Snow, Snow, and More Snow

Shows 6" outside my door, most of this is from today,
since it's been cleared fairly regularly, from
people going in and out.

    We are supposedly on the tail end of an unusual weather system here. Most winters, in and around the Seattle area, we get cold, rain and sometimes ice. On January 14th, it started to snow. It has changed many times during the days, sometimes being small ice pellets, other times large flakes of snow, a fine powder still other times. Over the last six days, we have gotten probably close to 18" of snow at my house. Totals have been extremely varied, depending on where you live, how close to the water you are and whether you are to the north or the south, but everyone in the Puget Sound has received some snow over the last six days. I've been voluntarily snowed in, since it started, as my car is over 10 years old and insurance would not cover a comparable replacement. My husband, The Redneck, is a very experienced snow driver and is one of the few people I would trust to get me somewhere in this snow, if I wasn't comfortable driving myself at that particular time, but even he has parked his truck and is walking to visit neighbors this week.


    The kids have had an extra four days off of school and it would appear that they will probably not go to school tomorrow as well. This means they will have extra days of school tacked on at the end of the year, making their summer shorter, but with all of the hills around here, it doesn't take a lot of bad, freezing weather to make it impractical for the buses to attempt their routes. Thankfully we have been one of the few to mostly maintain power throughout it all, most of my friends have lost their power for several hours and/or days. So far *knock on wood* we have only had a few power flickers and then 45 minutes without, last night. We've probably added about 4" - 6" of new snow, just today, as it has been snowing steadily since 5:30 am. Here is a comparison photo of our driveway & street, a few days ago and then this morning.

The left is from a few days ago (maybe Tuesday?), the right is from today.

Panache Shawl;
pattern by Lankalomero on Ravelry

    It hasn't all been a lost cause however. I have gotten some knitting done as well. I started this shawl on Friday (I think), I finished it on Tuesday. It actually took me a day longer than I had thought it would. I didn't feel quite as bad about that as I could have, once I realized that each row (over 300 stitches) was taking me 30 minutes to complete. I realized I only had five rows left, plus the crocheted edging, and then realized that it was still three hours from being finished, if I worked without interruptions. The shawl still needs to be blocked, but I'll wait for slightly warmer weather (next week) and no kids around trying to help or get in the way.

New pattern in the works
by Tandy Imhoff Designs

    My mom has been repeatedly asking for the pattern that I used to make a hat that I gave her for Christmas, as a dear friend of her's would love the pattern. I've tried explaining that it is something that I just winged, based on a picture I saw, but her friend REALLY wants the pattern. So yesterday, I pulled out a comparable yarn from my stash and set about duplicating the hat, writing down my procedure and stitch counts this time. Since I love designing multiple sizes, I also made a child's version, which I plan to expand into three child/teen sizes and two women's sizes. I'll be putting it all together soon, but here is a teaser photo of the hats I've made so far. (Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, didn't set up for a proper shot with proper lighting on this.)