Travel Chaos

It's so frustrating. I've been thinking, I have so many ideas I need to crystallise as words on... whatever this is. It's not paper, it's better (for this) because I can add pictures so easily. I have a duff toe (it's getting better) and a skein of Colinette sock yarn and a copy of Norsk Strikkedesign and a fabulous summer top knitted in cotton from Liberty as souvenirs of Saturday in London. I want to examine that top and see how it was made so I can work out how to make something similar. I'm 1.25 sleeves away from finishing 'the sweater that fits'; it looks as though it does, but he's asked for socks before he goes away in March so I've cast on sock yarn on 2mm needles. Oh, the relief to have socks on the go again! But I've got a cast-iron dyed-in-the-wool project deadline on Friday, so I must be strong. And hold all the words and ideas pent up until they tumble out through the penstock to drive my creativity. Ha. Here's what I wrote on Friday, before the deadline arrived.

That was the view from our kitchen door at 0630 on Thursday. I've been unkind to my little Canon S70 -- it's not a big-ass Nikon, but then I'm not a big-ass photographer. Did I really say that? Anyway, I found the book of words and investigated changing shutter speeds before trying a handheld (braced against the wall) 1 second exposure. By rottweiler light (as the infra-red sensor security lights are sometimes known). Alas, the snow falling gently from the sky looks more like rain sheeting down. The things on poles are birdfeeders; the big one holds about 4litres of seed.


After he'd left for work (dedication or stupidity? Place your bets now), I took this, a 30 second exposure with flash to try to 'freeze' some of the falling snow. Which it did, but not in a good way. It could be a really bad case of dandruff. It has just occurred to me that the snow was not incredibly deep, perhaps 2-3cm, so it can't have been snowing for longer than an hour or so.



And this was the view from my window at about 0845. It's still snowing. It didn't stop snowing until about 1500, although for the last two hours it was melting faster than it fell. Looking at this I am reminded that I shouldn't sneer quite so strongly at the travel chaos. Remember, all you northerners, that most British people are driving on 'summer tires'. Snow tires are extraordinarily rare. The usual winter hazard is ice, which is dealt with by sending out trucks to spread gritty salt on the roads whenever frost is forecast.

Today? Rain. Grey, green, brown. The magic carpet that covered the trash, the dirt, the broken dreams to create a brief-lived wonderland has melted.

Never mind, I have bags of yarn and roving. I can make dreams reality.

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

I didn't watch Sesame Street, honest, my sister did. I was 17, she was 2. So why can I remember all the songs? There are actually several differences, so think like a non-knitter. I noticed this yesterday evening. He kindly offered to finish winding my ball of yarn while I made dinner. Does the difference mean something? How do you wind your yarn?