Frosty Fairyland

It was -14 here this morning. That's Fahrenheit. And foggy. But the fog lifted, and left us this.

Bubbilicious

It's not as cold today (cresting 0F) and the wind isn't blowing, so I ventured further out for more frozen bubble shots. The bubbles didn't frost over like they did yesterday (amazing what 17 degrees will do), but they did last, and they did freeze. I took a few this morning on the deck, before it was fully light, and later I tromped out to the little barn and got some very cool shots. Just so you'll know- the clear bubble solution didn't work well, so I went with the yellow. I happen to like the yellow bubbles, but if the reaction on Facebook is any indicator, some of you will dislike them. Strongly. Bear with me, if you're one of those folks.

I bow to our Alien Bubble Overlords...

The silly things wouldn't land on the railing, like Nice Bubbles. I had to get all the way down on the deck floor to take this shot.

And this one.

A little later, the light was much better. That's me, btw, in the reflection. I'm wearing a red sweatshirt.

 Oopsie- it spilled. This was the homemade solution, which didn't work all that well anyway. It's going to warm up steadily the rest of this week, so I doubt there will be any new frozen bubble pics for awhile. It was fun while it lasted.

Adventures on the Frozen Prairie

You might have heard that it's cold in these here parts.

It's been Hunker Down weather for a couple of days now, and we've been going just a little bit stir crazy. Then I saw these photos, and thus began my mission to take some frozen bubble pictures of my own.

The first obstacle was remembering that I tossed out all of the bubble solution and wands last fall. But I found a soap bubble recipe online (1/4 cup of liquid dish soap, 3/4 cup of cold water, 5 drops of glycerin). The second obstacle was having no wand, but I made one from wire.

The third obstacle was a little tougher to overcome- it's windy. Very very windy (the screenshot above low-balled the wind. We had steady 25 mph winds and gusts higher). Too windy to get any beautiful intact bubble shots, those gorgeous ones that reflect sunlight and the surrounding landscape. I did, however, go out (in my jammies...) and try the bubbles. It took 20 or 30 tries to get a bubble to float on the air, but when it did, it was magical: the bubble would float up, become frosty, and then collapse silently like a silk parachute. It was amazing to see. Definitely worth risking frozen extremities.

But it was windy. The only photo I got yesterday was this one, of a bubble that got stuck on a porch post.

Ethereal, but not exactly what I had in mind.

So when The Hub went uptown this morning (Me? I'm not goin' no place), I charged him with finding me some commercial bubbles somewhere. He came back with the only option he could find: a $5 bottle of yellow bubbles (the caution warns not to use them indoors, or at weddings... that's some powerful yellow there).

It's still too windy for floaty-bubble pictures (or videos), and far too windy for serene reflecting bubble shots (and I'll use clear solution for them), but I got some amazing pictures anyway. Bear in mind that the wind chills were at dangerous levels and that I can't wear gloves and use my phone camera at the same time. The bubbles were blown and the pictures taken all within a 3-minute window, before frostbite set in.

You can bet that the moment the wind goes down, I'll be out there again.

Winter

It's been a couple of years since we had a real winter, so it's taking some time to acclimate (and for people to remember how to drive on icy roads). There have been some pretty cool photo-ops lately, though, and I've been slowly learning my way around the camera in my new iPhone. It's amazing.

Frosty Window

It was about -8F

I especially love the panorama option.

Click to see the full-size beauty

More of the same

More spinning, more knitting, more sneezing, more snow, more agonizing over changing the MG Fantasy into a 1st Person POV (which was my suggestion, and the absolute right way to go, but still tricky). Same old, same old.

I've had a hard time getting the true colors of the natural cotton yarns to show up in a photo, but I think this one captures it well. L-R: Cream Cotton 71yds, 2-Color Brown and Cream 129 yds, Buffalo Brown 127yds. Total: 110gr. I have given up on the cream cotton (which might be Pima)- it's extremely soft, and I love the color it boils out to, but it's hard to spin. The fiber comes out in clumps no matter which end I spin from, and it's a pain. I have about a pound of this stuff, and I think I'll put it up on eBay so some better spinner can do it justice. I'm sure not doing it.

It occurs to me that all of my photos make the yarn look like it's worsted weight. I thought I'd take a comparison pic- it's not all fingering weight, but most of it is thinner than sport (except for those fat spots, which I think adds *character*... yeah, character... that's it...).

I'm almost done with the latest leftover hat. I decided to carry the texture and striping up through the decreases, which throws off the decrease rows once in awhile. I'm not going to wrestle with evenly spaced decreases on the same row as the *K2tog,YO*. So there will be a couple of extra rows in the crown, but still, I think it'll look fine.

I think I'll take a break from leftover hats for awhile (or at least reserve them for travel knitting), because I have a wedding shawl to design and knit. I have plenty of time before the wedding, but I am known for skating deadlines, and it would be nice to have this one done early (given that Procrastination is my middle name, it's A Good Thing that I'm starting now).

P.S. The cold is better. I think I'm on the other side of this one- I give Zicam all of the credit (and bronchitis all of the blame- it's really true that once your immune system is compromised, you're vulnerable to very bug in the vicinity).

Stitchin' and remarkably little bitchin'

It got plenty cold here last night, but not as cold as was predicted. We didn't get to -30 (F, air temp), so I couldn't try the Magic Water Trick. But here's a sample, from Minnesota:



We only got to -24, which isn't cold enough. Darn.

Inside, where it's nice and warm, I've been sewing.

These are not Spoonflower fabrics, mostly because I didn't have time to design anything specific for this recipient, and also because there are lovely, commercially produced, coffee-themed fabrics, that cost far less than $16 per yard (I love Spoonflower dearly, but if there's no reason to wait 10 days and pay extra, then there's really no reason to wait 10 days and pay extra).

 I have to admit that the bloom is off the slipper rose- I'm fairly bored with sewing them. However, they are so adorable, and I do have a few more gift-pairs to sew. The little flat bag is a new notion- a sort of variation of the larger fabric box bag. I like how it came out.

 Just in case you couldn't see the print in the other pics- the light fabric is covered with Coffee Words, all in Courier, it looks like.

And I've been knitting. Here's the Noro Mitered Square hat.

This one might almost be masculine enough for a Guy. Maybe. What do you think?

At any rate, my cold is better, and my house is warm, and I'm enjoying this bit of time off, so I'm not complaining about much of anything today. I'd better enjoy that while it lasts.