In the Bleak Midwinter

Now that the film festival is over, it's time for lots of snow. It's a good time to stay indoors and quilt or knit. 

My "wow" for this week has to be Julie's Double Wedding Ring quilt, which she designed for her parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Julie used pillow cases for the photos because of the higher thread count. She uses Bubble Jet 2000 to prepare the fabric for printing with her dot-matrix printer. The fabric is ironed onto freezer paper, so it will go through the printer.

Common Threads met at Joanie's this week. Karan and Lynda show their amazement at Julie's beautiful quilt.

Margareth has made progress on her pullover. She's a very fast knitter and is already looking forward to the next project. Kathy was working on a beaded scarf. 

Joanie's kitty, Kasha, enjoyed hanging out with all the fiber, hoping for an unattended ball of yarn.  

I had pieced the backing for Zachary's I-spy quilt. It's a country landscape, so he can use the back side of his quilt to put his train set on.

The binding will be a green check cut on the bias. I gave the quilt to Julie to quilt for me. 

DH's Christmas Waffle sweater is almost done! If you have been following this project of mine, you know that it has been on the needles a long time. It will be good to have it finished. 

The Ravellenic Games have begun. As part of the Games, I'm going to try to finish the Christmas Waffle sweater, and then move on to the Dogwood Blossoms, which I want to finish to wear this winter. 

Most of the snow we've been getting the last few days is the wet, goopy kind, not the powder the resorts want. There have been avalanches all along the Wasatch Front. There was even a substantial avalanche in our neighborhood, Summit Park, so we can't snowshoe. We're used to—and equipped for—the snow, though, so most normal activities continue for us. Soren's family hasn't been as lucky (or luckier, depending on your point of view). They live in the Portland, Oregon, area, which was hit with a freak snowstorm with accumulations of several inches this past week. Everyone got a couple of days off as "snow days." Many local businesses were still open, although best reached on foot. Soren got to ride to the local coffee shop. Such is life!

What's on my needles: Christmas Waffle sweater moving along, yoke almost done. Sewing together Dogwood Blossoms. "Green Tea" socks, second sock coming slong, working on the foot. 

What's on my loom: Christmas present scarves, holding. I went ahead and mailed the Green Pastures cardigan to Soren. His dad will have to wait for the scarf. I was going to mail them together, but decided not to wait. Soren might grow out of it while I was finding time to weave the scarf. With luck, it will be finished before it stops being cold.

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the second I-spy quilt, this one for Soren. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey from Audible and have started The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman, a story about an Australian lighthouse keeper and his wife living on a remote island after WWI. Finished reading Pemberly to Waterloo by Anna Elliot in iBooks, bought through Book Bub, and have gone back to Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen, by Sally Smith O'Rourke, which I had put aside to read a library download. Also listening to the Fiber Hooligan podcast and the Knit Picks podcast, as usual.

What's my app of the week: I haven't actually tried this yet, but one of my quilting buddies swears by Duolingo, a free app that helps people learn a second language.

What's in my wine glass: Smoking Loon Merlot 2007. O.M.G.! Unfortunately, it has been in our cellar for some time, so we can't run out and get more of this vintage. I'm just wondering how it survived 5-6 years in our wine cellar. (The bottles turn over pretty fast in our household.)

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.