Winter’s Mood Swings

As days and nights revolve around weather, with apocalyptic wrath, the frozen skies repeatedly opened, dropping 3 feet of snow on my nest. Winter’s mood swings erupted – first, angling in with a warming nudge, and then in a full hot rage – rain, thunder, fog – leaving us waterlogged.

I’m one of those snow lovers. It's an accumulated love. The more, the merrier. Even if you despise the chilly season, you’ve got to admit you’re waiting for the weather to equalize to some sort of normalcy. I know from many reliable sources, if you’re barking up that tree, you’ll end up mighty hoarse.

Young snowboarder, Forrest Shearer,  sums up it up:

“The winter season is a magical time, my favorite of the year. The peaks and hills get covered in a fresh coat of white providing a palate for all of us artists to use our mind and imagination to draw our own lines on the mountains. But it won’t be here forever if we don’t all take some time to protect it.”

I long to sprinkle a little seasoning on the moody blues of our changing climate. So I spent last month worshiping winter. Here’s a peek into 3 questions I asked:

1. How well do you know snow?
2. Why did NY Fashion Week visitors trade in stilettos for Sorels?
3. Do the winter Olympics even have a future in a warming world?  

With spring waiting in the wings, at the cost of sounding shrill, let’s not forget WE MUST PROTECT WINTER.

Downhill Race To Save Winter

During a recent conversation with a fellow skier, I mentioned my dire concern that climate change has derailed winter. Last year, my internal snow globe geared up as the temps dropped -- skis tuned, fluffed up the down and kept the backpack ready to go at the first dusting.

No snow.

Same routine this year.

Snow!

But in my neck of the woods, the Catskill Mountains saw ski conditions that were just horrible. The mountain terrain for much of the season was mostly man-made snow cover on a thin natural base. This equates to dangerous ski conditions. The mountains were dotted with ice chunks the size of small cars. Bare spots with exposed rocks were interspersed among grassy craters. In February, local ski areas started closing during the week.

My friend said, “What’s a few degrees here and there? I’m not retiring the skis yet. You'll see, winter will come back with a vengeance next year.”

Save Winter

Skiers, snowboarders and the ski industry depend on powdery frozen water, but snow sport enthusiasts all over the world can no longer expect a long “freestyle” winter's ride.

According to a survey taken by the National Ski Areas Association, last year’s warm weather and low snowfall dropped visitors to ski resorts by almost 16%, the sharpest decline in more than 30 years. At least 11 of the nation’s 486 resorts went out of business. The survey concluded that “long-term  climate change” was a factor.

Protect Our Winter was formed to save winter:

"Protect Our Winters mission is “to engage and mobilize the winter sports community to lead the fight against climate change. Our focus is on educational initiatives, activism and the support of community-based projects.”

I asked Protect Our Winter Executive Director, Chris Steinkamp what's up with the weather, and why it is so urgent to curb climate change now:

"I always say that what’s outside our window is weather, not climate. To accurately assess climate change, you need to look at the long term trends. The last decade was the warmest on record for example, and 2012 was the warmest on record in the US. Experts also say that with climate change will come some extreme weather in form of floods, tornados and snowstorms. As the weather warms  though, that snow will be rain. Be glad that its snowing today, but take a long look at the problem."

Are winter sports headed for a chilly crash landing? Please read my interview with Chris HERE and find out what you can do to help protect winter.

Photo: Vintage ski poster

Dreaming In Color: A Free Knitted Hat Pattern

“I never felt daunted by difficulties or blocked alleys. Somehow, I knew the path I was on was right, and my trust in that sense was stronger than the limitation of my own personal comforts or desires.” ~ artist and knitting designer, Kaffe Fassett

My daughter presented me with the autobiography of Kaffe Fassett, Dreaming In Color. The luscious multi-layered book has been feeding my post-holiday soul. In the afterglow of holiday overload, extended family dinners and massive clean ups, I pause each evening and curl up with this book. The inspirational words and opalescent photographs of Kaffe’s lifelong creative journey have encapsulated me from the harsh reality of the last few weeks.

From Kaffe’s bohemian beginnings in Big Sur to his royal rambles in England, his life unfolds to touch the hearts of painters, mosaic and fabric artists. But the book reaches deep into the souls of knitters who cannot resist replicating his colorful and whimsically patterned designs.

