Sunday, February 28, 2010

Sock it to me or Houston We Have a Heel

It ain't perfect and it sure ain't pretty but it's a heel.
I understand the process now. I need a lot more practice before I can strive for perfection. But it's a heel and right now that's all I care about!!!
The pattern can be found here if you are on Ravelry.












Saturday, February 27, 2010

Tams

Toupie after a good meal

Since the double snowstorms this month, my knitting has focused on mastering the tam. It's a basic hat shape and looks good on me when it's full enough for me to pull the fabric jauntly to one side.
I did the decreasing on the orange tam wrong, although everyone says you can't tell when I'm wearing it. This is a tam in progress using Knit Picks Palette in Suede colorway and the swirling stitch from the Brewster stocking.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Stuff

Well the October Tam, despite my decreasing mistakes, is totally wearable and quite dashing
Now for some pod photos:
On my desk monitor: Hello kitty, a spider, and a stingray

On my ledge: minature lava lamp, a duck the lights up when moved, more hello kitty

On the side ledge: a spidey, two knitted squares, and business cards



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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Snowtastrophie

Forget snowmaggedon. The cataclysmic event for most in this area has been the daily commute to work.Traffic snarls, not just in downtown, but all over the region which rival those of 9-11. The advantage of 9-11 was,if you had to, you could walk. After negotiating the shovel-wide passages available for boarding and alighting busses, walking is about the most dangerous thing you can do in DC these days.

The congestion was caused because lanes narrowed or disappeared or just plain hadn't been plowed. There were the usual vehicle collisions, jack-knifed tractor trailers, and the new phenomena of cars ending up in snowbanks. Speaking of plowing, there was the brillance of Tuesday evening, when plowing was going on downtown during rush-hour on snow emergency routes (those are the priority roads for snow clearing and removable). Parts of Pennsylvania Avenue (6 blocks from the White House) still had an unplowed lane as of Wednesday morning--7 days after the last snowfall.

If you've seen any nature specials featuring penguins and watched the penguins queue up on the ice to jump into the frigid waters,that's the life of a bus commuter. The queue of people waiting to board have to scuttle back to let those alighting negotiate the shovel-wide passages and get clear before boarding. Gone are the days of bumrushing the front doors. Because of the snowbanks, bus drivers are often forced to find the place with the lowest bank, an intersection, or just not pull up to the curb to let people off. This often mandates that passengers can only alight from the front door. Not an easy feat when you're packed like sardines.

Walking down M Street last night, I noticed the banks of snow were piled so high that I couldn't see ordinary car traffic. The top 12 inches of SUV's were visible. This morning I noticed that I couldn't see people waiting at the bus stop two blocks away, only the mound of snow at the intersection. I knew there were people because the bus stopped.

Downtown the pavements are mostly clear. It is the intersections, where the plowing crews decided the mounds of snow needed to rest that are the problem. On approaching a corner, you need to look for the best access point. Is there a shoveled passage or a slushy path beaten down by walkers who passed this way before you? Once you've traversed that, cars are not the issue. It's looking to the far horizon of the opposite corner to scout your next or best point of access to the clean pavement beyond.

The recurring difficulty is that any melting that hasn't drained away before the evening rush, begins to refreeze about sundown. Meaning that you might start your commute walking on slightly damp or wet pavement and end it walking on black ice. This is really hard to spot in the dark and even harder in the shadow of snowbanks. It also means leaving before sunrise is a bit dodgy.

Until this morning, the commutes inbound had been relatively normal,except for the penguining. This morning it tookalmost 90 minutes to do a 45 minute commute. This evening's commute was down from Tuesday's 2.5hrs and Wednesday's over 90 minutes,to about 65 minutes. Lots of penguining tonight at our stop as three busses simultaneously discharged passengers. Two of the more able men in the queue to cross the street had to climb the banks of snow to create space for the passengers alightling the third bus.

On another note, last Tuesday I got splashed by salt-treated snow. When I got on the bus, I noticed my gloves, wristlets, and yellow cords looked like I'd been in a blue paintball fight. I soaked them in cold water and the dye came out. Tonight I wiped down the backpack I wore that day and sponge continues to take off more blue as I wipe. The odd thing is, this blue dye isn't visible in the treated snow. I have also noticed that although the snowpiles are definitely dirty, it is the black sooty dirty that I remember from large snowfalls when I was a child in Pittsburgh or in my teens here in DC. So, the Clean Air Act has worked...somewhat.

Best of all, a not yet clearly definable weather event is predicted for Monday.

On the yarn front, my order placed before the first snowfall arrived. Purple It's quite delicious.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Tam Errors

Blizzard comforts: Toupie and Cheez-its
Dawn after the second snow:

Tam woes:
Despite my math-challenged misunderstanding, the tam turned out. Too late did I undertand how EZ meant the decreases to be computed.

But nevertheless, I soldier on. As soon as I sewed in the loose ends of this tam, I cast on for another tam, sat down and computed the decreases, and started to knit. The greys don't match; but my goal is to get the pattern right.








Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Blizzard of 2010 Round Two

At 12:46pm today, the snow official reached my window sill. There have been whiteout conditions this morning when I have only been able to see the outline of the end of the building opposite. Can't see the street or the fir tree. The greensward and the forest floor beyond the fence come and go with the intensity of the falling and swirling snow.





Bathing on the bed during the blizzard is our own Mr. Alpaniste:













Tuesday, February 9, 2010

8 February Snow Pictures

Example of irregular plowing. One street has been plowed to pavement. The other street untouched.


There is life after snow. This is the point where a primary road changes from four lanes to five. As of yesterday afternoon, there was one lane, mostly clear, in each direction.

Two of my neighbors built this snowdog.


6 February 2010
Finally, it stopped snowing; until it starts again.




Saturday, February 6, 2010

Now for Something Completely Different

Brewster Stitch Legwarmer



I haven't been idle, just had computer problems. This is the Brewster legwarmer, so named after the stocking known to have belong to a Rev. Brewster of the Massachuestts Colony. It was knitted in either England or the colony before 1640. I am knitting it from doubled Knit Picks Palette in Cornmeal colourway. For stitch instructions, see the current issue of Piecework Magazine.




Toupie checking out the knitting
Snow February 6, 2010 7:45am EST


It's still snowing. Predictions: another 5" to 10" before it's all said and done. Based on an estimate of the distance between the garage room and the windows, I suspect we have 18"-20". Elkridge, MD officially holds the area record: 30.7" inches as of about 6AM.

View from the backdoor.


Snow has clogged the fence and I can't see for forest floor.










Snow February 3, 2010 7:30AM EST

This was a very wet, very wonderland looking snow. 5-6" that melted on the roads and pavements as the temperature during the day went up to almost 40F.