Blizzard Warnings

The weather man on our local TV station boasts proudly, from time to time, about being 71 years old.  Last night he stated that never in all his years had he ever  heard of a 'blizzard' warning.  Storm warnings, flood warnings, wind, rain and snow warnings - yes.  But never a blizzard warning.   
That makes our current weather  an event of  a lifetime. 

We have temperatures of minus 20 Celsius.  We have a wind chill factor of minus 35.  We have warnings of exposed skin freezing within minutes. Every road in 4 counties is closed.  On the radio the list of closures was so long the announcer took a break (probably a bathroom break)  and directed listeners to get the rest of the list from the website.  The closure list included many firsts for my ears:  The mall, a funeral home with a funeral cancelled  (that makes for a great  family  story) Canadian Tire, hospitals, schools and stores. 

What we do have, amazingly enough, is hydro.  Not once over this long  season of storms have we lost hydro.  And so,  we are warm.  Today, I am baking

 knitting

and weather watching.

Not a bad day for me at all.  For all others, stay warm.

The New Year Has Begun

2014!   How the heck did that happen?  It has come way too soon.  But since the new year is here, it is definitely time to review, renew, re-do  - and could I perhaps rewrite? -  the chapter that was 2013. 

My knitting, last year, suffered from a lack of inspiration completion on my part.  Many circumstances conspired to keep me from my needles. Partly, the pitifully low amount of knitting was due to  time spent with my Dad.  Partly it was time spent away from home on vacation, and partly it was good old laziness.  That makes goal number one for 2014 an obvious one;  Knit more.  Finish more.

To do that, I need goal # 2.  Get inspired.  And to do that, I turn to goal #3.  Go back to Elizabeth Zimmermann.  Going backwards to go forwards, it might seem.  But I think it will work.  I have three unfinished sweaters on my shelf right now. Patterns and designs from un-Elizabeth sources.  They are not working out.  They are not pleasing me.  They are not inspiring me.  They are not likely to get finished any time soon.  So back to basics for 2014.  

Stick with what Elizabeth has taught me.  Perhaps make her designs more my own, by adding what I think   makes the piece more a garment 'du jour', but the basics will be Elizabeth's.

To make matters worse, my lack of output seems magnified because sometime during 2013, the section of blogger that allows me  (well -  not me at the moment) to  upload data regarding finished objects, has failed to work for me.  Reading my list of FOs for 2013, you will see nothing has been posted there for months.  Goal #5 - fix that problem.

Thinking about it, I expect 2014 to be a great year.  More of the same, same which will be great. But also more of the different, different. The different, different  should enhance the same, same and won't that be great? 

Happy New Year and a wonderful year of yarny loveliness to you all.

Thursdays Are For knit Group

Today's theme was 'warm'.  That is - keeping warm,  despite the temperature  of minus 19   that accompanied me on my drive to the library for today's first knit group of 2014.  Lucky for us, we are knitters and we  like wool.

Wilma was warm, wearing her Nimbus.

 

Knit with bulky Peruvia Quick, it is not a 'new' knit but a great warm piece to wear on a day like today.  On her needles is this cute and colourful baby cardigan from the Baby 'V' book.

Sharon wore her freshly-finished Wingspan. 

 

A warm layer of wool across her shoulders. 

Nan explains to Gail that she designed and knit two lovely cowls.

 

Picot edging and great stranded knitting. 

A very pretty way to keep winter's  winds from blowing down the front of your coat.

Megan is working on  a crocheted baby blanket. 

Megan is not expecting, nor is she expecting to be expecting.  This is for the baby shower box.  For the non-knitters amongst you, a baby shower box is a box filled with hand knit baby items.  You know,  for times when the  number of days between invitation and shower don't allow as many hours as a  knitter needs.

And who knew that keeping warm in our hand knits could produce so much humour.  But Jean's hat had us all laughing.    When she laid it on the table,

 

 I thought she had completed another baby sweater.  Albeit one  with a very, narrow, neck opening and strangely-shaped sleeves.  Before I could meniton these pecularities, Jean  put the sweater  hat on her head.  She modelled it with  sleeves to the front,

to the side

and tied up

- her preferred style. 

The room was warm, we fingered wool for a couple of hours and we laughed.   A great way to start the year.