[renmerc446]

dc - I hope your power doesn't go out, although having the extra blankets ready would be a good thing. I think worrying about power going out in cold weather is one of the reasons why I'm investing in wool blankets more these days.

My friend's second afgan is in the mail now. It was 8lbs, so slightly less than some of the weighted blankets I've seen out in the market these days. I'm currently working on the stash-lapgan. It's coming along pretty quickly all things considered. I may go over to working on lapgans using the leftover yarn from my friend's afgans but I don't want to be bothered putting the skeins I pulled out away.

 

[marthamfi]

yikes hopefully you don't lose power dcompton! isn't it the way something you need is hidden craftwise. I am ignoring all that sorting downstairs. not that I have any excuses.

actually snowing here after all the talk for weeks. so boys can do it. birds were hopping up the stairs for food. had put out stuff but just throw a cupful out well doesn't work well in the snow. do it and there is the suet seed cake. almost gone so will get ds to put out another.

was going to go down to michaels cus clearance cakes of yarn but nope too many steep hills etc so why be dumb on the roads. people don't drive well here in the best of times. dh will go out for milk and bread later cus he likes too plus flat to the store. cats will be happy when the boys shovel. Eating history is on all day so taping. have seen commercials now I wouldn't eat it but interesting! just working on the baby blanket and think will find another to do. dd blanket is washed w other stuff.

 

[dcompton]

I got a Christmas present today! Lol. The last cross stitch kits I ordered, the Christmas ornaments and a couple of others arrived. I had basically assumed they had already come around the time the others I had ordered showed up, and put them totally out of mind. They’ve been meandering their long path to me from somewhere in Russia. Say what you like about Russia, but they have some really beautiful cross stitch kits and patterns, and sellers there are trying to make a living just like everyone else. Some brands are available here, but I hadn’t seen these. I got them through Etsy. Etsy is one of the worst/best enablers in the world.

The laundry is done, two large packages of chicken and a few potatoes are in the oven. I’m calling it a day. I haven’t really accomplished much, but with this severe weather moving in, I’m in quite a bit of pain today. Nothing much except cold is happening until tomorrow night, so tomorrow I plan to bake muffins and boil eggs, probably cook some veggies I don’t mind cold. Sharon gave me a couple of large panettones, the Italian fruit bread when she came out today. One of the neighbors works at Sam’s and told her they were marked down from $10 to .50. She dashed and bought ALL of them. I stuck mine in the freezer. There will be panettone our here forever.

We’re actually as ready as possible for the storm. I was a total failure at managing the upkeep on a smallish generator I had, so I donated it to run the well pump and the fridge, freezers, and microwave in the big kitchen. So we can all have water and someone else looks after the machinery. Also when the two sets of neighbors got their stimulus checks, they bought generators for their houses that will handle their kitchens, lights, and general electrical stuff, but not heat or water heaters. So I could at least get some hot microwave meals. And wood is ready for the fireplace in the big kitchen if needed to warm up a little. Losing power won’t be fun, but it’s unlikely to kill us either.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

DC, happy to hear you have a warm place to go to if the power fails. You have great neighbors. Yay for the christmas presents! Something to look forward to. Those Russian ladies have a legacy of fine needlework to uphold, I have seen examples of their work, it's amazing.

Panettone makes great french toast, by the way. It tends to go stale after christmas but can still make a good breakfast.

M, hope the clearance yarn is still there after the roads clear. Be safe!

Here is the finished quilt. Only a little wonky. (It's straight, camera is distorted)

Next project maybe? 2.5" strips. I don't want to cut them up too much. I have a couple yards of matching solid red. Thinking about patterns.

 

[dcompton]

Yes, the panettone is doubtless stale and I don’t know what she plans for it. She can do some inventive cooking. I hadn’t thought of French toast. That’s a good idea. At any rate, at .50 she wasn’t going to let it get away. If nothing else it would feed birds pretty cheaply.

