It's Everywhere!!

Full knee-deep lies the winter snow,
And the winter winds are wearily sighing:
Toll ye the church bell sad and slow,
And tread softly and speak low,
For the old year lies a-dying.

For those of you who don’t reside in the Illinois-Chicago area, the above quoted poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson refers to the snow that we had rather unceremoniously dumped on our heads yesterday. All night I listened to the sirens wailing, rushing to help the unfortunate people who succumbed to the slick roads, hoped that no one was seriously hurt, and was again glad for the warm place that I have to call home.

My aunt and I shoveled the driveway at around 9 o’clock last night, after letting the snow pile higher and higher without a care because hey, we’ve got a snow blower. That doesn’t start. So our 10 minute chore turned into an hour-long one. But for all of that, I have to say… Holly I’m beginning to see what you see in the white fluff. I certainly couldn’t stop myself from happily throwing myself into the piles of snow we kept shoveling up. It’s not my favorite thing to drive in, but I’ve always loved (secretly of course) the way that even midnight is bright when the moon and stars are reflected in the glittering snow, making night into day. I’m even hoping (again secretly) that tonight when my little sister comes over to spend the night I can convince her to help me make a snowman or something equally immature but fun. This is the second weekend in a row that Kari has come to visit me and I have to say I’m quite touched that she misses me so much that she’s actively seeking my company. Gives me the warm fuzzies.

In knitting news, my holiday knitting schedule has changed, yet again. I’m cutting out the little side projects of the satchels/sweater ornaments and concentrating on the big stuff. Mainly it’s because of the fact that of the people that I was planning on making them for… perhaps only two or three of them would fully appreciate the time and energy that went into them. That’s not a big enough majority for me to put that much pressure on myself. Especially not when I still have one hat and four scarves to go before C-Day.

I was naughty and went to my LYS on Wednesday. Picked up some Inca Alpaca in a beautiful pale blue, some DPNs (the new shorter ones they’re making now) and a ball of sock yarn whose name escapes me at the moment. But it’s a beautiful earthtone colorway that’ll make some pretty, striped socks. I love going to that store, Mosaic Yarn Studio in Des Plaines, because the employees are so… I don’t even want to call it friendly because that doesn’t quite express it. They all make such an effort to ensure that you feel both welcome, comfortable and utterly at home during your entire shopping/browsing experience. While I was questioning about the Inca Alpaca, wondering if I could managed to squeeze a hat out of the 109 yd skein, one of the employees went and dug through the box of free patterns, finding me one that called for a little less than that amount, found the example hat that was on display in the store for me to try on, and gave me several different pointers about how I could change the pattern to my liking. In the meantime another employee was chatting with my friend who had come with (her first LYS visit), encouraging her not to say she can’t really knit ‘cause she only makes scarves. The encouragement from the employees there, on my very first visit to the store no less, was what led to me knitting my very first sweater. After being so sorely disappointed with yarn store after yarn store it’s wonderful to find one that fully expresses the comfortable, accepting, warm, friendly feelings that I’ve come to connect with knitting. I spotted a help wanted sign on their counter and even picked up an application; it’s sitting in my purse right now, all filled out and full of hope. My original, pre-snowfall plan was to go and drop off the application last night before joining in on the knitting night. But I decided against it after it took me an hour to drive 10 miles. I’ll have to run it over there some time this weekend if I can find time. Keep your fingers crossed for me! How perfect would it be for me to find my part-time job at my favorite store? (No I don’t want to hear any comments about how it might end up costing me to work there. I do NOT want my daily dose of reality, thank you.)