I am knitting, re-skeining yarn I dyed last week, and looking for the perfect pattern for this striped tweedy Cranberry yarn I just finished.  Any ideas?

The weather finally changed to absolutely gorgeous, definitely winter, bright, *snappy*, days and starfilled nights.  This has me spending more time outdoors in the woods.   All of that beautiful powder on top of hard pack makes it perfect for winter tracking and just walkin’ if you don’t mind the single digit temperatures.  Here are a couple of shots from late afternoon yesterday.

   

What a strange winter.  Every time we get a little bit of snow, we follow it with a lot of melt.  My driveway was down to dirt level before the January thaw last week, if you can call weeks worth of warm weather the "January" thaw.  The frost started to come out of the ground, the ground water flowed freely from the sugar bush and flooded everything.  At night it froze.  Generally this is the prelude to sugaring and mud season.  Not this time.  Now, inches of ice cover the ground.  Another six inches of powdery snow hide the ice.  Family has come to visit, to ski.  My niece and I have made sled runs.  You can go extra fast with the underlying ice.  I’ve resurfaced the sled run, shoveling yards of snow into the sudden drops at the edge of the pond. The subsequent jolt was way too much fun for me.  When I need a break, we walk in the woods checking the tracks, naming who has been here overnight, this morning, since the last time we looked.  My back is making strange cracking noises, I’m black and blue and stiff as a board.  I wonder how much Advil I need to keep up with a 9 yr. old. 

My neighbor has taken to feeding his sheep with rolled hay this year, something new for him.  I saw this group as I drove by yesterday.  Little groups like this one were scattered around the field, kids circling a giant bowl of shredded wheat. 

While wishing for winter, I’m forcing reminders of spring.  This bunch was cut last week.  Time to check the early budding on the pussy willows down on the dam.

Project updates..
1. The ribbed V neck is sitting, waiting..
2. The Funnel Neck: ACTIVE
3. Backyard Leaves: ACTIVE, just not AS active
4. Dreaming of new projects:  NON-STOP
5. Knitting on the machine.. in progress
6. Dyeing: Yep, and more on the way.
7. Spinning: slow but steady

Claudia, thank you.  Thank you for a wonderful afternoon. Not eveyone would be brave enough to open their home to a loud, buzzing hoard ( the noise could be heard outside, down the street) of fiber bloggers.  Scary just to think about it.  I did not take my camera out of my knitting bag.  I’m sure pics will be all over the place. 

That said, I’ve been tagged.  I generally don’t do these.  Here goes.

The Meme
Four jobs you’ve had in your
life:

1. Darkroom Manager and Printer
2. College Teacher
3. Architectural Designer
4. Print Curator

Four movies you could watch over and over again:

1. Chocolat
2. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension
3. Tea with Mussolini
4. Out of Africa

Four places you have lived:

1. Pennsylvania

2. Rhode  Island

3. Vermont

4. New York

       

5. Four t.v. shows you
        love to watch:

1. Alias
2. 24
3. X-Files
4. Northern Exposure

Four places you’ve been on vacation:

1. Turkey

2. Mexico

3. Honduras

4. China

Four websites you visit daily:

1.-4 Blogines and all my feeds

Four of your favorite foods:

1. papaya
2. Cheese, cheese, cheese
3. Chocolate
4. does really good coffee count,
        Okay.. mangoes

Four places you would rather be right now:

1. Machu Pichu

2. Petra

3. Cappidocia

4. Yucatan

Four bloggers you are tagging:
   Only  if you want to guys……no pressure;-))
 1.  Cindy 
2.  Laurie
3. Cathy  
4.  Vanessa 

I have no idea why the spacing came out so wonky.. I could play with it all day, but, hey, I’ve got to get on the road.