This is What I Expect Winter to Look Like

I don't know if they will show up, but I took these pictures while enormous feathers of snow were falling gently down through still air.

I got an unexpected knitting gift from my husband this afternoon. He came home from his National Guard drill and brought me this.

A couple of months ago at the armory Christmas party, I went in the kitchen and noticed this very-used, none-too-clean, but skillfully-knitted dishcloth. I tried to find out where it came from, but none of the cooks seemed to know. After the party, a couple of times I made comments about wishing I had taken it downstairs and put it on the photocopy machine. At the party, it was damp, a little tomato-sauce-y, and smelled faintly of onions. So I never did put it on the copier.

Now it's two months later, and the cloth is a bit dirtier. I am going to run it through the laundry and try and take a pattern from it. If I am successful, I'll have to send a couple dishcloths back to the armory! In any case, when I am done with it, at least it will go back cleaner.

It's been a very entertaining weekend: I've been making woven-paper Valentine hearts as some of my son's Valentine cards.

Last year I made them for his kindergarten class, which had a total of five kids (including him) in it. This year he wanted to give valentines to the older kids, too, so I insisted we buy at least one package of "store" valentines. When those ran out, I made hearts. I did some plain tabby-woven hearts, but when I got bored with those, I went on to fancier ones. I ask him what color and what pattern to use, so I am taking no credit for the orange and green heart. Orange is his favorite color, so we used a fair amount of it!