foam I use, or the board, so it’s up on the bed in a room we close off. I think I will put the buttons on it, so I can wear it all sorts of ways.

hanging unblocked, and blocking… I’ll take more photos when it’s done. It took way longer to pin than I thought, and after about 15 minutes I thought, wires would be good. Oh right, I have those… but then it was too late. And so was I, late to work that is.

Sometime late last spring I started spinning this wool, thinking I would coil ply it. And then in the summer I tried a few times, and mostly ended up swearing and ripping things up. My wheel has sat lonesome and unattended since then. So I figured I’d just ply the two bobbins and move on. And then I thought, why ply? And then I thought, this is some energized yarn… gotta do something.

The smaller (315 yards) of the two skeins… the other (350 yds) was already in the hot water when I thought, I should take some pictures. I fulled these… hot water, scrubbed, cold water, back in the hot water and scrubbed more, back in the cold, and then into the dryer for 15 minutes or so.

Kinda crazy…

They were wrapped on the same niddy-noddy, but one clearly shrunk up and twisted more than the other… Not sure what they’ll become, but something that wants lots of crazy twistiness or coily-ness (clearly these aren’t real words). Maybe something open. The one looks almost boucle-ish. Anybody ever knit with singles like these? I’m wondering if it was knit open and lacy if it would twist much, since the yarn is already twisty.

Right in my colorway, eh? Colors of mud. No, really, this one is the color “Estuary” from Spunky. Before he knew the name of the color, DH said, looks like mud and sand and seaweed…

Swatching for a knit skirt. Really I want a brown skirt, but I don’t have enough of that color… so I may do it in tan and then overdye. I’m also on the search in Ravelry for more of the brown.

The other thing I’m thinking about is the sweater “Reverse Me”, on the cover of this book (and scroll down for the “reverse” version).

Friday at work,

And coming soon… the snow melt contest (I figure I’ll announce it on the first day of spring). It’s a big humongous pile. Here it is Friday before it started raining…

To give you some sense of scale… in the second picture, it is snow all the way out to where the puddles are. And the two women in the second photo are standing near the trees to the left of the first photo (left of the tree coming out of Shonene’s head!).

I think about calculating the volume of the pile, but that’s just way too much work… and then there’s all that business about the snow compacting.

SPA

What spa? This spa, which is basically a weekend for knitters and spinners to just hang out. It’s been in Freeport these past few years, and before that in Portland. I’ve only gone before on Saturday, to shop, to visit, and to sit and spin. This year, however, I stayed the weekend. What a blast!

My photos leave a lot to be desired, most are a little fuzzy, but embiggen if you need…

First things first, the bedbug check! There was one bit of something on the boxspring cover, but I think it was chocolate or something like that… definitely wasn’t blood…

She who never blogs anymore observed.

Dinner at the Broad Arrow Tavern Friday night, OMG it was fabulous! (Ravelry links, Banrion, Knitmainea, and CountryElvis4)

Dianna, Kristen, Kristen’s mom (Lulupac in Ravelry), and Sara. I’ve known Dianna and Sara electronically for a few years, so it was great to meet them and spend some time with them.

Of course there was a late night visit to LL Bean…

Lunch at Gritty’s,

From the 9 o’clock seat (all ravelry links except Lucia): She who never blogs Knitmainea, Deb, Jim, Kate, Lady Che, and Lucia. And the guy who didn’t fall in the beer vat. Here’s a clearer photo in Sara’s flickr page.

There was a mystery sock that just showed up in our hotel room. It wasn’t there when we checked in. And nobody in the room recognized it. Did the housekeeping staff think our toes were cold? That we might actually like hearts? On our feet? That couldn’t be more than a child’s size little.

Didn’t buy much fiber, just enough silk hankies from Amy to make the Mawittens, which are silk mittens, knit right off the hankie, no spinning involved… a good summer project I think.

cocktail dress? me?

Well…

On the left, on the way to the pool. There’s a bathing suit under there. Later it was hanging out in the lobby of the hotel, longjohns underneath, martini in hand… Sara claims that crocheted item is a hotpad, but I say it’s a giant pastie. Fashion plate I know…

sparkly award!

From that witty wild Molly Bee!

I am such a bad blogger of late, I am shocked and surprised and thrilled that she’d think me worthy! Like all awards, there are some rules involved… I’ll try to stick to them. First is to share 7 things about myself. Like you don’t know too much already. No rules that they have to be new things, so you might know these things already…

1. I have webbed toes
2. I can speak Spanish, a little… Puedo hablar español, un poco
3. I’m listening to Afro-Peruvian music right now, which I like a lot
4. I know a little (OK, a fair amount) about mosses
5. I have petted a sea cucumber (not so exciting as what Mz Molly Bee has petted, but we have to brag about what we can, no?)
6. I am a third degree tae kwon do black belt, and even though I haven’t been practicing in a couple years, I’m still a 3rd degree black belt, and of course wicked dangerous…
7. Once, when I was about 7, I spit on my brother’s mirror, and when mom asked what happened I said nothing. Of course he got in trouble. I am so mean. And guess I have been for some time… But then again, he got me toe socks one year.

Uh-oh, and now I have to nominate 15 other bloggers… I think I have failed in the rules. I’ll be happy I could hang on to the award for a few minutes. In addition to being a bad blog writer, I haven’t kept up well with reading blogs either. That damned Ravelry and that damned Facebook keep getting in the way… no time to do it all.

So take a bow, you were nominated, you are a stylish blogger! Pass it along if you want.