 

[dlrcpa]

JoAnn.com has free shipping, probably thru Monday for the holiday. Flannel and fleece all marked way down of course.

 

[renmerc446]

dc - I'm also glad you have some way to keep warm and get warm food if needed. One good thing about living in an apartment is that the power companies tend to focus on apartment complexes first of residential places. That gets a higher number of people back up quickly. When Hurricane Sandy came through back in 2012, the local senior center opened up as a warming center and to allow people to charge their phones and computers. Some people also brought in food to share as well. I seem to remember the staff mentioning something about getting a generator for the center in case something like that happened again. If nothing else, I could always go through my job to see if they had any places to get cleaned up or stay if the power stayed out at my place for extended periods of time.

About halfway through the second skein on the stash-gan. It's coming along a lot faster than expected, even with the smaller hook. I'm really liking the combination of the two colors I've used so far.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

I think I'm going to sit in the hobby room today, it's significantly warmer in the basement, being next to the furnace it gets all the hot air first.

DC, it occurred to me that stale panettone could be used for bread pudding, too. Would be a nice treat at one of your neighborhood gatherings.

 

[dcompton]

Sharon just sent me this. It’s from Todd Warren, a Shreveport meteorologist who posted this somewhere:

We potentially have a week of historic winter weather. Here is a look at the latest snowfall projections from a blend of forecast models for Monday's winter storm and for a total from both Monday's and Wednesday's storms. It appears that Monday's storm will bring mainly snow. There is still some question as to how much the snow will mix with sleet and freezing rain with Wednesday's storm. Areas that see mainly snow could get an additional 8-12" of snow (some models show total snowfall totals of over 15"). Areas that get mainly freezing rain could receive ICE amounts of close to 1"!

I would expect that travel will become VERY hazardous with Monday's snow falling on a thin layer of ice that is expected late tonight into Sunday. It could become next to impossible after Wednesday. I'm probably not exaggerating when I say that those of you who have lived in the ArkLaTex all your lives will not see roadways as bad as they will be after Wednesday's storm.

Most parts of the country have the means to remove snow and ice as it falls we do not. We rely on Mother Nature to do it for us. She will be on vacation until probably Friday. If Shreveport receives mainly snow Wednesday, it is quite possible that we could set a record for the amount of snow on the ground!

If we had an Enhanced Fujita scale for weeks of winter weather as we have for tornadoes, this week if it happens the way it appears it could, it would probably be an EF 5 when you consider the possible impacts we could experience. Be prepared to be stuck at home until at least Friday. Be prepared to be without power in case we get more freezing rain than snow Wednesday. Be prepared to handle the cold that will come if the power goes out. I am spending this weekend preparing for the chance that when I go to work Monday, I may not make it back home until Friday.

Back to me - thanks everyone for your concern. We are about 20 miles south of Shreveport and that can make a difference in detail, but not often in the overall picture. Of course, as he says, this is how it “could” develop, but even scaled down it sounds dire. The worst case, an inch of ice would be really destructive. Say goodbye to the trees. In the past I’ve lived in apartments and they are indeed high on the power restoration list. Even better in the last storm anywhere near this, an ice apocalypse many years ago, I lived in an apartment a block from a hospital, very near a second, and across from a Walmart. We had power back on in two or three hours, but I knew people who did not get it back for days, or in one case, three weeks. Worst case this time around, I doubt we’ll be very high on anyone’s list.

