Knitnzu is having a contest; when will the massive snow pile in her area melt? Hint: she lives in Maine. She also gives some data on last year's snow pile results in the post I linked to. The prize she is offering is AWESOME; a Nantucket Bagg! (Click on "Watch the pitch" in the left sidebar on the Bagg site -- the inventor demonstrates all the tricks that the bag can do. It is truly amazing.) She blogged about the bag a couple weeks ago, and I was so impressed that I ordered one myself. I have been using it all week instead of a purse (which was falling apart and needed to be replaced), and I love it! Plenty of interior pockets, plenty of room to hold the usual purse stuff plus my knitting, lunch, a book, whatever, and since it has straps to use it as a backpack, the extra weight is not the burden it would be if I were carrying it in my hand or on my shoulder. Win!
* * * * *
Tonight was Earth Hour. I was home alone so could participate without having to explain it to anyone else. At 8:05 my neighbor across the lake called to find out what time she should turn her lights out. At 8:25 I gathered some candles and matches and my iPod and my knitting; the latter two were already in use, I just took the iPod off its dock to run it on battery power. At 8:30 I turned off the lights.
The iPod dock was turned off, but I realize now that it was still drawing enough power to dimly light its blue screen, left. Oops.
Here is the same scene with camera flash on.
The multicolored sock at the back was for size comparison. I started some new socks for spring.
The yarn is some Opal that I won in Carole's Tour de Fleece contest in summer, 2007 (the white cuff is Knit Picks Essential Bare). I did about a quarter of what you see during the blackout hour. Let me just say that I am thankful for electric lights; at 9:30 I was ready to turn them back on. My eyes are not young enough to knit in dim light.
At 10:30 or so I stopped knitting and came into my office to write this post. A few minutes later my neighbor called -- she and her husband had kept their lights off for 2 hours, playing cribbage and Scrabble and having a great time. They had seen my office light go on and called to give me a hard time about turning it back on before they did. Fun!
* * * * *
I had to start that new project because the first piece of the baby sweater, upon which the next part will be built, was blocking.
Yeah, I know. That does not look like a baby sweater-in-progress. Here is a picture of a finished one on Ravelry to help you visualize. It is the child Einstein jacket by Sally Melville in The Knit Stitch.
The blue piece currently blocking is the lower part of the sweater. Tomorrow I will pick up stitiches to knit the fronts.
