Snowmageddon Part II

Last winter, Washington D.C. got hit with a major storm that stopped the city and just about all  parts of government.  The Washington Post called it, "Snowmageddon" and my son, Ryan, and a few friends put together a web site called Snowmageddon that became a resource center for all things relating to the storm,   from where to find a store with snow shovels, to getting help digging out your car and everything else in between. His site was featured on the front page of The Post as being THE place to go to for help.   A few days ago, he got a call from some people in NYC and Snowmageddon NYC was born. You rock, Ryan!

Meanwhile, we have our own Snowmageddon going on here in the Truckee area;  the difference is, we are expecting it, we plan for it, and gosh darn it, we all have four wheel drive cars!!

 
Knitting some mittens for my daughter to take back to school at UC Santa Barbara - yes, it actually gets cold and damp down there near the ocean!  This is called Cruiser by Cailyn Meyer and I saw this pattern on Ravelry:

                                                                                                                                                                          Here is a picture of the socks I finished for her:

     
Love Gail Callahan's hand dyed yarn !  She's known as the Kangaroo Dyer and her sock yarns are really nice to work with.

Stay warm and dry everyone!

                                                                         

                                                                           

Thank You Kristin

Knitters who have worked on projects from Kristin Nicholas' book,  Color By Kristin, have been sending her pictures of their completed projects and she has been showing them on her blog, Getting Stitched On The Farm.  I sent her a picture of my Over the Top Shawl and last Saturday she included my picture in her post with some very nice comments about it - what a thrill!  I have been knitting Kristin's sweaters way back when she was designing for Classic Elite and I have always enjoyed her patterns. Way back then, she published a Classic Elite knitting book and it was the only knitting book published that Fall!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!  In the middle of racing around this past week shopping, mailing, more shopping, more mailing ( next year, more online shopping!) writing Christmas cards, receiving wonderful letters and cards from friends, I saw this at a local shopping center:

                                                                                                                                                                  
 I sat in my car drinking my coffee (just finished my last trip to the Post Office) and enjoyed this beautiful sight. A few more pictures from around this area:
                                      

                                                                                     

                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                              

The Coldest Spot in the Nation

This is how the Truckee Chamber of Commerce promotes the town on the Visitors/Weather section of  it's web site;  how they think that will entice visitors to come here has always been a mystery to me.  Actually, Truckee isn't the coldest place in the nation in the winter - it's usually pretty mild by Chicago and Buffalo standards.  One doesn't talk of "wind chill factors" as in, " It's 15 degrees with a wind chill factor of minus 20!".  We got this title from USA Today which tracks the coldest and warmest place in the nation every day and in the summer it is not unusual for temperatures to drop into the 30's at night, and be back up into the 80's during the day.  Truckee seems to be the town with the most consistent cold temperatures in the summer and, thus, the title.

When I made my Over-The-Top Shawl by Kristin Nicholas I was thinking of those cool (ha! cold) summer nights when we go to concerts, plays and other outdoor events.  Kristin's Julia yarn is 50% wool, 25% alpaca and 25% mohair and this shawl is a delight to wear.  So warm and cozy.  It may look complicated to make, but if you are comfortable with Fair Isle or two handed knitting, it is really pretty easy.  Knit Picks has a good You Tube video on Fair Isle Knitting called Stranded Colorwork - English and Continental.   More about this project on a previous post if you want to take a look.

Meanwhile, I think we may be aiming for the title of  "Snowiest (is that a word?) town in the nation".  It has been snowing here since last Friday with more to come - lots of great skiing, snowboarding and snow shoveling!!  Here is a picture of our Weber grill on the back deck: