Live and Let Di

I'm Ready this Time

Although today the temperature is supposed to be in the 60s, there is a possibility of snow flurries tonight. In the Raleigh-Durham area, snow flurries result in at least one day off from school. Any snow that sticks is good for at least two. We had a crazy blizzard (18 inches overnight) the first year we moved here in 1999 and the kids were out of school for two weeks! The next few days promise frigid temperatures in the teens and twenties.

Most people here are not prepared for such weather. I mean, why buy all kinds of winter accessories when we really only experience a few days a year of what anyone north of the Mason-Dixon line would call winter. On those days, I wear a Columbia ski jacket that I think I got in 1997 when we were living in Florida and went on a ski trip. The worst part about being outside in the cold is having cold ears and if you wear a hat, having your hair look really stupid when you take the hat off.

So, I present my latest creation. Unfortunately, my model refused to wear this fancy ear warmer on his ears. Maybe he heard that others of his breed have their ears surgically cropped and was worried that having something cover his ears was step one.

This is, by far, the most complex knitting project I have attempted...and I've made sweaters and cable knits and everything. But it was fun and I'm proud of how beautiful it came out! My model looks utterly unimpressed!

Di

Renaissance Woman

One of my readers, Nicholas from A Gentleman's Domain, expressed surprise recently when my Facebook status read, "Diane is knitting." I don't know why this struck him as slightly unbelievable. Nicholas, if my status ever reads, "Diane is cleaning the house," THEN you might question me. The problem is that when people walk into your cluttered abode, you can't just whip out a cool scarf and say, "Yeah, but I made this!"

So, for those who did not know about this aspect of my persona, I present several of my projects, modeled by my favorite subject:

Toby is modeling a scarf made from ribbon yarn. It is meant to be more of an accessory than a means of keeping warm. It's really easy and fast to knit because you use big needles and only have 13 stitches per row. But the freaky thing is that when you are all done, you UNRAVEL the three stitches on either end of each row. Unraveling runs so counter to a knitter's objective that it takes a strong sense of faith to complete this.

Same scarf, different yarn. This yarn actually complements Toby's coloring a little better.

Toby was a little tired of modeling the girly scarves, so here he is wearing a masculine scarf with pride and with his most regal bearing.

And just to prove that I can make other things besides scarves:

This hat is really simple, but I added the embellishment of the alternating colors between the blue and the red. This is for Kim who is planning ahead for losing her hair to chemo, hence the colors. She is a Red Sox fan!

I secretly read knitting blogs and have my various needles organized on a spreadsheet! Too much information?

Di

Toby and the latest Di Creation

 
It's hard to decide what is more beautiful...Toby or the scarf he wears with pride. I could be the next Dooce if I can continue to get Toby to pose like this.

This scarf will be winging its way to New York City to be in a silent auction to raise money for cancer. This is Auntie Di's contribution to "strangling cancer." My lovely niece Ashley is leading the charge because of her father's recent diagnosis of prostate cancer. This is one of the things I love about her...she takes charge and makes things happen:

Here's Ash in her 'stache...all the guys in her office are not shaving for the month of November as part of the program to raise awareness and money for cancer. Click the picture above to go to the Movember web site.

Di