Monday, January 31, 2011

january gone


well, here we are on the last day of the first month of the
New Year
and what a month it has been
world wide
I mean
don't think anyone will be sorry to see this one leave


I just took some mail to the box
to find it is quite mild and dripping all over the place
but we are being warned about another storm making its way towards us
It is winter, it is winter, it is winter, it is winter
oooohhhhmmmmm
:)


Well I took the first attempt off the needles
it isn't blocked or even stretched
I sort of ran out of what to do next
it got easier to maneuver the yarn as I went
learnt how to hold it with my left hand, so now I can kinda sorta
knit continental!!!!


does this happen to you
you find something new and it takes over your whole brain




everything you look at becomes a pattern
I am surrounded by lots of different things
from lots of different places
and they each have a pattern of sorts




so I now have to put them on paper
somehow
I have looked and looked at fair isle patterns and they aren't anything very complicated
and with two colours only
anything can become an outline
plus things I see that have nothing to do with knitting
suddenly inspire
colours
shapes
texture

is going back to her roots, so to speak
and she has a picture on her blog that makes me want to buy more yarn
in the colours of her work
and "paint" with yarn and pattern
but I cannot, because I don't have the wherewith all at the moment
and
I have vowed not to buy new until I have used at least half of what I have
but I don't have pastel colours and that is what I would need
so I sit and look and drool
thanks Elaine!!!!!
xx





after I drew the pattens
I took up the needles
chose two colours
trying to be professional and using the colour wheel
and put the
"plum pudding" with the "gilded age"
basically
yer yellows and yer purples!!!!
and I'll see how far I can get with this new obsession
I did learn very quickly to do the seed stitch on the edges
no "curly whirly" on this one!!!!

so along with all the household duties
and there seem to be many this
grey and yucky morn
I will be sitting and knitting
and cheering the revolutionaries along
and hoping all of you are well
at the start of another week



:)











Sunday, January 30, 2011

sunday scenes


the snow and ice are slowly melting
this was Friday as the snow fell on top of what we already had


Today the paper whites have finally started to open


they are so very welcome




and there are a few more to come


While the world changes
for the better we all hope
the animals still need to eat and make it through yet another day 
with a cold and snowy ground



they line up in the trees




and wait their turn




always on the look out

but finally able to pick and choose what they want

I am busy making X's on graph paper
while I listen to the chants for freedom
as I try to make designs to knit
the hardest thing is to choose the colours
but I have begun and hopefully
I'll have a something or other to show soon

thank you all for the comments
of late
it helps so much to get encouragement
to keep going and trying

;)

don't have a plan in the old head
just seeing what can be achieved
I did think maybe a tiny bag of some sort to start with


hope you are all well and happy
I am!!

:)

Friday, January 28, 2011

power to the people


isn't it amazing that we can sit in our living rooms and watch this live!!!!
a country standing up and making their voices heard

the sound of silence

broken only by the call of the geese
the song of the birds
and
the crunch of the snow ploughs
as they scrape the roads
of the snow and ice
that fell on us all.


about two hours after my last post
the lights went out
and they stayed out
we very rarely lose the power here
we are on a co-op that somehow stays together
as the big huge power companies a little further North
fall like dominoes
plunging hundreds of thousands of people into the dark
and cold
we have a gas fire place that works without electricity so we had warmth
the hubs bought an oil lamp that gives us a light
and we don't have kids to worry about
(well, we have kids, but not here at home
and yes, we worry, a lot, about them
being out in the cold and traffic
but you know what I mean)
the snow that fell on us all
came down at a rate of 2" an hr.
there was thunder and lightning with it
it has been named
"thundersnow"
and
"carmaggedon"




the traffic all over the area got so snarled
it took some people
12hrs to get home
cars had to be abandoned because they ran out of gas
people walked miles in the freezing cold because there was no other way
emergency and police and road crews were unable to get through the traffic

we listened to the  battery operated radio
and heard the stories from the people in their cars
tell of the nightmare they were stuck in
one of the reporters called every half hour to report on her journey home
usually an hour's trip that turned into an almost 8 hr crawl
and when she finally got home the lights were out and trees were down and then her battery died
so I don't know what happened next

our power came on at about 11.30 pm
I went to bed a little after that
 and the phone rang..... it was the power co telling us our power was back on!!!!!

at about 6.30 ish... I woke up because  husband was lighting the fire place again
the power had gone again


we have a gas cook top
so we were able to make some tea and I listened again to the radio
one million people without power
abandoned cars all over the place
hi ways and byways covered in ice and drifts and trees and branches
and live wires on the ground
Power company officials making all sorts of promises and giving all sorts of excuses
again
the system to get people out of a city that isn't that big to begin with
crumbled almost at the first sign of a snow flake
too many cars on too few streets
too many officials not using common sense and letting everyone go out
into an approaching storm all at the same time
kids in school buses
kids alone at home
parents stuck in traffic that was at a complete standstill for up to 12hrs
12 hrs
!!!!
when the lights came on at 11.30 I saw the pictures and heard the frustration and saw the anger
and the thing that hit the hardest was the
fear
so many asking what would happen
if something happened

this was a snow storm
and
the system broke down fast and furious
it has happened before
but never on this huge a scale
and it WILL happen again

but nothing ever seems to change
no one uses common sense
the "plans" never work and it seems no one ever learns anything

and one of the first things I heard when the TV was turned on
is that we no longer have a
colour coded system to show us how much
"danger"
we are in
home land security has done away with the "colours of fear"
but the fear of what is real and present
has no colours
well
that's another story I guess


people died in that storm
a man was crushed in his vehicle by a falling tree
no one could help him and they found him somewhere else
which means he got out of his car and went looking for help
he never found it
he died in the snow and ice
alone

if a snow storm,
albeit a freakish one,
can bring an area to a screeching halt
so fast and so completely
I wonder what will happen
when something happens

will a lesson be learnt from this
?
.......



