The Great Seattle Blizzard of Aught-8

Boys and girls, I was there.  The snow came a-blizzarding down on the 18th of December – not, mind you, what we Illinois folk would call a-blizzarding – more what we’d call a fluffy little snowfall – but in the mild, Pacific climes of the far northwest it did qualify as a mighty storm.

With four inches on the ground, upon my arrival at SeaTac that same night, I was marooned for near three hours, with no egress available to me and some 300 other travelers but the weary fleet of Seattle taxis, one of which did at long last me bring me the 9 miles to my sister’s house.  

Thereafter, she and I and my nephew did flee north to our mother’s more secure home, whereupon we were snowbound there for one week, as the snow did barely slow its pace for all that time.

My sister’s car, on Christmas Day 2008.

And so Christmas 2008 was passed.  

I decided this year that my sister needed a new stocking:

Pattern: Family of Funky Stockings by Sandy Cushman (largest size), in the book Handknit Holidays: Knitting Year-Round for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Winter Solstice (amazon link).

Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted (mmmm…malabrigo), in sealing wax, forest, and apple green (approximately 1/2 skein of each) – thanks to Brigitte for helping me pick out the colors – they’re perfect!

Time to complete: Maybe 2 weeks?

Satisfaction: *Love* – Malabrigo lives up to the hype.  It knits like cocoa with rum in it.  I’ll be making myself a new stocking for next year with the leftover.

This was less successful:

Pattern: Stockinette Short-row Sphere, by Brent Annable – made a medium one and a small one as Christmas tree ornaments

Yarn: Knit Picks Memories sock yarn, in Redwood (leftover from socks) – for Mom – and Allhemp6 in five colors (leftover from stripey hemp raglan) – for nephew

Time to complete: Not much.

Satisfaction: eh.  I don’t think I had a very good design concept.  Also, they turned out lopsided for some reason.

Eventually the weather cleared up and we caught some rural pleasures:

 

We escaped for a night to Willows Inn on Lummi Island – at which we were the only guests!  The owner waited on us himself while his wife cooked, and we had the inn to ourselves.  I cannot recommend this place enough.   The food was beyond amazing.

And we caught some urban pleasures, too:

Finally got around to visiting the Olympic Sculpture Park – on a sunny(!) day.  My mom had to explain this object at length to my five-year-old nephew.  Not sure he grasped what a typewriter is.

And all the while, we were terrorized with cuddles by the newest member of my sister’s family:

Fizzgig Wombat