Waking up in Fairyland

One of the unique weather things we get, living so close to Lake Michigan, is beautiful hoarfrost. After waking up Saturday morning to a blanket of new snow, we had sunshine and a lot of melting all day Saturday. Saturday night the temperature dropped into the 20's. Sunday morning I woke up to one of those long-crystalled frosts. The frost was so long, the tree branches looked like it had snowed again. There were such long feathery crystals in the driveway that I felt bad about walking on them.

But it is hard to get good pictures of this frost, since I have to wait for the light, and the second the sun gets high enough so I have light, the frost is melting and falling off!

Two Tries at Drawstrings

I blocked the rainbow net by getting it wet, putting a small plate in it, and hanging it from a knitting needle. Meanwhile, I started fingerloop-braiding a pair of drawstrings from the same "Mexicana" crochet thread as the net. Unfortunately, when they were finished and run into the edge loops, I found that they were too thick. The crochet thread dragged against itself, and the two strings wouldn't pull closed.

For a while I was stumped. What else did I have that was that bright? I could make black drawstrings. . . but I wanted them to match. Finally I went through my net bag of size 8 perle cotton, and matched the bright colors of the net as closely as I could. No bright green or purple. But unless you inspect them closely, it is not obvious that they are made of something else. The slick perle cotton pulls open and shut very easily.
Now I have a pair of 20-inch rainbow-braided cords that I don't yet know what I'll do with!