Equipment Failure and Injury...

...or so the official results will read.

The main portion was done in only a day and a half. At that point I knew that the amount of yarn I had was not going to cut it. So I went to get some more. Neither the color I had nor the color I wanted was available at any of the 3? 4? stores I went to, so I got a slightly different color and launched into the edging. But I decided to do it the hard way. And forgot that it takes two rows of edging to bind of each of the 224 stitches around the edge. Sigh... While slogging my way through that, Joseph got sick. It was just a fever but one night of ruined sleep can be disastrous to an athlete. Some tree decided to drop all it's pollen on me, too. Three days of vicious sneezing has left my throat raw and prone to breathless coughing bouts. To cap it off, Elena got sent home from school with a fever, on Friday. So, having made it a bare 1/8 of the way around, I've now realized that the original amount of yarn isn't going to cut it, even with the secondary augmentation. As I sit here listening to Canadian rockers belt it out en francais I'm going to have to call this year a bust. I hope London will be better planned, on my part.

Frozen Beauty

The last time there was snow in the forecast, we got no more than a handful of pathetic, hard pellets. I knew it was going to be cold, today, and even though Elena and I walked through rain and sleet on the way to school I didn't really expect anything interesting. Boy was I wrong.


Huge fat flakes whirled around us like startled flocks of icy doves, dropping feather-soft down that melted on our cheeks. Joseph and I tried to catch some on our tongues while James loved feeling the crunch of snow under his shoes.


The simplest things became magical--a gap in the fence became a portal to an untouched world, bright green leaves practically glowed under a dusting of white.


We'd slip back inside for warm apple cider when our hands were red and aching from the cold, but James would cry and run to the door, begging for more.


Elena's class got to go out three times and she loved the snowball fights with her friends.


When Jonathan finished work he helped Elena and Joseph gather snow from all the cars to use in their snowman. It doesn't look all that happy, but that might be because it knows tomorrow is going to be warmer.


It's been a while since I've laughed so much at such small things. It's been beautiful.

A Challenge

A challenge has been laid down and I have decided to take it up. I might be insane, but I really hope not. I will start a knitting project during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, and finish it by the time the torch goes out.

Every project I start (minus the innumerable bibs and baby socks) seems to take at least a month to finish, though. This might be because I am not a monogamous knitter and tend to flit between projects like butterflies around a honeysuckle bush, but I refuse to let that stop me here. This is the nature of my personal challenge, after all. So, for the next two weeks I will pour my energy into a specific project, a gift for a good friend. If I manage to finish on time, I'll get my very own gold medal, and the knowledge that, for once, I got it done way ahead of time instead of looking through wrapping paper with one hand and running a hairdryer over the still-slightly-damp just-washed freshly-cast-off project with the other. Let the games begin.