Chronicles of Blizzard 2011

I know "blizzard 2011" sounds dramatic, but that's what the local tv station called the last 2 days and I thought I'd go with it; OK - no "A" for creativity on my part but you get the point.

Anytime the forecast calls for a blizzard one must stock up on food, in my case, vegetables....

I didn't know how long this storm would last, but we were going to have enough vegetable stock to get us through until spring if needed. I had 3 huge pots simmering on the stove.

                  (I know it looks bad, but boy did it smell yummy! And it tasted pretty good too.)

Once I was certain starvation wasn't in our future I could move on to more important things: felting!  I received my new ball sprinkler in the mail yesterday and was dying it give it a try.

This gadget is actually made for watering bonsai trees, but is a felter's dream for wetting down your projects - and I just happened to have one underway when it arrived.  I had already laid out a length (actually 2 table lengths) of a hand-dyed blue silk in order to make a nuno-felted scarf.

The scarf shrinks about 40% during the felting process, so in order to get a scarf that you can actually tie around your neck you have to start big - real big!  This is about 115" long.

I then laid out some decorative yarn:

Then some silk hankies for some sheen and added texture:

I just realized I took no pictures of the scarf once the wool was laid out, but trust me, I did it.

And then the work, ah, fun begins! Rolling, rolling and more rolling.  (there are no pics of this because  A:  I looked horrible and B: I couldn't take a picture of myself!)  Once you've rolled until your arms are shaking from exhaustion - you throw, throw, throw.  But that part is actually kind of fun as you can really get your aggressions out.

In the middle of the 800+ rolls it takes to get this done I began to feel guilty about Dave out shoveling the drive by himself.

The snow wasn't quite as deep at the garage door as in the middle of the drive, but you get the picture of how much snow there was.  So, donning my shoveling gear, I joined him.

                                                    Who is that masked man woman?

After shoveling one path from the parking area almost to the road, I'd had enough, was thoroughly sure I no longer wanted to live in Michigan, and came back in to finish the scarf.

 It is still drying but here it is laid out on the same tables.

See how it barely crosses over to table two?  To refresh your memory (I'm assuming yours is like mine and you have forgotten already how long the original was) here's the silk before felting:

All the way to the end of table two.  I haven't taken a final measurement yet because it will probably shrink a bit more before it's fully dry.  Then I can see just how much shrinkage there was.  I can also get some better pictures then, it's amazing how much the color (especially the silk) changes - it makes for a much prettier scarf.

Well that, boys and girls, is how I spent my Blizzard 2011.  How did you spend yours?