Frosty…….

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
It's frosty pepper up my nose
excerpt from Winter Time by Robert Lous Stevenson

Well, I have finally come up from air.  Never before or at least in recent years has the phrase, "baby it's cold outside", hit home like it did this weekend.

We live in the Mount Washington Valley of New Hampshire and are a relatively hardy bunch of people.  Three feet of snow is a normal amount of snow for this time of year and we are used to the cold temperatures as well.  May not always love them, but we know to expect them. 

Typically when the temps drop below zero we trickle the water in this old house because we know that some of the pipes will freeze.  Ken drags out a ceramic heater and drops it down into the crawl space that we get to call part of our basement and wait for the temperatures to rise again before we pull it out.  It is a royal PIA to be honest with you, but it beats frozen pipes for sure!

When the temperatures dipped to -26 degrees on Friday after a long spell of minus something degrees, we never gave a thought to trickling the water out in my shop.  Not even one single little thought, so when Ken came in with sort of a sick look on his face Saturday morning after getting ready for a trip to the dump, I knew something was up.  My comment to him was, "spit it out…what's wrong?"  When he told me that the pipes had frozen out in the shop I just wanted to throw up.  You know that feeling when you bump your head really hard and you drop to your knees and see stars.  Yes, that feeling.

Normally it would not be that huge of a deal, but I had just finished running a very successful New Years sale, which meant a lot of dyeing was going to happen. So much so that I closed down my website to be sure that I could get everyone's orders to them in a timely manner.  I just closed my eyes and wanted to disappear in that moment.  It was not Ken's fault, so I didn't want to appear to be upset with him, but truly…yes, those stars.

Ken, God bless his heart, worked tirelessly trying to free up the pipe that was frozen, all the while with a nasty cold.  Crawling in the crawl space, heating the pipes, digging up the air vaults that he placed on each end of the water line from the house to the shop to no avail.  We tried putting a hose on top of the snow from the frost free spigot connected to the house out to the shop via a window but that pipe burst….agggh, so we resorted to hauling water in the old fashioned way, in big buckets..not.fun!

Ken finally admitted defeat and called in the plumber.  Neither one of us wanted to have to spend the money if he could fix it, but sometimes you just do what you have to do and God bless our plumber's chatty soul (because he is SO chatty), he was able to find where the freeze was and blast it out.

To any of you young men who are not sure you want to go to college.  Please, be a plumber or an electrician.  You will be worth your weight in gold!!
(and the pay is pretty darn good too!)

 

Artic breath coils the mountain,
Rattling the forests' bones.
Raindrops cling to the branches:
Jewelled adornment flung to earth.
Deng Ming~Dao

I wouldn't quite call it raindrops….man oh man, we have received a LOT of snow up here since the first of December, well over 3 feet.  We are running out of space in the driveway for the plow man to put it.  It's so pretty though the morning after a storm though, don't you think?

…and the dogs are just not loving it as you can see they have made a path just wide enough to do their business and get right back in, because not only has it been snowy, it's been frigid and their little feet get so cold.  The dogs are not that heavy, so their path is not that deep, it is lightly packed down and not to the ground for sure.  If one were to jump into the untouched snow, it would be well over her head.
Silly dogs..

If you live up here, you have to love winter because it's long!
Have a wonderful weekend!

Last Sunday, Ken and I headed down to attend the wedding of friends in Western Massachusetts.  The wedding was a beautiful event full of fun, food, spirits and good music.  We were happy to share our time with fellow knitting bloggers there as well.

The wedding also happened to be a stone's throw from WEBS Yarn Store.  One of those knitting bloggers who was at the wedding is my good friend Carole.  We convinced Dale and Ken that we really needed to go to WEBS the next morning after a leisurely breakfast.  There was a sale going on…and well, there are no weaving stores in my area… just sayin' and I want to focus a little more on making time to spin and weave this year.  They were good sports about hanging around a big yarn store with a LOT of shopping women.  Thanks guys!

Carole was holding a pinkish color of yarn and I turned and said to her, "I'm not really much of a pink person".

