what you think on grows

I am a JRR Tolkien fan.  I have been since I was in 7th or 8th grade.  In those days we had "reading groups" within an English class.  Kids were divided up into groups depending on their reading ability.  My reading group read The Hobbit. 

I was in love.  It had adventure and swashbuckling and arrows flying through the air and a Dragon and gold and greed and lots of other human emotions.

That was the year I had my appendix out.  In 1972 this was a stay-in-the-hospital-for-a-week procedure and then I was home for 3 more.  My Language Arts teacher at the time bought the other three books in the series and brought them to me in the hospital so I would have something to read.

And thus began another lifelong love affair.  These have become my favorite books and the ones I probably have read the most. I have made knitwear from patterns based on these books/characters.  I made my first round shawl (Evenstar), my largest beaded shawl (In Dreams) and a cowl from LOTR based patterns…


Fair 11°F
-12°C

This is the image in my mind of what the weather people are calling a Polar Vortex.  It's what's keeping our temperatures in the low double digits (and it's rather windy this morning so it's cold). 

The snow we got the other day was (still is in some places) beautiful but it was tricksy snow.  It got very cold right after the snow fell and so there is a nice layer of ice that only looks like snow on the ground. 

All of this is leading to the fall I took yesterday.  I am starting to feel like a real klutz.  I stepped off the curb onto what looked like snow but turned out to be ice and I must have looked like a cartoon character.  My feet went out from under me and I landed on my (fortunately well padded) butt and my right wrist. 

As I was laying there in the street in the snowy slushy wetness, a nice man tried to help me up but he began to lose purchase and was in danger of landing down right next to me so I thanked him and got my self up.

Needless …

A finished pair of socks!  I bought this yarn in Rhinebeck because it was colorful and fun and at the time seemed to reflect the fun we were having.
And then the reality of finding a pattern that would allow the colorful yarn to shine without looking goofy.
I remembered Monkey socks which are made for this kind of hand painted yarn and it didn't fail me.  These will make my feet feel like they're having a party. 
I do not know who made the yarn since it had no tag on it other than the fact that it is a merino/nylon blend and it was 22 dollars.  It is not particularly soft and fuzzy and it is rather thin. I thoroughly enjoyed working with it and lovelovelove the results. 
This pair (well, one is done and one is started) is made from one of Zen Yarn Garden's Artwalk choices.  It's a merino/silk/cashmere single.  No, these socks probably will not last as long as some, although the silk will give them some strength as well as help them shine.  But (and this is a big but…

It's been almost 2 weeks since I last sat down to my computer.  This is the longest vacation Peter Kevin and I have had in years.  And we are enjoying every last minute.  There has been napping and eating and spinning and some going out (but not very much). 

How about I share some photos?  There have been Tardis sightings in the Christmas tree. 

And Tyranosaurs eating sheep (Peter Kevin can always be counted on to make colorful cookies....)

 Peter Kevin and Elanor made sausage.  This is their first attempt.  It's Italian sausage and I have it on good authority that it tasted just fine (but they need to work on the texture a bit). 

There has been some knitting.  It took me hours to find a pattern for mittens that Peter Kevin felt was sufficiently manly for him to wear.  It's coming out great (and will be nice and warm).  It's the first time I am using an electronic pattern without printing it out.  It's actually nice to use the Knit Companion app now that they'…