thrums | my life, with needles and thread » snow

are happy days coming back anytime soon?

Lori — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:45:02 +0000

I sure hope so — I’m getting tired of hearing my grumpy self. Today would’ve been just fine, even great, perhaps, but I slept wonky (wonkily, I guess) and woke up with a terrible crick in my neck. The muscle is a big knot, right where my neck joins my shoulder, and it’s spasming and I can’t turn my head in any direction. Breathing makes me gasp, you know that kind of deal? I just tried to eat, so I’d have something in my stomach for the aspirin to land on, but I couldn’t lean my head forward which, turns out you need to do a lot, to eat. I must’ve gotten stuck in one position in my sleep last night and goofed up that muscle.

But we had another snowstorm last night – a whopper – and it came with thunder and lightning again. Oh how I love that. We woke up to deep, deep, deep wet snow, the kind that’s great for snowballs and snowmen and sledding. Schools are closed, streets are unplowed, and it’s really beautiful (even though I have now legally and officially had ENOUGH OF THIS). I had to take a subway ride a couple of stops downtown from where I live, and I snapped these shots:

heavy piles of snow blanketing the trees -- it'll come crashing down very soon i'm sure

an urban snowman, with baby beets for buttons, and that's probably an organic carrot. this IS the upper west side, after all.

I think I’ll crab walk my way over to the market and get a bottle of Brooklyn Brown Ale. Since I drink so rarely, a little bit goes a long way; maybe it’ll help relax that poor little knotted-up muscle. I’m sure y’all would be thrilled not to have to listen to me yelping every couple of seconds.

If you have any secret home remedies for spasming muscles that you’d be willing to share, heaven knows I’d love to hear them.

beauty and … well, not beauty

Lori — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:45:42 +0000

I think I’ll start with the “not beauty” so I can end on a high note, on the last post I’ll ever write in 2010. We’re 5 days past Blizzardgeddon – the idiotic name the media gave to our big storm last Sunday – and boy is the bloom off that rose. For real. Here’s a shot out my living room window (shot through a filthy living room window, I apologetically add), of the view of my street. It’s made even worse by the fact that tomorrow morning trash is picked up, so it’s all out at the curb. Days like this I have to repeat over and over to myself “you love NY, you love NY, you love NY.”

looks like a set for a post-apocalyptic movie, doesn't it?

It only needs blood-dripping zombies staggering down the street to complete the gloomy lifeless feeling. Good thing I don’t feel gloomy and lifeless. Or zombie-like.

So here’s the beauty. My 3rd daughter has figured out that a very easy gift for me is yarn. She sometimes gives me a book – I’m so very very easy. The easiest person in the whole wide world. Here’s what she gave me for this past Om Day celebration — Berroco’s new Ultra Alpaca tonal, 2 skeins:

430 yards, worsted weight.....GO!

So soft, so beautiful, such a long queue to fit it into. There are worse problems.

And I’ll end unexpectedly, since this is a fancy day of anticipatory celebration (yay new decade! wait…last year actually startNever mind.). You get to decide whether this is beauty or not beauty. For me, it’s beauty all the way. It’s my favorite polka of ALL TIME, “In heaven there is no beer”. I used to polka around my bedroom to this when I was pretty little, and yes I was ‘unusual.’

See you next year!

snow day

Lori — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 18:42:09 +0000

Y’all, I have SO much work to do it’s waking me up in the middle of the night stressing about it. So my plan (drafted in one of those mid-night wake up freak outs) was to get up early and GET ON IT. And now it’s 1:30pm and what have I done? Not work. I made bread, two loaves baking now. I did some straightening up, caught up on online things neglected, and took a walk outside to see the snow before it gets too ugly. And man, it’s windy. I know this, I see the trees and light pole bending frighteningly far with each gust; I see people leaning hard walking into it, not getting anywhere; I see people flying if the wind is to their backs. I see the air full of snow, being lifted and blown off the street. But I did venture out, and nearly got blown over once. It was so frightening I started laughing kind of hysterically. You can click any photo to enlarge:

dark and stormy (and not just the weather!): KNITTING!

