Baby, It's COLD

Outside:

Inside:

The snow fort is still standing,and in the heat of the day it's a whopping 34 degrees F. I'm not accustomed to scraping ice INSIDE the car in the morning, but we've done it a couple times this week. I'm also not used to wearing a parka in the house, but I'm doing it now. I bought Coldwater Creek's "Cozy Faux Fur Parka" on clearance a year ago. I thought it would be good for the hospital Christmas party, where I've felt silly checking my Polar Fleece at the door. When I got it I decided I wasn't a fur, even a faux fur, sort of girl, I didn't feel like I had the personal style to carry it off. This weekend I found myself without a coat that didn't either smell like dog, have obvious muddy dog footprints on it, or both, and the faux fur came out of the closet. And guess what?? It's W-A-R-M! Guess who's wearing the fake fur now, with no make-up and her fuzzy slippers? It's also been to the Sports Authority, Barnes and Noble, to McMenamin's for a burger and a beer, and on a quick Michael's run this afternoon.

I did not buy yarn at Michael's. I have been buying yarn on eBay. I have been buying yarn on eBay from a natural dye studio (actually, that's their name, The Natural Dye Studio) in Suffolk, England. It's beautiful, yummy hand-dyed, in regrettably small lots in alpaca/silk, and alpaca/merino, and merino, and pedigreed Blue Faced Leicester wool. See:

This is where I run into problems....Part of the reason I got the big bunch of beautiful yarn dyed in a natural and organic way was to give about half of it to my art-student-earth-child sister-in-law who expressed an interest in learning to knit at Christmas. Now I'm holding all this fiber-crack in my hands, and, well. . .I don't necessarily want to share.