And I thought I liked winter

I like winter. I really do. I like the crunchness of the snow, I like the white of the snow, I like that I am not flinging bugs away from my face. So winter is okay.

Yesterday, my daughter, Mary, and I drove my son, Ian, downstate to a town called Reading. We left a little bit before 10 am. Of course you already know that Reading is in Hillsdale County, very close to the state line. I thought we were going to be going about 1/2 hour away from Kalamazoo, which is where Ian is going to school and living for now. No, Ian's car was in Reading and that was where we had to go.

So, we drive to Reading, drop off my son, and start to head back to Leelanau County. Which is about 6 hours away. It is 4 pm and it starts to rain. Rain is okay. We are in a car and we are dry. Which is more than we can say for the Amish who are in buggies with one umbrella. No pictures of them. Just envision pouring rain, open buggy, and very huddled people under one umbrella.

We stop in Byron Center to see my mother, who has just flown back from Florida. Her plane is late and we don't see her until 7 pm and we leave her house at 7:30 pm.

South of Big Rapids, we are hit with sleet. Lots of sleet. Drive at 30 mph sleet. It starts to get dark and is very sleety. The roads are rutty and it is hard to see at times. The good thing is that there are not many cars on the road and we are on the expressway and some snowplows are out.

We drive on, slowly, and the sleet turns to snow. Can't remember where, but it is snowing. That is better than sleet, as we can see.

At some point we pass Cadillac. We drive and after what seems like an hour, we still have not seen the end of the expressway. I have decided that we have hit the Twilight Zone and we are stuck forever in driving in snow in the dark.

We do reach the end of the expressway, continue slowly on and finally we see the flashing light for M-113. We make our turn and start down an unplowed road. Well, I am sure it was plowed at some time, but at this point in time, it is very rutty and snowy. We have decided to take M-113 to M-37 and then up to M-22, M-204, again onto M-22 and home. We have been told that our road is plowed.

Clean off our wipers at the intersection of M-37, partially slide into the intersection at Chum's Corners where a police cruiser watches and very nicely ignores the fact that our light was red. We back up, wait for the green and continue on. Saw our first car off of the road. Pull off into McDonalds to clean our wipers, again.

Back on the road, on to Suttons Bay. Reach Suttons Bay and turn onto M-204. Come into Lake Leelanau and see two cars with flashers on, parked in the middle of the side streets. Make condesending remarks about vehicles stuck in snow and how well we have done for the past eight hours on our trip back home.

We approach M-22 and have already decided that we are not going to stop for the stop sign as we may not get any further if we lose momentum. We turn north and head towards Leland. Only 4 miles from home!

And hubris hits. M-22 has not been recently plowed. The snow is deep enough that as we hit it, it comes up and hits our windshield. The wipers can not clear off the snow fast enough and we have to stop and clean off our lights, windshield, grill and anything else that is covered with snow and ice. We start back down the road and see a county road plow approaching us from the rear. We are driving down the middle of the road, so we pull over to the side and let the snowplow go by. Yes!!!! We will follow the plow home.

Wrong. The van is stuck in the right side of the road.

A truck comes by. He tries to help us push the van out, but no shovels. No cat litter. Did I mention that my eldest daughter sold her house and used the van to move on Saturday? Which meant that all of my winter stuff had been removed to make room for her boxes. Also, I had no boots, no hat, no gloves or mittens, no coat. After all, when we left at 10 am that morning, it was fairly warm. It is now midnight and we are tired and want to get home.

We call home for help. We call Van's for towing and leave our information. We sit there. Another snow plow goes by. We see red lights, twice. We finally figure out that the power lines have touched each other and have given us a light show.

Rineharts from the Whaleback Inn drive by. They too are coming back from downstate, where it was nice and warm. They, too, know exactly what we have been driving through. They stop, try to push us out, and decide that they will go home and come back with shovels.

We wait. Our good samaritans come back and after shoveling and shoveling and shoveling, we start to push. The van comes free and we drive home.

