Knitterykate 2

We sold our van. We now have one van and two cars among the five of us. In the very recent past we were trying to park three vans and three VW's in our driveway and along the street with not much success. We usually ended parking four in the driveway and two on the street. Invariably the vehicle that was parked closest to the house had to be the one who had to get to work first. And then it was time for "musical cars". What fun.

Okay I give up. The snow falling here has been incessant. It won't let up. Therefore I give up. So here are my snow pictures for the year. The news says that this will be the first year since 1971 that all of Canada will have a "White Christmas". Except for a little patch of green in Halifax where you would expect tons of snow. The van on the right has not been driven for awhile, but the van on the left was driven yesterday - last night, actually. So the accumulation is for less than 24 hours. Bruce finally did go out and shovel that snow. You can see the broom on the hood where he left it to tend to more important parts of the driveway. He wanted me to come and help. Hah. I told him that I would when the snow stopped... Just a view from the back porch going down to the patio: Not going to be shoveled until the girls come back from CA. B and I drove by the meeting room yesterday on the way to visit his mum and the parking lot has two feet, if not three feet, drifts. The e...

We're home today. Can't get out of the driveway because of the snow drifts. Bruce has a great idea of "walking" up to the Safeway. He also wants to shovel the front (which we already did on Monday). I say stay home and look at youtube videos on knitting. Some people have nothing to do. Maybe she ran out of yarn. what to do with your left over ramen noodles What she going to do with it? Eat it?

Every blog that I've visited recently has posted about the weather. This will be no different. Since you all know what snow looks like, I will spare you the pictures. We've had snow and it has "stuck". None of this here today, gone tomorrow stuff as we have had in past years. It seems the Arctic has shifted south. Our van came equipt with an outside thermometer. It was intriguing to watch the temperature drop by degrees as we drove from Vancouver to home. I don't remember it ever being this cold. Have you ever heard of -11 C much less felt it? And they (the weathermen) say there's a blizzard coming on Sunday.

I found these at knitpicks and knew they were just what I was looking for. My knitting kept sliding off my double pointed needles because the yarn was too fine for the needles. They are actually ingenious. All you do is grip the needles together and slide them into the blue end. Then the red end slips over that. Give the tubes a little twist in the opposite directions and you've got your knitting secure. Works well. The only thing I don't like is the price. Even though I received two sets, cardboard should not be that expensive. But then, they are light weight and if I take care of them, they should last a long time.

It's raining here on the Wet Coast of Canada. Many are hoping for snow on the slopes. LeAnne tells me a contingent is coming from Seattle to spend the night here before heading up to Whistler tomorrow. For their sakes I hope there's snow. Heidi made bread last night in our bread machine. You know, the kind without flour or eggs. It kind of fell flat and caved in on itself. We think there was too much yeast: it rose to high, too fast and then collapsed. As for the gummy part? Probably too much liquid. But have you ever made banana bread with chia instead of eggs? And used potato flour instead of wheat? If you ever do let us know so we can try your recipe.

Because we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in November (when it's suppose to be celebrated!) and because you all live so far away (Union City was far enough to go for the week-end) we often go to Tacoma to "celebrate" (read: eat ourselves silly). This year was no different with no less food and all delicious! Noah and Heidi Hannah I brought my own stash for the trip down: These are new in Canada. At least I've not seen them before. They are chocolate coated mint kisses. I thought they would be mint flavored chocolate. And with a mocha I was set. To knit, of course. Here's what I finished on the trip. Don't be fooled. With a mocha to power you and lots of down time you can get some serious knitting in. Heidi liked them so well she wanted a pair for her birthday. Which happens to be tomorrow!!! Today was going to be my day off to stay home and knit but some problems with our US bank account warranted me coming into Richmond for the day. With that taken care o...

This block of chocolate is huge! Take a look at the thickness. That's about one and a half inches. At least.

Almost got the second sleeve done. Notice the red rod on the left. It's my super duper needle holder! While making Heidi's alpaca leg warmers last month I found my yarn slipping off my needles. It didn't help that the wool was extremely slippery. I tried putting little red stoppers on the ends to keep the yarn on but they kept falling off because they were too small or the needle ends were too big. One day I saw this on line and thought it ingeneous. And it really works! You gather your needles together and slip them in the blue sleeve. Shove them down the tube until they butt up against the end. Carefully slip the red tube over the blue and slide that down until the other ends of the needles butt up against its end. Give it a little twist and shove the whole thing into your bag. Forget about it until you're ready to knit again. Then pull it out of your bag and begin to knit immmediately. No lost or dropped stitches!!

Andrew was over the other day. He and I usually play a variety of games (which he invariably wins!) For some reason or another both he and I got up to do something (probably getting ice cream with hot fudge) and Felix took my place. Sometimes I think he would like to be me...It's probably all that yarn.

Just a few steps in the morning and then you are done!