A snowy beginning...

2008 has roared in with a major snowstorm. On New Year's Eve when we left the house for a party, there was a dusting of snow on the ground. By the time we drove home about 1 am, there was eight inches of snow. It muffled all sound and outlined all the trees with white. Our 10 minute drive turned into closer to 30 minutes creeping our way home. No snow plows had been out to clear any of the roads. Thank goodness everyone was driving slowly and carefully.

The snow continued to come down and blow around on New Year's Day. It stacked up to 12" and still it fluttered down. The system snow moved out, turned into lake enhanced snow (I suspect that's the new code word for we haven't any freaking idea where it's coming from), and then into lake effect snow. The latter term is one I am very familiar with. If the wind comes across the warmer lake waters in the right direction, it bombs us with snow. One of the benefits of living near Lake Michigan is it keeps us warmer in the winter time; one of the disadvantages is lake effect snow.

Today, the snow continues to pile up at a slower rate.It looks more like shaking powdered sugar through a sieve. I'm guessing from the table out back (see photo) that we may have 15+ inches on the ground. Some areas near us already have 20"! The forecast is for the lake effect snow to stop by tonight and temperatures to drop into the single digits. It's already down to 10F outside. My wool socks feel good about now! :-)

I've been staying warm inside and working on spinning and knitting projects. I finished two skeins of handspun. The blue is from some silk and merino batts carded and dyed by my friend Liz. I plyed it with some blue thread to extend it and make a spiral yarn. [2.7 oz/400yards] The mulberry/blue skein is Shetland, maybe lambswool. [2.8 oz/244 yards) This is from several pounds of roving that Liz dyed up for me last year in different colors. Last night, I pulled out more Shetland she dyed red with bits of black to spin. It was going so nicely I hated to go to bed!

The Promenade Stole is growing. Four more pattern repeats and the edging to go. I'm itching to get this done so I can block it. I also finished a scarf for my hairdresser. I'll post a picture and details about it after I finish the hat that goes with it. It has to be done before my next haircut sometime this month.