20 weeks

This week I did lots and lots of spinning, and finished making 2-ply silk yarn I've had on the wheel since I lived in Iowa. It's 254 yds and 32g which I think is pretty good, or something. It's really shiny!




It's been snowing a lot sort of. I made a snowman to show Lindsey before she left for Mexico. The snow covered the snowman up to his midsection by the end of the day, but it melted the next day. Today I woke up at 7:45 and was surprised to see that the whole world was white, but I went back to sleep and by the time I woke up again it was almost completely gone.


Oh yeah, I'm getting really, really huge. My clothes don't fit. :(  On the plus side, everything looked good at the doctor this week.  Ooh, and we probably have a name.  We're not gonna tell you till she's born though.

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Pretty pictures!

I took this picture of the sunset ton Tuesday, in the midst of some crazy thunderstorms/tornado warnings. It's pouring down rain in the picture, but the sky was just amazing. Another interesting aspect of the picture is the house they are building in my backyard. That thing is going up pretty fast! You can also sort of see my veggies in their rubbermaid containers on the deck.


I spent this past weekend spinning up the tussah silk fiber from my last post. I managed to get about 250 yards of 2-ply laceweight out of 37 grams, and although it's pretty underspun, I think I'm really getting better at making consistently thin singles. I also learned to spin from the fold, which is apparently a good thing to know. Shrug. Perhaps I will turn it into some sort of lacy scarf/cowl/shawl.


Here are some pictures of my cats being their cute little selves. Calvin loves to go out on the deck, even when it's almost 100º outside, and he's discovered that hiding in the bean plants is a good way to stay cool. Mainly because it's so darn cute that I wait awhile to kick him out of there.


Cuddle Duds loves being in boxes, and is helping guard the mail basket.

Snow, hat!

Hi! It started snowing again, so I started knitting again. I decided I needed a slouchy hat, because everyone I saw when I went to a conference in Philadelphia was wearing a slouchy hat, so I made one! Here it is!


I'm not completely convinced that it doesn't make me look like Mario, but I love it anyway, and it's the first thing I've knit in AGES! It feels good to knit again. I already cast on for a matching scarf. Well, the hat was made using Lamb's Pride (and I had to modify the pattern a bit for that sub) that I frogged from the Fake Isle hat I started awhile back, and the scarf will be out of some really really skinny yarn. I don't anticipate the scarf ever actually getting finished....

Here's the pattern for the hat, if anyone is interested: Tam Pattern

Sandbagging pictures

I've been internetless since last week sometime, so I am sitting at a coffee shop in Coralville.
I took a break from sandbagging on Friday to put bandaids on my bleeding fingers and took these pictures.

More floods

Some of these pictures are really quite pretty. I am curious what the Coralville Dam looks like now that the water is over the spillway. I imagine it's not great.

Snow Snow Snow Snow Hat Snow

That's the 8" of snow from Super Bowl Sunday, out on our deck. Yesterday, we thought it would be fun to see how much more snow we could get out there:

Apparently this is the worst winter in lots of years around here. I agree. This weather sucks. Mega hardcore sucks. I twitch every time I see another snowflake. Briony seems to think that it would be worse if it were 32ºF and rainy. I am pretty skeptical of this claim. On the plus side, once the blasted snow finally stops it's kind of pretty outside. Also on the plus side, we are DEFINITELY getting our money's worth out of our homeowner's association this winter, since they come by practically every day to clear our driveway and walkway.


Also on the plus side, they cancelled classes yesterday, for the second time this year! Apparently they never cancel classes. The last time they did before this year was when a tornado went right over the top of campus. I knew it was going to be bad yesterday when I got out of bed at 7:30 and I couldn't tell where my yard ended and the street began.

Staying home in my jammies all day was pretty fantastic. I made an Unoriginal Hat! I also managed to finish one of my Craft-a-Thon design contest projects!

In real life, the hat is much cooler than it looks in the picture. It's dark black, and despite the fact that I used natural light on a cloudy day, the picture still overexposed. Shoot. I love the hat though. I have too many brightly colored things. I think this will calm things down a bit, wardrobe-wise.

I am excited for the Craft-a-Thon tomorrow! I hope lots of people come and make things for the preemies! We have worked so hard to put it together, and it's going to be very interesting to see how it goes. I am also excited, because it will be a good excuse to buy some knitting books without feeling guilty. After all, it's for the babies! I can't wait to see what people have made for the design contest!

Snow Snow Snow Snow Cat Snow

What you can't tell from this picture is that it's POURING down snow and Cuddle Duds is completely covered in it. Plus he's eating it.


Adorable little toe prints.


There's the view off my deck. There are about 8" of snow.