shoes

Yesterday I wore my favorite store-bought sweater. It’s my favorite because, first of all, it’s a henley-style pullover and I find those very comfortable. And it’s a silk / mohair / wool blend, so it’s very warm but light-weight. And it’s bright rainbow stripes separated by black stripes. So, while colorful it’s not obnoxious. And when I bought it, it was on close-out, and marked down, and then put in the final sale rack, and I had a coupon. So a $120 sweater cost me $15. I should have bought two of them. But I digress.

Yesterday I wore my favorite store-bought sweater. As I waited for the elevator, one of my colleagues said to me, That’s a very bright sweater! It’s nice on a gray day like today.

I thanked him, and he continued, With all those colors, you could wear those with any socks and shoes you wanted! Then he looked at my feet.

Oh, he said, you did! 😆 We both chuckled all the way down in the elevator.

Did I tell you I also love my Danskos?

unburied Barry Bear

I escaped on Saturday.

I can’t begin to tell you how good it felt just to do normal things like buy groceries. But my first stop was to one of the LYS, where Cindy happened to be working. I gave her a big hug! It was so good – so good, gentle reader, to be back amongst my peeps. And I got to show Cindy my finished secret project, and she agreed that it’s pretty kick-ass. I bought some Addi Turbos in celebration.

Well, and because I really needed some shorter circs for the new secret project that I’m working. I knew I wouldn’t finish it by Christmas. But New Years? I might make it if I knit really a lot between now and then. And Christmas, you know, is coming a little late this year since everything was put on hold by the snow.

Since I have no knitting pictures I can show you, I’m giving you one last picture of Barry The Berry Bear, finally uncovered from his long winter nap. I took this on Saturday, when there was still a bit of stubborn ice and snow left to melt. It’s all gone now. The ruler is for size comparison. It’s 16″ long. In the end, the snow completely covered Barry. Not even the tip of his paw showed through. I don’t have a picture of that because, well… all you could see was snow. But, I would guess that the chez PI unofficial snow depth was right around 18″.

That’s a lot of snow.

I haven’t seen that much snow since I left SE Idaho. Although Bro, who is in SE Idaho for Christmas along with SIL and amazing niece Z, assures me that they do have a bit more snow there.

They can keep it.

P.S. The robin is still guarding the Asian pear tree. 😀

P.P.S. I made a slight change to the blog look. There are little pictures for commenters now. If you have a gravatar already, it will use it. If not, it will assign you a little face. It uses your email address in some sort of hash routine to come up with one that is uniquely yours. Comment and see what you get. The assigned pictures will only show up in the comments list under the post, but not in the sidebar. Your own gravatar will show up both places. I think the little pics are cute, but we all know I’m easily amused. Let me know what you think!

feisty robin

A very happy holidy to you, gentle reader! I hope that you are warm and safe and have your loved ones tucked in around you. I wish you peace and joy and yarny goodness.

I wanted to share with you something that has greatly entertained me over the last week or so. (I’m snowed in. I’m easily entertained, trust me.)

Do you see the little robin perched on my neighbor’s back fence? This little guy discovered the Asian pear tree when the snow first started falling. Having found what must seem like a 5-start robin restaurant, he has been guarding it from all comers, and apparently even sleeping next to it. I have watched him stand off a whole little flock of robins and other birds that had designs on his tree. At one point I heard a loud chatter and scolding and peaked out the back door to see a very surprised looking falcon perched on the fence post. I doubt that the falcon wanted Asia pears, but I’m surprised he didn’t take the robin.

I love this little guy’s feistiness and attitude. It will be interesting to see if he sticks around once the snow thaws – which should be soon!

rinnnnnggggg

Mom: hello

#1 Son: [without preamble] I need to go buy chains right after work today. Some scary $#!* happened on the way over here.

Mom: Are you OK?

#1 Son: Yes, I’m fine. But it was really scary $#!* – really scary!

Mom: I worry about you driving over the bridges.

#1 Son: The bridges were fine. No problem across the bridge. But Hawthorne is really sketch. Really scary. I’m still sort of stressed out. But slow and steady wins the race and all that. But I think I really need to get chains.

Mom: I agree! Chains would be a very good thing! Call first before you go to the store to make sure they have them in stock.

#1 Son: Good point. Did you know that they’ve declared a state of emergency here?

Mom: Yes. It’s pretty dicey out here, too. The roads around me haven’t been plowed and it’s really bad. I don’t want you coming up here if it’s like this tomorrow. It’s not worth it, even if it is Christmas. We’ll just have Christmas later.

#1 Son: You’re right. I agree.

Mom [somewhat surprised by #1 Son’s ready agreement not to come on Christmas after several previous conversations where horrible driving conditions were dismissed as not really that bad]: How about New Year’s? Are you off that day? We can just have Christmas on New Years!

