And the earth shook under my feet!

We had an earthquake yesterday around 10:20 or so in the morning.  I was in the ER, sitting next to the Hubz, the Patient (who is considerably better but will be there for a day or two more).  Ground floor.  And the building shook. Really shook!  Magnitude was 4.8, which is nothing from a west coast standpoint, but a lot for New Jersey (east coast and on bedrock). The epicenter is about 12-15 miles from here, so not far away at all.

It seemed to go on forever.  Not much damage that I could see.  A few things fell off shelves at my house. There are lots of aftershocks, but I think I have felt only one.  And I was sitting in a Starbucks in the hospital around noon today and I think I felt a something move.  On the other hand, my table was wobbly and needed a shim under one of its feet.  So who knows?  At any rate, I don't ever have to feel an earthquake again.  Been there, done that.

And what was I doing while all this was going on?  Knitting a sock of course.  What else do you do when you are in the ER for 7 hours?  Medicinal knitting which soothes my soul while I worry about the Guy.

I'd take a pic of the sock in progress, but it's just a sock in stockinette. We knitters knit through storms, floods and earthquakes!  And also in Emergency Rooms.

And that's all the news here.

Scrappy blocks for a scrappy quilt

I love making scrappy quilts.  The idea of using up little pieces of fabric always makes me happy.  Basically, I get a quilt top for nothing.  

The little blocks are 1.5" squares.  The bigger ones are made of 2.5" squares.  All used as leaders and enders. I'll border the tiny blocks so that they are the same size as the bigger ones.

Remember this?  I'm pulling my 1.5" pieces from this box.  I keep adding to that box.  I'll probably never use all of this stuff up, but who cares?  It's just fun to play with them.

Here are some more finished blocks. Yes, they need to be trimmed,but I don't do that.  I just sew the fool things together and it all works out at the end.

Full string quilt

Taken just now on a sunny (and cold) day outside. I love making string quilts.  It's all about the color!

A new spring quilt!!

 I love making string quilts.  Anything goes, and they are mindlessly easy to do.  So this is the latest one.

Spring Poem, yet again.

 You know what today is, right?  First day of spring.  So here's the annual spring poem!

Spring Poem, yet again.

Here it is!  The Spring Poem

High up, over the tops
Of the feathery grasses, the grasshoppers hop.
They won't eat their suppers,
They will not obey
Their grasshopper mothers and fathers who say:
"Listen my children, this must be stopped.
Now is the time your last hop should be hopped.
So come eat your suppers and go to your beds."
But the little grasshoppers just shake their green heads.
"no, no," the naughty ones say.

"All we have time to do now is to play.

If we are hungry we'll nip at a fly,
Or nibble a blueberry as we go by.
But not now. Now we must hop.
And no one, but no one can make us stop."

The end.

What is this?

 Ta da!  Finally joined up the arms and body on my yoke sweater.  Started on Dec 31.  Took me long enough.  The truth is that I can't knit as quickly as I used to.  But it doesn't much matter.  Color work, here I come.  (Well, after the couple of inches of grey.)

It is a darker grey.  Yoke colors will include the borders but add more deliciousness.  I just love working Fair Isle sweaters.

Yarn is Jamieson & Smith Shetland, bought at The Woolly Thistle.  

And speaking of Shetland, we're currently watching Shetland on Britbox.  I have no idea what took us so long to watch this series, but it's wonderful.  Now if they would just take a shot at all the yarny goodness. 

Scrappy blocks

 4 scrappy blocks made from leftover fabric.  Larger blocks are made from 2.5" squares, and the teensy blocks are made from 1.5" blocks.  Cute little guys.

I'm doing this as a leader/ender project. It's such fun, and I'm not going to make a dent in my scraps.  Not even a little dent.