Except, our road has not been plowed out. Not only has it not been plowed out, it has been plowed in. We stop in the middle of M-22 (which in only one lane) and look. We are one half mile from home and we can't get there. It is 1:30 am and we want to be home. Even if we tried to plow our van through the berm, we would be stopped by the 2 feet of snow on the road. We drive north on M-22 to see if we can park anywhere and walk in. We drive all the way up to North Lake Leelanau Rd. and that isn't plowed out either. Nothing is plowed out. There is only a one lane down M-22. No driveways, no side roads. Just lots and lots and lots of snow.

We carefully turn around and head back to our road, hoping to find somewhere to safely park the van. Nope. We call the sheriff's department for advice. We are told to park the car in a parking lot. Ummm, what parking lot? Well, then, how about the side of the road? Right. The side of the road that has over 2 feet of snow, the side of the road in which we will be stuck.

We drive back into Leland, looking for anywhere to park. We are now getting desperate. Maybe we could park in a parking lot in Leland and hitch a ride with someone else who is driving aimlessly around at 2 in the morning. Except, the parking lots in Leland have lots of snow. There is no way to drive into a parking lot.

We turn around, go back up to McLeod (our road) and look at the road. It has not been plowed since we left. There is still a berm, then lots of snow. We look at the side of the road. Still lots of snow there. It is against everything in me to deliberately drive my van into a snow bank. But I have no choice. I am so close to being home. After three false starts, my van is nicely parked in a snow bank.

We get out of the car, grab the two dogs, one Scottie and one Cocker, and head towards our road. The snow is up to my knees and past my daughter's knees. the Scottie is engulfed by the snow and we have to carry her.

Mary and I take turns breaking snow, stopping to catch our breath several times.

At 3 am, we walk into the house.
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Pictures taken the next morning:


Snowplow plowing our road


Our tracks down the road


See how deep it was?

Henry's

Have to announce the new yarn that came in this week. Henry's Attic.


We restocked and added.


This is Irish Lace and Shahrazade.

And don't forget the alpaca, as in Prime Alpaca and Peruvian Tweed. My favorite color is the dark brown with bluey charcoal.


Look at the Aztec Boucle. We have four colors - Ecru, Tan, Amber, and Kalahari.




Then there is Monte Cristo which makes for very soft, comfy baby blankets.

Be aware that yarn from Henry's Attic is very addicting. And for those of you who want natural, this is the place. No dyes.

What's Knitting?

Folks have been knitting the fingerless gloves/mittens/gauntlets/whatever you want to call them, for the past year. I have to admit that the ones we have had as samples in our shoppe never caught my eye. Then, about 2 weeks ago, I tried on a pair that one of the customers brought in. And I loved them! What was the difference? These fit. I have large hands and the ones in the shoppe were all too tight on me. But these fingerless mittens were my size.

So I sat down and knitted these up, out of Lamb's Pride Worsted. And I love them. They are bright and warm.

During a knitting weekend, seven and a half years ago, my goal was to learn how to knit socks. I had been playing around with knitting socks, but wasn't very good with it. Not only did I learn more about knitting socks, but I also learned how to change colors.

Voila! See what I wrought.


But that was pretty much all I did with that pair. I discovered this sock last weekend while rooting around in my stash in the basement. Time to knit the other sock, don't you think?

The woes of being married to a master bread maker

One of the many reasons I married my husband, was because he was a fantastic cook and baker.



And he has not let me down. This is what I get to eat.



"Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods, and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts." James Beard (1903-1985)

Moving on

The ShiBui trunk show is gone. It was great fun while it was here.


It had a chance to travel downstate with Melody to Knit Michigan.



And then it hung around with us for several weeks.






This week, we received this box. It has 130 skeins of Opal sock yarn. Starting this Sunday until next Sunday, we are running a sale on all of our Opal yarn, the 6-ply included.



Here is my next major project.



It is the Knitted Ruana from the Folk Shawl book by Cheryl Oberle. I will be using some Lamb's Pride, La Gran, Kiss, Bella, handspun from Ram-A-Llama Ding Dong, Stellar, Bo Peep sock, and Yang. The colorways include pinks, blues, and beiges. This will be wonderful to wrap up in.

