Snow day!

The dire predictions of a winter storm had been circulating all week. Anyone who lives in the Northwest gets a little tired of these dire predictions of weather. They become the topic of conversation every year and often prove to be overblown.

This time, the weather folks were right. Last night coming home from working at a party downtown, the roads were dry and the sky was relatively clear. The moon was like a giant searchlight through the scattered clouds. This morning, I got up to snow and it's been coming down fairly steadily all day.

I grew up where it snows regularly in the winter and this little bit wouldn't be anything to talk about at all. But here, in the metropolitan Portland, Oregon area, this is very unusual and it pretty much grinds the place to a stop. Chains are required on all major roadways in the area today, which means I'm staying put. Thankfully, the party I was supposed to work tonight downtown got postponed, so there's no need to leave the house.

The next hurdle is how long it lasts. They're saying we could be in for these cold temps (highs in the 30F range) all week with scatterings of more snow. Since I have work and other obligations requiring me to drive around town all week long, it could get interesting. We'll see.

On the knitting side of things, I finished the crochet/knit combination scarf, but I haven't taken time to block it yet or get good photos or write up the pattern, so you'll have to be patient a while longer.

On the spinning side, I've been participating in a Christmas Spin-a-long from Uniquely Yours. I received four, 1-ounce batts a couple of weeks ago. The idea is that participants receive the same fiber and spin it up in whatever fashion we like. Then we post pictures of the finished yarn in the Ravelry group and there are prizes involved. Bonus points for knitting something with what you've spun.

Here's the fiber -- or more accurately, a quarter of the fiber. I split the batts roughly into fourths and spun them sequentially (green, blue, purple, red), creating two bobbins of singles, each with two repeats of the color sequence. I was going to then ply them together to create a self-striping yarn, but then I got a different idea. More about that later.

First, here are the individual singles. Each batt contained a variety of fibers and sparkle, so there are color variations and all manner of interesting things going on. (click pictures to make larger)

Spinning the singles was really fun because of the pretty colors, the nice fibers and all the sparkly bits.

So anyway, more about that different idea for plying. I remembered that I had two small cones of white "Bamboodle" purchased at Woodland Woolworks quite some time ago. Each is 440 yards. Hmmm. I decided to ply the spin-a-long fiber together with the Bamboodle to create a white/multicolored, barber-pole yarn that should have a great drape and a little sparkle. I plied the first bobbin of singles with most of one cone of Bamboodle this morning. It's still on the plying bobbin, but I hope to wind it off and set the twist later today. Then I'll have pictures and yardage estimates.

Doing it this way instead of plying the two singles together, should result in quite a lot of yardage -- enough to do a shawl of some sort. We'll see. :)

Oh, here's how Ellie helps me with the spinning. She prefers to keep the wheel's case warm and safe from any potential fiber-stealing fiends. LOL

Hope you stay warm and cozy, too!