I’m continuing to cook today, and will give the blankets and quilt from the attic a tumble in the dryer to freshen them up. There’s a lot of decluttering but that can wait until I’m too cold to stitch. If we could hang onto power until the second wave Wednesday, it would be awesome.

you may be getting tired of storm updates but this is a really big deal here. We can take hurricane aftermaths (and their refugees), tornadoes, floods, more or less in stride. We have experience dealing with those. Winter storms need to go back where they came from. We pay for mild winters with blistering summers. It’s just not fair to get both ends of the pointed stick like the plains does. We didn’t sign on for that - lol. Whine, whine, whine.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

Thanks for the update DC. It is a very big deal, and will no doubt be on the news all week. Comparing it to a cat5 hurricane is not unreasonable. There will be devastation and suffering. We have been getting snow all day, but very light accumulation. The bigger issue here is temps. The high tomorrow is supposed to be 0, with a low overnight Monday of -19 (actual temp, not wind chill). They have not had weather this cold in 40 years. I don't want to think about how cold it is in SD's neck of the woods. Most of the heavy moisture is staying south.... Texas, Oklahoma, LA, Ark. Going to be ugly. We shouldn't lose power unless heavy usage blows a transformer. Stay safe DC.

I resisted the urge to buy MoQuiltCo's deal of the day. All chocolate and candy prints. Very cute, but what would I ever use it for?

 

[renmerc446]

dc - stay safe, no matter how much snow and/or ice your area gets.

CH - stay warm.

Yeah, the one good thing about living in an area gets regularly snow in winter is the snow removal equipment and the experienced road crews. The downside is living in a densely populated state with people of varying winter driving skills (and varying amounts of patience!).

 

[marthamfi]

totally if you aren't used to the cold and not set up for it. here we don't get a lot of snow but depends which city and how high. some sold all their plows or most etc and then well ...snow happened. Hopefully everything is ok and people just stay put.

waited too long for clearance yarn so nothing left when I was at michaels today but didn't need it. had the new ones but not on sale so got one lavender baby cake w coupon. got the bogo shadow boxes. and some bathroom decor. dd got some scuplty clay tools

 

[dcompton]

So far, so good. I was worried last night when I kept hearing a lot of freezing rain/sleet, but we still have power. The snow will end in an hour or so. I have a lot I could do in the house, but it’s a snow day. I’m going to just sit and stitch, enjoy the snow and the lovely white light that comes with it, and drink hot tea and cocoa. That was always part of my inclement weather plan.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

I want to sew something today but I don't know what. I may get out my Go!Cutter book and look at block ideas.

Everyone stay warm.

 

[renmerc446]

Hope everyone is safe and warm (and with power).

Finished skein #2 and started skein #3 on the stash lapgan. I think I'm not going to use two skeins I pulled out since I don't think they're the simply soft yarn. Given how long two skeins are so far, I may not need them. But I have them ready, in case I do. I still have a lot of yarn left in my stash. Lapgans are quick, at least, and are donatable, although given the pandemic, full sized afgans might be more desirable when donating to clothing drives.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

Thought I would share my valentine's present from DH:

Now I can lose a pair in every room in the house.

The hot pink is a new night gown.

 

[dcompton]

CH - fortunate lady, wealthy in scissors!

Way to go!

 

[dcompton]

I am cold. It’s 3 degrees outside, for once colder than predicted. Power is out, rolling outages. Promised restoration by 11. It could be worse. I could be in Texas. Tomorrow and Thursday are looking like a lot more freezing rain than we had with the first wave, so we may lose power for real. I would have been a lousy pioneer. I like my cushy life.

I got some stitching done yesterday but napped a lot too. It was a good day for it.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

I would have made a lousy pioneer, too. At least at my current age. DH said power was out between 9 and 10am. I slept through it. Figure there's no sense getting up early this week. All the cats showed up for breakfast.

It's bright and sunny and cold. Good day for sewing if I can figure something out. Not sure what I want to do with the strips yet. May work on something else.

Hope everyone is warm and safe, and hanging in there.

 

[dlrcpa]

Our weather is OK, 43 degrees, wet and muddy. Center of this cross-stitch piece got screwed up, counts off in a couple directions I guess. I started from the outside rather than the center due to no "margin" for error with the Aida piece. I just filled in so I thought it looked OK. Repaired a couple of towels (binding).