#1 Son: Good idea! That sounds good. I’ll let you know about the chains. Love you!

Mom: Love you, too!

RIght now as I look outside it’s raining lightly and the snow is starting to melt. But there’s so much of it, I can’t believe that it will all be melted before it starts to freeze again tonight, especially with the layers of ice. And there might be more snow tomorrow above 500 ft. For me, that means that someone somewhere will flip a coin to decide if I’m going to get snow or not. Friday we’re supposed to be back to just rain. Thank goodness.

I’m not sure who ordered the record snowfall for a white Christmas here in Portland. But… let’s not do this again, eh?

buried Barry Bear

First, before we get to the knitty gritty (haha), here is the obligatory snow update. Yes, I know gentle reader… snow… ick. But I have been living this for the last week, so work with me here.

It snowed all night last night and has been coming down pretty steadily this morning. Poor Barry The Berry Bear is buried (say that 5 times fast). He will be in a snow cave soon, whether he wants to be or not. I can only see the tip of his nose and one forlornly raised paw. (Sorry for the pic suckage, but I took this through the window glass. Not going out there. Nope.)

Thank you to everyone who entered! It was lots of fun. I had a blast reading your comments. I’m sort of a tool nerd.

The tools picture in the contest was cobbled together from clip art, although I have a ball peen hammer that looks just like that one, and it’s my favorite hammer ever. But that also means that I don’t have these objects actually in hand to look at.

I didn’t realize that the business end of the tin snips (?) was hidden by the screwdriver handle until y’all started commenting on it. So I threw that one out. Or gave it to everyone, whichever way you want to look at it.

The big bucket thing is listed by the clip art program as a bucket grinder, which is not very helpful. I’m pretty sure it’s not a cider press, a butter churn, glue pot, oil can, paint mixer or carburetor cleaner. Sausage stuffer is a possibility. Or my thought was a mash tun. In any case, no matter what terms I googled, I never found a picture of anything that looked like it. So I threw that one out, too. But I had tons of fun reading all your guesses! My readers are so inventive and creative! 😎

The correct answers to the tools contest are (drum roll please):

• ball peen hammer
• duct tape
• packing tape
• 5 nut drivers
• compass divider
• 3 screwdrivers
• cordless drill
• crescent wrench
• 8 allen wrenches (no extra credit for the ring, although Dave does point out that it makes a decent bottle opener. Having once opened beer bottles with tweezers, I can appreciate this)
• tin snips? – probably. Thrown out.
• bucket grinder? – your guess is as good as mine. Thrown out.

Mountain Colors Flathead Cherry

There were four people who got all of them right (except for the two eliminated items). I couldn’t stand to leave one of them out, even if it would have been random and yadda yadda. So I dug around in my stash and found this skein of Mountain Colors in Flathead Cherry, which I believe is a discontinued colorway.

To choose who got what, I wrote the names on slips of paper and put them in a hat. And I listed the yarns on other slips of paper and put them in a different hat. The hats actually looked a lot like box tops because I seem to be hat challenged right now. I then closed my eyes and picked a slip from both hats as a pair. I didn’t look at who got what until I had picked all four pairs.

And the winners, in alphabetical order, are (another drum roll please):

Amber – Zen Yarn Garden Bamboolicious in Creamsicle

Bonnie – Mountain Colors in Flathead Cherry

Holly – Blue Moon Socks That Rock Medium in Calico

Tami – Schaefer Anne in Toni Morrison

The winners have been emailed, and their yarn will be winging its way to them just as soon as I can get unburied enough to mail it out.

ice on snow

Brrrrrr… I know I said that you probably know what snow looks like, gentle reader, but last night the snow turned to freezing rain. What I have in my yard now is an ice oreo: two layers of ice cookie with a creamy snow middle. Yum.

This is the ice on my Japanese maple. I have to admit that, while I really hate ice storms, if I’m warm and safe I love the way that the ice looks as it coats everything. I wish we had sunshine today, because that’s when it’s really lovely.

The endless drone from the local media indicates that it’s not going away any time very soon. But I have a fire in the fireplace (gas, thank goodness), and hot toddies, and my cats and my knitting. The pantry is stocked and I have all of the necessities. But I do hope I can get out some time before Christmas. I promised #1 Son a big Christmas veggie stew like last year. Alas, I have few veggies to put into it right now – at least not all of the ones I want. 🙁

should be hibernating

I have lived in the Portland area for 35 years, and I don’t ever remember having snow like this.

I wonder if my camellia will bloom this year? It was budding nicely when all of this hit. And now it’s frozen in time. You know how I said a few days ago that Barry The Berry Bear should be hibernating? Bet he wished he’d listed to me.

Don’t forget that the contest ends tonight at midnight PT! Get those entries in! 😉