Lori — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 15:58:01 +0000

I promised that knitting content would return, since this is after all (ostensibly) a knitting blog. The truth is that I haven’t felt much like knitting lately, and I haven’t had much time, either. But I have been making steady progress on my birthday sweater, pattern courtesy of my friend Kelly (dark and stormy cardigan, by thea colman, yarn is madelinetosh vintage, in baltic). Knitting the 3″ wide front band takes a long time, since it goes continuously up one side, around the collar (with a big section of short rows to make the wide cardigan collar) and back down the other side, in 1×1 ribbing. Maybe it’s just me, but 1×1 ribbing is the slowest thing to do. ANYWAY. Last night I finished the collar and bands, so I just have the sleeves to do.

cables and twists, so beautiful! and the way the cables drift into the ribbing at the bottom, really great.

look at that great collar - loose bindoff is critical here

the front of my beautiful birthday sweater -- unblocked, obviously!

So that’s been fun. I know I always get bored with sleeves, which seem interminable, but I hope they feel relatively fast, after the long slog of the collar and bands. Stockinette will be welcomed again.

And here are a few obligatory shots out my window, since we’re in Blizzardgeddon, as they call it. Silly.

snow out the back window

view from my front window. in the windowsill: two brass horney toads, a tibetan singing bowl, and a porcelain star-shaped box full of pins. my stuff.

see that van? its alarm went off most of the evening. i really hope their battery died.

The wind is gusting like mad, and I’m watching pedestrians being blown around, or trying to walk forward but being blown backwards. And once again, I’m glad to be working at home.

socks and snow

Lori — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:10:48 +0000

Finally, I finished the Hedera socks I’ve been knitting all month, just in time for the daughter to arrive home for spring break:

Hedera, in KP Felici, colorway cochineal

a pair of socks for a cold dorm room floor

my rav project page here

The snow has been really amazing here in Manhattan – yesterday we got just shy of 21″ of snow in Central Park! We’re knocking on the top 10 list of biggest snowfalls since 1869 or something like that. Here are some newer shots from my neighborhood…..

isn't this a strange icicle?

in front of my building

my street corner

panorama of Riverside Drive

birdie num num

my little corner of Riverside Park

Riverside Park

stop reflecting on the snow

snowy gargoyles watching over us

Now, off to make pillows and watch people play in the snow outside my window. The city has proclaimed that this is snow day, and they’ve set up places to play and sled, and they’re serving hot chocolate. One reason I love this town, they do things like this.

not me, too!

Lori — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:39:15 +0000

I know, talking about the snow is getting SO OLD. Posting pictures of the snow, the same. But I haven’t done so yet this year, and even though I’ve been living in the north for 7 years now, snow is still an exciting thing for a Texan – especially this much snow.

As much as I complain about the soul suck of my job, one good thing about it is that for the most part, it’s possible for me to work from home if I need or want to. And today I wanted to, because of the silly pronouncement of the “snowricane” or “snowrnado” (depending on which weather site you pick). Reports of Gusting! Winds! UP TO 75 miles per hour! Days and days of power outages expected! Watch out! And also: back alert weather. The snow is heavy, and you might hurt your back so watch out.

We haven’t had the winds – at least here in Manhattan – but it has been snowing without stopping all day long. It started snowing before 7am and there hasn’t been a moment’s pause. Some hours the flakes are huge, like monarch butterflies, and other times they’re normal sizes. The trees are hanging with heavy snow on the branches – all the way out to the tips, hanging heavy. The snow is so wet, it falls in fists off the ends of the branches. It’s really pretty. I sit at a desk right by the window and work work work, pausing to glance out the window at the beautiful view. Want to see?

practically my back yard

pretty lampposts

Riverside Drive - so empty!

the end of my street

I know they look like black and white photos, but they’re not. It’s just a black and white world right now. Very very pretty – especially since I get to just watch it out my window.

Tonight I hope to get some knitting done, and I have a LOT to get done this weekend: making the pillows using my new fabric, finalizing a syllabus, and cutting out that wedding dress I still haven’t cut out.