Texas Spring

Typical of the Texas panhandle - 70 degrees on Thursday and then this blew in during the night. It snowed most of the day Friday. I think every school in the area was closed along with many offices and stores, mainly because of the 50 mph winds blowing the snow everywhere. These pictures are from Saturday morning. Unfortunately my firewood is under this drift!

Here is some irony. My lilac bush leafed out and starting buds - behind this 3 foot drift!

Has it really been two months since I blogged??

I haven't totally dropped off the face of the earth nor have I stopped knitting. Unfortunately I have found that there are definite peaks and valleys in this divorce experience, and I have been struggling through a valley where I found it hard to concentrate and get anything done. I'm climbing back up and have some knitting to show.

This is one of the socks done with the yarn I dyed at Gourmet Yarns sock dyeing workshop back in September. The odd thing is the striping. The first time I dyed sock yarn, I very carefully measured and dyed it specifically to get nice stripes. For this, I just put the hank of yarn in the container and blobbed on dye. Voila - stripes - at least sort of stripes.

I like this yarn even though I picked up the wrong dye container and put way more blue into it than I meant to. Blue is just not my favorite, and I really wanted more gray. I learned a lot though, and now I have a list of dye that I want and a plan for some colorways to try out this summer when I have more time. At least theoretically I will have more time. I will be out of school, but I already have a summer job lined up. I'm taking the kid to New York City for her birthday, so I will need the extra cash.

Of course, I would have more cash if I could ignore things like this. But who could resist a ball winder for only $20?? Certainly not me!

I saw this mentioned on Ravelry - KnitPicks new ball winder. I haven't tried it yet, but that is my plan for this evening. I have a lot of sock yarn that needs to be wound, and this should make the process go way faster.

I need the extra time. I have a baby sweater that is again down to the sleeves that needs to be finished soon - due date is April 23. I have another one started that is going to be for next fall, but I have two more sets of yarn and new patterns for my niece's first - due in June. Those two are cotton because she lives in the South, and I am always slower with cotton, so I need to get with it. I have a week of training coming up in May in Austin, so maybe I'll get some knitting time then - I hate driving around in Austin, so I will probably stick around the hotel.

My new motto - onward and upward!