I will be working on it during our Saturday KAL. Join Susan and I and we will help you plan your shawl or lace project.

Bleak and Dreary

Hah! Thought we might be through with winter? No way. For those of you who know me, winter is my second favorite season, behind fall. I would much rather shovel than weed or mow. And it gives me a chance to wear my sweaters and vests. I blame it on my husband for taking us to Alaska.

Tracy, from the Bayside Salon, brought in this poem. I don't know the author, but it speaks to what we have been experiencing this winter.

Michigan Poem

It's winter here in Michigan and the gentle breezes blow.
Seventy miles and hour at seventy-five below,
Oh, how I love Michigan
When the snow's up to your butt.
You take a breath of winter and your nose get frozen shut.
Yes, the weather here is wonderful.
So I guess I 'll hang around.
I could never leave Michigan
Cause I 'm frozen to the ground.

Renovations update, again

This should be the last update for our renovations, maybe. There are still some things I want to do, like hang our samples from the ceiling, but that will be a while from now. So here are some photos. And of course, it is much better when you see it in person.



Here you are in the front room. We have books, buttons, table and chairs, notions, and spinning wheels.



The main room, the one you walk into, has our checkout, various yarns, patterns, and notions.



The last room has all of our sock yarns, Lamb's Pride, Polar Knit, and other yarns.


The last I counted Lamb's Pride has 93 colors and when our order comes in this week, we will have just about all of them.

Winter Sweaters

Wintery weather calls for warm sweaters. Danielle made hers out of the Cascade Eco Wool in purple. This is the Swing Jacket from Knitting Pure and Simple. Really cute on her and what a great fit!

Susan knit this out of ShiBui Merino Alpaca.


This is a pattern from SweaterKits. The sweater will be going down to Knit Michigan. Melody will be representing our shoppe and we will be exhibiting ShiBui and Icelandic yarn. ShiBui is sending us a trunk show, so be ready to stop by the shoppe in another 1.5 weeks. We will have lots of wonderful knitted garments ready to touch and drool over.

Continuing our renovation

We are continuing to work on updating the shoppe. This is where we put the checkout counter.


Then the rest of the main room.

And check out the front room. Three of the trellis's are sitting out in the front lawn, in the snow.


This is the last of the trellis's. We purchased three bookcases from Ikea to replace the trellis. They are in the middle room.

Hopefully our carpenter is coming in tomorrow to put up the slatboard in the front room. Then we will use hooks for the notions and needles. Books and patterns will go on bookcases.

I am still looking for a table. If you know of a 60" oval pedestal table, let me know.

Renovation time

After being in business for 1.5 years, we decided it was time to look at the shoppe and see how we could use the space to give you better service. We decided to put a table and chairs in the front room, to use for classes. Books, notions, and patterns will also go out into the front room. Yarn will be in the main and back room.

We are getting rid of the trellis and brought in shelves for the yarn. Here are Kate and Ashley working hard, helping to set up the new shelves.



And here is the finished project.


The checkout area has also been moved.


We are still in the process of moving items around. This is the back room - we took the shelves out and the countertop will also be removed.


The room will have shelves full of yarn and the buttons and notions are going into the front room where we are putting up slatboard for the notions. Bookshelves will hold patterns and books.

I have four boxes sitting in the closet, waiting to be unloaded. New yarn from Farmhouse Yarns, more Denise Organizers, yarn from Fiber Trends, and felted items and other goodies from Rising Tide.

Click and knit

Yup, they are here. The Addi Clicks. There are 10 different tips, from US 4 to US 15 (no US 5, and don't ask me why), along with a 24", 32", and 40" cord. You place the cord into the tip, twist, and let go. It clicks into place and will never pop out. If you don't want the case, put the needles and the rest of the kit into this - the Denise Organizer. We also ordered Loft Color from Skacel. This yarn was used in knitting the Inside Outside Scarf from Knitting Universe. Then we have sock yarn that can be knit with US size 3 - Opal 6 ply and Trekking 6 fach. Now, if I could just order some knitting time.