Hmmm…….look what came home with me in addition to the Enchanted Knoll batt I bought last week.  I guess I will be re-thinking my opinion of pink. 😉

This is the moment of embarking.
All auspicious signs are in place.
Deng Ming~Dao
In the beginning, all things are hopeful.  We prepare ourselves to start anew.  Though we may be intent on the magnificent journey ahead, all things are contained in this first moment; our optimism, our faith, our resolution, our innocence.
(More Deng Ming~Dao)

Pattern:  Elisabeth Headband
Designed by:  Chic Knits
Yarn:  Woolen Rabbit ~ WW Kashmir
Colorway:  Chimney Sweep

A few weeks ago, Ashley randomly sent me a pin from Pinterest with no note attached.  Hmmm, I thought.  She must be hoping that I can make something like this for her, so I logged onto Ravelry and found this great e-book designed by Bonnie Marie Burns of Chic Knits.  Included in the book was this headband that was pretty darn close to the one Ashley liked. The nice part of being a yarn dyer is you can wander out to the shop and just pick a yarn that you like and start knitting.  The yarn I chose was WW Kashmir, which is super soft to have resting on your forehead.  Such a quick knit taking only 2 days to complete which made a nice extra Christmas present that I knew would make Ashley smile.

I snagged this picture from Ashley's FB page.  It shows off the cabling design nicely.  My two younger girls loved it enough to ask me to knit each one of them one too. 
After that I will be back at the cabled sweater that I needed a little bit of a break from, so that I can still love it. 🙂

Happy Knitting!!!

Christmas is always such a magical time, but this year Christmas for me was about the grandchildren.  It's a special time to enjoy with family, but it's always just that much richer watching the children enjoy and anticipate Christmas and all that it brings.  As usual our Christmas eve party was full of festive food, spirits and good conversation…and of course there was homemade eggnog with Kraken….so much fun!

Asher dressed in his little Santa Claus suit was just to cute for words.

  
McKayla the oldest of my grandchildren seems like she grows a little taller each and every time I see her.  She is a sweet girl who loves sports and all things "girly".  I so enjoy her company!  She was very happy when a box of Uggs was under the tree with her name on it.

…and then there is Aidan, our Christmas boy.  Aidan was born on Christmas 10 years ago at 10 minutes till midnight.  He is such a dear young man, who is always thinking of others before himself.  His favorite gift last year was shopping for Angels and Elves instead of receiving a gift.  Angels and Elves is an organization that makes sure all of the children in our Valley have some Christmas gifts under the tree on Christmas morning.
Aidan loves my yarn more than anyone else as well….that scores an A+ with me!

…and of course there were cookies!!!

Christmas morning after the opening of presents and the ritual cinnamon rolls and coffee, we headed down to visit my son, Miles and his family with my parents.  It makes my heart smile to see them all happy in their new home and life that they worked so hard for.

Big brother Jax with little Finley are just so sweet together.  We were hurrying to get this picture before Jax had to leave with his dad, so Finn was complaining a bit, but they are so cute together.  Jax is very gentle and loving with his baby brother. 

One of Jax's gifts that he picked out himself at his schools' Christmas sale, is the scarf that my son, Miles is wearing in his picture.  Jax is a good kid and Finn, just precious

My most favorite pictures of the day however is this one of my Mom holding little Finley.  This all started with my parents and it is so wonderful when we can all get together and enjoy some Christmas Spirit.

We had a wonderful Christmas here at casa Woolen Rabbit. 
I hope that your holiday was a festive and peaceful one as well!!

Wonderland…

A few years ago for Christmas, Ashley gave Ken and I a few movies.  One we watched one night when she was here and the other has sadly sat in the movie drawer.  Not because we didn't want to watch it, but we kind of forgot about it…….and we both have such a hard time figuring out the blu ray player that came free with the TV I bought a few years ago.  I know…pathetic, right?

Well, the other day, Ashley sent me this trailer for the movie, and feeling badly that I hadn't watched it yet, I suggested to Ken that we should do a movie night.  So I went out and bought some easy appetizers, got Ken a nice bottle of Ale and made myself a martini and a movie night we had. 
Wow….what a great little movie once your brain gets in sync with the sub-titles.  The best part about the sub-titles is that I was not able to multi-task.  I have a hard time just watching tv without doing something else, but what happens is I am only partially present in the moment.  Not with this movie and I loved it!

Thanks Ashley!!

Passion is a prelude to
Years of gradual unfolding
Den Ming~Dao

We are expecting a good dumping of snow this weekend, so I will stay tucked inside wrapping presents, baking cookies and embracing some Christmas Spirit.

Have a wonderful weekend in your corner of the world!