Still churnin' on

Thanks to all who sent emails and comments of encouragement re: my bout with the Black Dog. Like I said then I get them rarely fortunately and so far doing well with my current regime.

Hints of spring are appearing already. My daffodils are several inches up out of the ground and buds are starting to swell on some of the trees. It's too soon, though. Oregon weather has a tendency to be sneaky. You'll get a stream of days that promise warmth, then before you know it a storm comes plowing in from the Pacific bringing in colder air and days of sog. I don't garden like my mother did but I did learn from her about the Oregon weather sneak. Hopefully it won't be such a destructive sneak that it kills some of the buds on the fruit trees.

Yesterday was a lovely day to head to Woodland Woolworks to take pics of spinning wheels. I kind of felt like a spy up in the wheel room. I didn't want to make a mess or arouse questions. I couldn't get a good light background for taking pictures against so I did what I could and sent the pics off to Judy. Hopefully she'll be able to transform them into a logo for PDX Spinnerati.

I didn't leave empty handed. The Bossman has become quite the Oregon Ducks fan, to the point where he has a Duck jacket. He wears the Dale Sisik hat I made him several years ago, saying it's the warmest hat he has ever had, but it's heathered red with blue stripes. I told him he needed a hat to go with the jacket, so he told me that if I made him one he'd pay me for it. While at WW I got some NatureSpun and started to work on it. It'll be black with green and yellow stripes. I thought about making the Tychus hat but the more I thought about it the more I thought it would make him look like a gnome. So he's getting a watchcap instead.

I'm still working on the Queen Sized QAL and don't have a pic of it. I know -- I should be smacked as a bad blogger -- but I gotta tell ya the grey skies do NOTHING for the purple this yarn is. I beg you to be patient and you will be rewarded. If you're impatient, look at this and know this is a pale imitation. I also have the Christmas sock going on, but the hat's taken over because it will have more of an instant gratification reward to it. I'm hoping to have the cap done by the end of the week. The Christmas sock will come to work to be done during breaks and lunch when the cap is completed.

It was good though to get out of the house Saturday and go bobbing along to Carlton. It was a pretty day with the sun going in and out between clouds. The grapevines on the hills were all bare and the landscape had the look of drear that people tend to assign to winter. The scars of past storms had yet to be covered or removed. But it was also a look of promise, that when the weather changes and the warmth returns there will be fruits to reap. I hope that this section of the valley remains untouched by the developer. The houses of the bedroom communities are fast growing and taking over farms and their appearance adds nothing to the landscape. For me, that is the drear that holds no promise of bounty.

The coming week at the office will be nice with my focus mostly being on the old part of my job that I neglected while working on the big project during December and January. It's kind of like meeting up with an old client you've lost contact with and getting reacquainted. "Well hey there! You're looking a little -- um -- larger than when I last left you. Oh, I see. Well, let's see what we can do about that."

Have a great week!