Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Winter's Gifts

I write two days after a generous snowfall, generous as in 14.8 inches. Monday as snow fell I made a pot of chili and my German Grandmother's hard rolls called semmel. Yesterday I layered up and walked. The snow crunched underfoot. I passed a bush filled with sparrows chirping to each other. I stood under a long needled pine and looked up at green needles etched with snow. No snow fell on my face and I was almost sorry. One of the best gifts of a snow fall is the quiet that follows. Snow muffles the road noise from nearby busy streets. Everything slows down. 

Today snow sifts off the trees a little at a time. Two pair of cardinals came to the birch and the feeder. I love the subtle coloring of the females. The chickadees and downy woodpeckers have also been in the tree and at the feeder. 

We have had a fox in and out of our yard and neighborhood since Christmas Day. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, my husband saw him in the backyard. The next morning I went out and took a photograph of his tracks that I sent to a grandson currently fascinated with foxes. I also got out Tracks in the Wild, written and illustrated by Betsy Bowen. I purchased the book several years ago when we visited Bowen's Studio in Grand Marais, Minnesota. Now there is a place that knows about winter. 

I am linking today with Kat and the Unravelers to talk about knitting and reading. The body of the Forager Sweater is five inches long. On a cloudy day, it photographs as a purple blob. Wanting a smaller project, I cast on a pair of socks. I'm knitting my version of the vanilla latte sock. When winter temperatures drop, I often reach for socks knit from Classic Elite Alpaca Sox. I know alpaca with its tendency to grow seems like an odd choice but I have successfully used this wool/alpaca blend. I knit them in ribbed and/or cabled patterns and they hold their shape and are warm. Classic Elite is no longer in business. I saved the leftovers of three skeins for a pair of mix and match socks. I weighed a pair of finished socks in this yarn, 66 grams, and weighed all the leftovers, 87 grams. Theoretically I should have enough leftover yarn for a pair of socks. Theoretically. 

I continue to work on the embroidery sampler. I am having fun choosing colors and not worrying about perfection. 

My husband and I are enjoying an older book of poetry by Ted Kooser called Winter Morning Walks. When Kooser wrote these poems, he was recovering from cancer and was instructed to avoid sunlight for year. He had stopped writing but rose each day before sunrise and took a short walk in the dark. One morning he was able to write a short poem about the rural Nebraska countryside where he lives. Gradually he found his way back to writing and began sending the poems on postcards to fellow writer, Jim Harrison. The poems are titled by date only. I suspect marking the passing of each winter day helped him mark the slow return to better health. I convinced my husband to listen to a poem each evening after dinner because we were tired of pandemic and political conversations. The book is lovely. 

Have a good week. 






11 comments:

  1. I love your projects - especially the embroidery. Poetry sounds so nice. Charly and I used to read love poems to each other years ago. So nice.
    I love all your snow. We need more here in Utah for our summer water supply. We now have some snow in the mountains, but not much here in the valley this year. When we lived in Nebraska, we lived not far from Offutt AFB, where my husband worked. We were right between Bellevue and Papillion. I am wondering if you are near that area. I really liked it there, but that was many years ago. Hope you enjoy the rest of your week. Stay warm.

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  2. Another couple enjoying reading after dinner - I love that. Fletch and I have been doing that for years...ever since we had a dinner party and my friend suggested a soiree of sorts - we all read poetry or essays and then Fletch and I just continued reading. I, too, love the way snow quiets everything. A peaceful and snug feeling.

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  3. Thank you for visiting my blog, if you have any questions about spindling, I'm happy to share what I know.

    Your projects are lovely and thank you for sharing what you're reading. I'm very much interested in reading some of Mr Kooser's poetry.

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  4. Ribbed and Cabled for alpaca is a great rule!! I will put that on my bulletin board! Thanks. Otherwise those fibers kind of drip like a Salvador Dahli (?) painting.

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  5. Oh my - so much snow! Yikes! I am dipping back into embroidery too. Stay warm

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  6. I hope you manage socks from your leftovers! They sound delicious for your feet. One of my favorite parts about the snow is finding animal tracks - the fox is a good find :)

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  7. I, too, love that hush that comes after a big snowfall. I've also often marveled how after a really big storm, the next day can be completely clear and sunny and the snow is often blinding. Nature is magic sometimes!

    I think you will be fine with the leftovers for socks, with some to spare, but I imagine you'll still be giving those little balls of yarn the side eye while you knit.

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  8. Those are indeed GIFTS! This morning I listened to Krista Tippett (On Being) talk with Katherine May about May's book Wintering. and she talked about how much she loves snow ... I have the book on my TBR-soon pile and am looking forward to reading it. We don't get much snow here and usually it's more of a pain than a pleasure.

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  9. gorgeous snow fall! The poetry book sounds nice and hopeful what a challenge and yet he walked anyways.

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  10. Winter morning walks sounds lovely! (I am off to find a copy!) And your knitting, as always, is lovely!

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  11. Your snowfall was generous! We've got 6-12" predicted starting sometime tomorrow. I was kind of dreading the shoveling, but your gentle words have pointed out all the beauty and quiet the snow brings. I'm going to look for Winter Morning Walks; it sounds like just the thing I would like to read now. Good luck with your theoretical socks!

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