Today I used something that I purchased a bit ago and hadn’t had a need to use. I live in Iowa where these aren’t considered…..unfashionable, like they are in other places.
I got myself a pair of Berne women’s insulated overalls.
Not sexy, but I was toasty when I was outside shoveling the walk:-)
I wish I had gotten these MONTHS ago!!!
So, I was asked to share what I got at Sticks and Sting this year. I assure you it is modest in the most! 
The yellow yarn on the left is a custom dyed skein of Superwash Merino 3 ply yarn that came with my goodie bag (but that I forgot to photograph!) by Dreams in Fiber. The middle blue and white merino/nylon superwash yarn is also by Dreams in Fiber and the colorway is “The Box”. The bundle on the right is by Blue Ridge Yarns and it’s called Footlights in the colorway “Pansies”.
Yeah, I was that restrained. But you see, I have this at home.
All those skeins in the plastic baggies on the top shelf? Wollmeise. The rest is an assortment of Blue Moon Fiber Arts and other various sock yarn companies. I assure you that this isn’t all of my sock yarn, just what I’ve brought with me to Ames!
In other news, we had snow blow-in early this morning. I fell on my arse twice in the parking lot just trying to get to Curtiss! I was both wet and sore by the time I got to my office this morning. Most, most annoying since I had even “prepared” by wearing my snow boots and was all decked-out for the weather. It is not supposed to happen if you prepare for it!!!! (Sarah’s Law)
I was in South Carolina for a week for training for work. While I was gone, Red got her first ride in a car and trip to the vet. My mom and dad took her in a pet carrier which I really wish that I had pictures of. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes. She got a shot and some more meds and took it all totally in stride. In fact, she didn’t even let out a baa when he gave her a shot in her rump!
So, I was in SC for a week. Not a whole lot to say about it except that somehow I ended-up mere feet away from Rick Santorum who was at a Fudrucker’s down the hill from my hotel.
Also, since I had a little bit of downtime in a Hilton hotel room to myself with no dogs or cats wanting cuddling nor baby goats to be fed I had a little bit of a girly party and painted my nails with some fun nail polish that I snagged at Target while watching the SyFy channel on cable. I also took a bath each and every night!
There are 2 polishes going on here. The darker one is called “Give Me Moor!” and it’s from OPI. The silver crackly coat is part of the Nicole Texture line by OPI in Silver. It was fun to paint on as it crackled nearly immediately. It’s lasted quite well considering how hard I usually am on my nails. Only today have a couple of chips formed on the tips of the nails. I’m going to have to take it off this weekend as I am going to have some important meetings over the next couple of days and need a more (cough) neutral, professional look for them.
I arrived back in Iowa right before the first real humdinger of a snow storm that we’ve had this season. I was pleased that my car started right away in the airport parking lot despite an outside temperature of about 0 degrees Fahrenheit (about -18 Celsius). I got back to the farm around midnight and there was about 4 inches of snow on the ground by the time I got up in the morning to feed Red.
I started-out suffering through snow in my shoes and wet socks but then remembered that I had hiking boots that are a little taller than my regular shoes. However, if we get much more snow I’m going to have to get actual snow boots.
Red missed me I think.
I think you need to see this shot a little closer-up.
God I love that little goat!
However, she has grown even in just the week that I was gone. Her lead over the other 4 babies is remarkable. She is getting big fast! Red has gotten so big that it’s getting hard to pick her up anymore. Definitely no putting her in my coat!
I took Malcolm and Micheal down to the creek today for their walk. Meara and Weezy were originally excited by the idea but quickly changed their minds when they understood just how cold the wind was.
The snow from yesterday has stuck around making the cold seem appropriate. It also causes the landscape to appear a tad less harsh.
The creek is only partially frozen. There is still moving water in parts of it while it is completely frozen over in other areas.
The sun tried valiantly to overcome the winter gloom.
Malcolm wears his “please don’t shoot me hunters, I’m a dog” vest every time we go further than the front yard now. There are often many shots heard from deer hunters in all directions. There “shouldn’t” be any hunters on the land we are walking on, but I feel better with him geared-up like this. Plus it makes him a lot easier to find in this brown/white landscape!
Sweetie Pie wanted to know where the heck we had been when we got back!
So I have started my spinning again. I couldn’t for the first few weeks that I was here because the wheel was in transport. Then once it got here I needed to find the rest of the bits of it as they were packed away in the bewilderingly labeled boxes. By the time that I finally found them, it was time for Christmas knitting and crochet!
Which I am now avoiding by spinning.
I had a hard time deciding what I was going to spin but finally I settled on this:
It’s from Easyknits and it’s called Winter Berry. It’s 80% Superfine Merino and 20% Black Diamond (Carbonized Bamboo). I think that this was a club fiber and it is really lovely to spin. My night-time photo doesn’t show it very well, but it’s a lovely blend of grey, a dusky blue and red.
So, you might be wondering, what is it that has me avoiding it so strongly? It is this:
Yes, this is the “Cars” themed blanket that seems like A.) it sucks down yarn faster than a cargo van sucks down gas driving into a 30mph headwind B.) it is doomed in its current incarnation (mostly because of A.). I started on this blanket in my usual fashion which in this case meant asking my mom how big a 3-4 year-old is. I asked her because she’s had 2 of them and I’ve had none at this point. After getting to see said child this week, I realized that this blanket would (in its current incarnation) be too large for him to carry. Doh. A shocking lack of knowledge about small children strikes again!
In completely unrelated news (other than, you know, it’s the Christmas season thus winter here in the Northern Hemisphere) it snowed last night.
This is one of those pretty, white dusting snows rather than the last one which was just confused rain.
Snow makes everything prettier, even Micheal!
The view of town.
Have a great day!
I am currently in a Days Inn in Nashville, Tennessee sitting on my king sized bed listening to the weather report wanting to go to sleep. I’ve driven a cargo van 12 hours today and I am completely exhausted. However, somewhere deep inside of me I think that I was an OTR trucker in a former life. I love road trips and find traveling alone kind of freeing. There’s this weird thing “out there” that says that women aren’t supposed to like to travel alone. If we don’t travel with a significant other we are supposed to travel in groups. I do like to travel with a group but it really isn’t essential for me to have fun. I really enjoy traveling alone and I do get some “looks” for this and today was no exception to this.
Anyway, some of the things that I saw today as I drove from Iowa to Tennessee.
The mighty Mississippi from the Illinois side
Part of a wind turbine that I passed on the road. Yes, I am perhaps a tad obsessed with these things!)
One of the Cat plants in Moline.
This massive used book store is just down the road from my hotel here! It's seems to be in a former grocery store!
This is their craft section. It had a better knitting section than most NEW book stores!
The Haus of Yarn is right by my hotel. Alas it was closed:-(
I did pass through some snow in Kentucky. It didn't cause any issues with the roads at all.
Last week we got our first snow here. We had missed getting any white stuff until this point with folks both East and West of us getting slammed pretty good while we still had lovely weather. Like our neighbors to both directions, our snow was very wet and heavy. It did cause some issues in places like Des Moines, but here it was nothing more than a pretty, transient nuisance.
True to form, Malcolm loved playing in the snow. This snow was a little more slippery than he was used to thus there were a few spectacular wipe-outs (none of which were caught by the camera!). Nevertheless he still got his fun in!
The snow only really lasted just the one day leaving behind it’s less glamorous though less fickle cousin, winter mud. There’s been a lot of paw cleaning lately!
