2012 February 12 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Snow in Texas

February 12, 2012 · by JudyL

You just never know about the weather! When we moved to Kentucky from Louisiana, I was so happy because I thought I was moving away from humidity and I could have straight hair and less allergies. Owensboro, KY sits right on the Ohio River, right in the Ohio Valley and the humidity and allergies were worse than they ever were in Louisiana. I had never seen snow . . ever really! I think when I was in the 5th or 6th grade, we had a dusting of snow but not enough to really call snow. So, when we moved to KY in October, I couldn’t wait for the snow. The first night we got snow, I was up all night watching it. I kept waking Vince up to give him updates. He had grown up in upstate NY and he was not impressed!

When we moved to MO, I wasn’t too surprised at the winter weather since the weekend we went there to look for a house, they got 20+ inches of snow. The summer weather surprised me because the summers there were hotter than anywhere we’d ever lived.

Here in Texas, we knew the summers were going to be hot and dry and I knew we’d have a bit of winter weather but I really didn’t expect snow ever! We had predictions for ice and snow today and we’ve had both!

The flakes are big and fluffy . . we won’t get much and it won’t stick around long but it surely is pretty!

Poor Vince! He was asleep in his chair and I went running in the house to be sure he saw the snow. Nope .. he hadn’t seen it and nope, he wasn’t real interested and nope, he wasn’t impressed. Maybe when you grow up with massive amounts of snow, you’re never happy to see it and maybe when you grow up without ever seeing snow, you’re always happy to see it. What about you? Happy to see it? Never want to see it again? It definitely makes a difference when you know you won’t have to shovel it and in a few days the temps will be back up to 70º.

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 50 Comments

Retreat Weather

February 12, 2012 · by JudyL

The weather is looking decent for the retreat; some rain maybe on Friday and Saturday but traveling days look to be great.

We have a bit of threatening weather (ice/sleet) headed our way and at our house, we have overhead lines part of the way for our electricity. If I lose power, I’ll have no home phone, no cell phone and no internet and I doubt the few houses out this way rate real high on the priority list for repairs so don’t worry about me if you don’t hear from me for a while.

I’m not concerned about the weather affecting the retreat but in the unlikely event we have a major power outage and it isn’t on at the hotel by Wednesday, I’ll get somewhere that I can post or have someone post updates so if you don’t hear anything to the contrary, everything here is a go!

Can’t wait to see you all!

· Filed Under: Quilting · 2 Comments

Another Sock

February 12, 2012 · by JudyL

Edited to add the name of the pattern, which I meant to include and forgot! It’s Twisted Celtic Cable Sock.

Not a pair but just one sock!

While I wouldn’t say this pattern is “hard”, it’s definitely given me a bit of a problem, but it’s all been my own fault. The instructions are for using two circular needles and I used four DPNs. That wasn’t a big change but did require me to think a couple of times. I started these the day or a couple of days before my finger surgery. I should not have worked on them on the evening of the surgery because I made a mistake. One of the back cables was knitted as a front facing cable and I didn’t see it til I was almost to the point of working on the heel. I tried to rip back but then realized that a lot of the knitting didn’t have uniform tension because I was doing it awkwardly to avoid touching my finger, so I ripped it completely out and started over! And, I used Lorna’s Laces yarn, which I love, but it takes forever to make any progress because it’s such a fine yarn.

These socks are going to be for a gift and once I finish the second sock, I’ll decide if they’re really going to be a gift or if I’m going to make a different pair. Since I still can’t use the finger, the tension isn’t perfect – not bad but not perfect.

· Filed Under: Knitting & Weaving · 7 Comments

Stash Report – Week 7, 2012

February 12, 2012 · by JudyL

It’s been a busy week in the sewing room! This was probably the first week I’ve been able to spend almost every spare minute sewing .. kinda reminded me of old times and I hope to have lots more of these productive weeks in the future. As far as piecing, I was working on the Pick a Pinwheel top and since it isn’t finished, I can’t count that yardage yet but I did get two tops quilted this week! Both of the tops had already been counted but the backing had not been counted so here’s what I used: The quarter square top with black/white dot sashing – 5 yards and 7 yards for the It’s a Wrap top. That’s 12 yards for this week. Surely wish I could do that every week but I cannot.

Used this Week: 12 yards
Used year to Date: 34.5 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net Used for 2012: 34.5 yards