Alas.....it's in the 60's outside and that just isn't supposed to be the case here in the western mountains of Virginia in January.  I have long passed being ready for a BIG SNOW...there should be incheesssss on the ground but there is none, and my little rows of growing Swiss Chard in the garden are mild comfort for not having a blanket of white covering the ground.  News sources say it's La Nina's fault--am I surprised?  No, and the first thing that pops into my head is, "Aren't they always blaming a woman? Why would the weather be any different?" Geeezzzz.....whine, whine, whine. 

So what's a crafty woman to do?  Certainly, as the proverbial English teacher, I have papers to grade and students waiting anxiously (well, mostly!) for them.  And three weeks into the semester I can proudly say that I am not behind in the grading.......yet.  I do have to be honest.  There comes a time when it catches up to critical mass level, but right now I can sigh and say, "I'm on track!"  You probably won't see that statement in, say.......March.

Right now, though, it's a Friday and after a week of helping students discover they can indeed develop good ideas, devoid of text-message style comments, I'm ready to not look at papers or anything related to my classes.  So I decided to do a little surfing and find some temptation....in the yarn area.  Back several months ago, I found some wonderful thread on Etsy and gave in, buying two amazing skeins that now sit patiently waiting for me to get to them. 

The first, "Clouds in my Coffee," is a creamy blend of superwash merino and a tiny bit of nylon that I saw on a quick Ravelry blurp that directed me to its maker....and I was hooked.  The second hank I ordered almost gave me heart failure and then tested every ounce of my patience, through no fault of its own, mind you.  The story starts Christmas 2010 when my husband scrambled to buy a yarn swift and ball-maker for me.....and with some friend consulting succeeded.  I was so excited as I had a few--well MANY--hanks of yarn I needed to ball, and with delighted determination, I set out one evening to do just that with all those lovely twisted lengths.  Someone should have warned me about winding too fast...but they didn't. 

About halfway through turning "Artichoke" into a lovely readiness for knitting, the hank flew off the swift--which I'm sure had nothing to do with how fast I was winding it--and I had a massive mess of thread to detangle.  The gasp that escaped me still echoes in my head.  Lesson learned--and many hours later, after some very tedious and careful untangling, I managed to finish a beautiful, albeit slightly less perfectly wound, ball of exquisitely colored yarn.  The thread's creator, Inspired mama Makes, has plenty of other gorgeous tempations....just in case anyone is interested....it's so lovely soft!  And just one other little observation:  See the tag next to the yarn?  Well, I just love 'em--they're "recycled" coffee slips--you know the little cardboard ones that slip onto a hot cup at Starbucks or Peets?  The shop owner has attached her label with all the info on the yarn neatly enscribed and pasted it to a section of the coffee slip.  Very creative...and useful!

One of these days there will be a scarf....socks...something wonderful out of these threads.  Right now two other projects are hollering (literally!!) at me--the camisole for my daughter and a very cozy blanket for my grandson--both more than worthy temptations and I'm heading to them right now!  My students will be glad I took a break because knitting calms me down and puts me in a much happier mood :)