while the power was out we were home safe and sound

the ploughs came and cleared the roads
our neighbours drove in and out of the neighbourhood



the clouds parted and the sun came out and the snow started to melt


the sky turned that blue that it turns, after a storm has gone through
the hubs cleared the front and I tidied up the house a little
and made things easier in case we needed to move around in the dark again
he read and I knitted
and drank a lousy cup of coffee!!


we had grilled cheese for brunch!!!!  because we have a gas cook top
(we did that on purpose, because, we live out in the country and the lights go out, once in a while)
we know how to do things to "survive" for a few hours
we collected snow in buckets to use in the bathroom.....
I filled bottles with water because we lose that as well, because we have,
well,
a well!!!
 and thought about cooking some things

.....
and
 as soon as we had made ready to maybe go through another night without power
the lights came back on and they have stayed on
but there are thousands, hundreds of thousands,
 who still sit in their cold houses just a few miles outside
of
the nation's capital

and life continues as always



the house is back to it's "used look"
and the cat is settling in for a long nap
after watching the birds outside, eating as much as they can
 she is warm and fed and safe

the kids are OK

the people made it home



except for one
......

PS I just looked outside and it's
snowing
again!!!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

wednesday works



so this is what I did today




I even show the back

ta-daa



decided to make a rustic apple pie

and some pasta sauce for tonight

it started to snow

and it still is

this is one we aren't going to miss

it's coming down

fast and thick


and all she wants to know
is
are my bowls going to be filled anytime soon

yes mummies angel
right now

see ya
!!!

:}




frozen no more



First of all
Tammy ...... :)
the geese are NOT frozen in the ice

they "froze" in place when they saw me coming
they were very carefully strolling across the lake from one side to the other
when I decided to go out and try the zoom lens again
(it doesn't make a difference that I can see  ? )
If they had been frozen, I would have been out there with hammer and chisel
believe me

they stopped stock-still
and just stared at me
as they always do

the day before, the water was not frozen like this
it was the coldest day we have had
and the water was free of ice
but the night was even colder
and the lake froze completely
so they had nothing to do but stroll around

(I tried the video on the camera so you could see how very very careful they are with each step
so as not to fall on their bums and make a fool of themselves,
which happens!!
and also hear the noises they make
but
there is no zoom and the wind was all you could hear!!)

a little later there was a spot that melted and all the ducks
not the geese
waddled over to the water and had a bath
they do that you know
splash and dive and preen themselves
it was too dark by then to shoot them
and they would have flown away anyway
so you will have to imagine them
here ends the farm report!!



this was all the sun we saw yesterday
the storm that is causing all sorts of weather problems was beginning to cover us
and it was quite warm
well compared to the day before it was!!
with a sky as wintry as that
I took pictures of the blazing sun inside

the hubs has a thing for
gerbera daisies
and we got some to brighten up the inside
they really are this bright
:o

I love the black centre
I feel I'm being watched
somehow!!!

you lookin' at me?



the others are still going strong

and even thought they aren't as
day-glow
as the daisies
they are still so pretty


I played around with some graph paper
and decided to see what I could come up with
the light here is dreadful
we are getting rain and ice and snow
 so there is no light whatsoever at the moment

 I guess today will be another winter day spent
with yarn and needles
and hopefully a brilliant idea
and
the ability
 to bring it
to
 the
 needles



Hope your day is bright and cheerful
and if it isn't
well
it will be one day soon!!!


:)



Tuesday, January 25, 2011

how not to do it!!!

"it"
 "is"!!!

I did it!

it's bad
:{
for a first it isn't as bad as it could be
but it's still not good

alas
I said I would show it
and
I am
showing it

I can see all the puckers and bumps and lumps
and a very obvious badly done join or carry
it isn't
blocked
and I'm not 100% sure how to do that
but I'll look it up and see if that helps
I haven't got a clue what to do with it
if anything

I think this is one of those things that you have to learn
as a child
at the knee of a professional
.
teacher
.
grandmother
.
mother
.
aunt
.
or a really nice neighbour
....

I did learn a couple of things

how to carry the yarn across the row
how to use the bobbins

how to swear
and have a hissy fit every 10 mins or so
as you look back over the row you just did and discover two mistakes
or threeeeeee

learning to take your time
it isn't a contest
well it is
against yourself
and it isn't a big deal
coz it's a practice piece

(I am very hard on myself and always think I should get it the first time
and having looked at the example in the book
I'm actually not that far off)

!!

and when the hubs keeps asking
what's it going to be
:P
learn to smile sweetly
and
not answer!!!!!


Now an explanation of what happened to this page yesterday
I decided it was time to change the
header photo
as you all know I am wont to do
I loaded a new one
and it came out tiny
I then went into the
templates
and discovered that
Blogger
has given us new fonts
and
as I am wont to do
I started playing
and got totally lost in all the
newness
I never go to the help page or the blogger updates
so I had no idea there was a problem reported with the
header uploads
so I had to leave it as it was

I have now changed it back
and the header is working once again
so
thank you
blogger
I'll check in with you once in a while
but I may go back and change the
posting font again
I like the one
that looks like I
wrote it by hand

well
after I figure out how to block the block

see ya

:)