I knit outside the lines.

I finished my first hat and scarf for Warm heads. Warm hearts. I showed my hat earlier, and from the pic below, it's obvious I need a new model for the other 11!

I don't knit from a pattern. I've tried. It just doesn't work out well for me. I have to make 3 of anything to get 2 that match. I get thoroughly bored if I work with the same yarn/color/needles for too long. Besides, I like to make things up as I go along.

This hat is based on a double-rib pattern. I put the colored squares in out of curiosity about how to knit different colors together. The flower on the top was from another pattern and added for accent. All three yarns are wool. They're each a different weight for texture. The light yarn has flecks that has some nice blues and purples, too.

I used all three colors in the scarf, repeating the double-rib pattern and the flower motif. There's no real rhyme or reason to the stripes. I tend to look for asymmetry in things I create. As long as things balance to my eye, I'm happy. Now, whether it looks like balance to anyone else is another situation entirely!

I find perfect symmetry (and even numbers) disturbing. What in all of this wondrous, natural world is perfectly even? The hand of man intervenes in nature to produce the "perfect." Think of a diamond. They're beautiful, but it's not until an expert jeweler intervenes that you find one perfectly cut. He cuts away the flaws and colored areas to craft the brilliant stars nestled in precious metals.

I have a perfect diamond. The cut, clarity and color are all flawless. It's beautiful. It sparkles an dances in the light. I can't help but love it if for no other reason than because of the intricate search my husband undertook to find it. He'd have had nothing less than perfect.

That perfect ring perhaps helps balance the very imperfect me. I'm more of a diamond in the rough -- OK, how about a piece of colored glass? I have my own way of doing things that sometimes only make sense to me. My eye finds beauty and balance in places where others don't look, and I create art that others don't always recognize. It's imperfect, like me. This hat and scarf are no different. They are more than created by me. They are a part of me. A small part that I knit together to give to someone else. They are not perfect, but I hope someone finds them precious.

Lessons from Snowpocalyse Part Deux

Life offers the opportunity for many lessons, and it seems like the more extreme the situation the better chance for a big lesson. Some of these are as much common sense as anything, but for the record, these lessons are learned.

1. Yes, we should have bought the snow blower. We thought about it after Snowpocalypse 2009, but figured what are the odds it'll snow like that again this year. Heh! Which leads me to ...

2. Just when you think you're in the clear, watch out! In the past 8 weeks the DC area has gotten 4 FEET of snow. Who the hell would have ever thought! Well, we should have.

3. The Farmer's Almanac isn't just for farmers. This year's said this was going to be one of the worst winters ever. I think the point has been made -- thoroughly.

4. Bread, milk and toilet paper aren't the only essentials obviously. I present exhibits A and B at the right. If you wanted potato bread or English muffins, the Harris Teeter in Tysons Corner was a good bet. Regular bread or frozen pizza? ... Ever heard the term SOL?

5. 3 guys offering to shovel your drive for $100 will do it for $45. And it was the best money we've ever spent! (No, we aren't horrible people. It only took them 10 minutes between them.) Thank God hubby cashed that check instead of depositing it!

6. Snow is really pretty -- and heavy. My friends and family who have said how much they'd like to see this snow are more than welcome to come and shovel it. Just goes to prove once again -- All things in moderation.

7. Don't mess with Mother Nature. The term "global warming" is deceptive, and I'm glad scientists have moved on to "climate change." You see, global warming never meant it was going to get hotter for us, but humans forever seeing the world in terms of themselves assumed that's what it meant. Well, at least the ones who didn't bother to learn more. The fact is global warming or climate change will result in, yes, hotter summers, but also harsher winters, more storms, more destruction. The instability created by climate change is making more severe, more extreme weather. That means an area used to relatively mild winters like DC will see things like 4 feet of snow in 8 weeks.

Mother Nature is a powerful woman. She is to be respected, and the sooner we learn that, the better off we'll all be.

8. Baby's will be born when they want to. My 8 and a half month pregnant friend and her husband found out Saturday night. It didn't matter that they and everyone they knew were praying to God and anything else for the baby to wait a few days. Nope. Miss Emily Jane was born just before midnight on Saturday, February 6, thankfully at a hospital!

And last but not least, a quote from my favorite Disney movie, Robin Hood ...

9. "Love conquers all." Sometimes we choose an event and have to take the timing and situation we're given, as my aforementioned friends found out with Miss Emily. Other times we have more control, or the illusion of it anyway. Either way, man gets to find out on occasion just how small he really is in the scheme of things. The world is not at our mercy. We are at its.

As a friend got ready for his wedding Saturday, he and his bride-to-be were in for the time of their lives, even if it was no where near how they planned it. They even ended up on the evening news. I'll let Fox 5 in DC tell the story.



And to think all hubby, the dog and I did on Saturday night was watch Lord of the Rings!

So there you have them. The 9 lessons I learned from the second snow storm this winter. I probably learned 10, but I like odd numbers better. For now, I think I will go out and pay homage to Mother Nature and photograph her in all her wintry beauty. Though we were wrong about not seeing this kind of snow again this year, the fact is we don't see this kind of beauty often enough in life. I need to go appreciate it.

Dammit, that was 10. Oh well.