Happy 24th Birthday...

to my third son, Jon. He arrived in this world on this day 24 years ago. Late. At the end of a raging blizzard. We had 29 inches of snow on the ground, and more still coming down when I woke my husband and said "baby's coming." "Now??" "Yes, now!" We looked out the window, and all we could see of my station wagon was the roof rack. His car was stuck in the snow several blocks away, so I said, "Call 911". Which he did, and the local police department, fire department and first aid squad showed up to dig us out of our house, while my labor progressed rapidly inside. They finally cleared away the mountain of snow drifted by our door, and got me into the ambulance. It took us 80 minutes to make a 25 minute drive, and I had motion sickness the whole way, thanks to the chains on the ambulance tires, and all the snow still on the road. He was not born in my living room, or on the road, thanks to the fact he was a whopping 10 lbs., 5 oz., and 23 inches long at birth. Had he been a smaller baby, he would have been born at home or en route.

Well, on to some knitting content. You would think that with all of the beautiful Socks that Rock and Lorna's Laces I have, I would be dying to knit with one of those yarns. Well, I am, but curiosity got the better of me. While I was organizing my yarns and projects, I came across a skein of Opal yarn that I didn't recognize. There was no real name on it, except for something that translated as "Development collection." So, I started knitting with it, and this is what it looks like. I like the colors and the pattern. Lavender, green, ivory, pale orange, and a greyish blue. Nice. I don't know if this color ever went into production, or if it did, I don't think it was available in the US. So, this will be my portable project until they are done.

And, the UFO's keep coming. I have more of them than I ever thought I did, in all sorts of crafts - quilting, cross stitch, needlepoint, crewel, bargello. Here are a few of the quilt blocks I found. I'm also trying to finish up the blocks for a grey afghan I'm working on. This is for someone specific, so I need to get busy here. In the meantime, I'm not starting any new projects at all, with the exception of socks.

Anyway, on to the UFO's, which are some more of the quilt blocks I've unearthed from the depths of my closet.
The rows of triangles are "Flying Geese". I have a lot of these cut out; I found a plastic bag full of them, so it shouldn't take too long to get a quilt's worth of these done. The multicolored stars are "Ohio Star". (Duh!) And, the red and white star is "Clay's Choice", I think. It's been a long time since I started that one. The only problem is that I know I started all these blocks with specific quilt layouts in mind. Now, I can't find the pictures that inspired me. I did unearth a lot of quilt magazines, so when I'm not busy trying to catch up on projects, I might have time to look through them to see if my inspiration was in there.

It's supposed to snow in these parts starting tomorrow night. It'll be interesting to see if this snow actually materializes, or if it's just another false alarm. In the meantime I'm ready - vacation this week, so I don't have to drive to work in a sloppy mess, and lord only knows, I have enough to keep me busy.Alex has found a nice warm box to snuggle in. Why do they always try to cram themselves into a box that is way too small for them?