I took a workshop with Kaffe in Lenox, MA in the ‘80’s when his book, Glorious Color landed in the U.S. Following Kaffe's visionary career has influenced my use of color and my knitting ethic. It blew away my neutrally classic ideas about color. What...me use such revolutionary colors? What...me leave my unwoven yarn ends dangling? It was a lawless approach that I wholly embraced. All very freeing and bursting with wonder!

Dreaming In Color reads like a visual pattern. The book is gorgeously designed, which is no surprise given publisher and friend, Melanie Falick’s expert eye for both editing and design.

It is the perfect book to top off the holiday and sustain a knitter throughout the long winter months.

Earlier this season, I thought about Kaffe Fassett when I chose the colors for my knitted gifts. I designed a simple hat (above) that stitched up quickly, and I’m glad a riot of colors landed in my knitting bag — orange, turquoise, chartreuse, ochre -- knitted with a thick, nubby, soft merino yarn.

In the openness of the New Year, let’s remember the best things in life are handmade – from our precious children to the coziest of hats.

Chunky Hat (free knitting pattern)

Materials 2 skeins Malabrigo Merino yarn Size 11 circular 11" needles Size 11 double pointed needles Tapestry needle

Directions Cast on 56 sts on circular needle. Place marker and join.

K2, P2 for approximately 6"

Begin decrease rows as follows (change to double pointed needles when it becomes too tight on the circular needles):

Row 1: k4, k2 tog, repeat around row Row 2: k around row Row 3: K3, k2 tog, repeat around row Row 4: k around row Row 5: K2, k2 tog, repeat around row Row 6: k around row Row 7: K1, K2 tog, repeat around row Row 8: K2 tog repeat until 6 sts remain.

Cut yarn, leaving 6” tail and thread tapestry needle, draw needle thru remaining 6 sts. Pull tightly, weave in ends.

Main photo: Ben Fink, model: Jordyn Cormier

No Resolutions

As we flip the calendar page to a new year, it’s nice to mark its beginnings in a meaningful way. Each time I sit down to write a New Year’s post, I bump up against what I am beginning to consider a highly overused word, Resolutions. Believe me, I’ve used and abused the “r” word, and its derivative, resolve, many times. In my mind, committing to resolutions seems…well, so 2011ish.

What’s the issue with resolutions? For one, I poked around and have not found any insightful end of the year round-up type articles about whether or not we fulfilled our resolutions from last year.

New Old Resolutions

I did find a lot of lists. This list from Earthshare includes simple rrrrresolutions (see, it’s not even rolling off my tongue comfortably).

Resolve to eat healthier. Resolve to lose weight and get in shape. Resolve to spend more quality time with my family and loved ones. Resolve to manage my money and spend less. Resolve to give back.

Don’t you think those were some nice New Year resolutions for our pristine new year? I do, but they leave me asking…

Who holds whom accountable for resolutions?

I guess it is the person making the resolutions. That seems like a set up…for failure.

Old New Rulin’s

The second list comes from Woody Guthrie. Yes, you read that right. This land is your land, this land is my land, and this land was made for making rulin’s (as Woody calls ‘em). In 1942, Woody Guthrie penned this list (click here to view list larger):

Wake Up And Fight

To me, Woody’s rulin’s are not resolutions. They are intentions. Number 33: Wake Up And Fight seems like it could have been written today about so many burning issues. The 99%ers are waking up the masses to inequalities in our social financial system. And many of us are waking up to climate change, food safety issues, how we educate our children and how best to protect our environment against polluters.

So, I’m turning away from resolutions that are made and broken, and moving on to intentions that are positive and hopeful. As new agey as this may seem, an intention embodies a feeling of noticing a new purpose. My hope is that my finest intentions will continue to lead to action.

I hold no ill will towards those who make remarkable resolutions. I’m all for a demarcation and promise of a fabulous year ahead with its vast amount of newness and wonder. I’m just dropping the “r” word from my New Year's vocabulary, and diving into 2012 with intention...and maybe a few rulin's.

Where will the new year lead you?

Photo Credits: ffffound, Boing Boing

Pothole

“I got the key to the highway, and I'm billed out and bound to go I'm gonna leave here runnin', cause walkin' is much too slow” ~ Eric Clapton

I was cruising down the road Saturday morning maintaining a respectable speed, and listening to music on my iPod that would make my son, who was arriving any moment for spring break proud. My little Jetta diesel was humming along when it hit a pothole and started to shake. In that split second, I remembered not to slam on the brakes and lose control. Slowly, I drifted over to the side of the road to inspect the damage. The right front tire was obliterated.

Next, I did the least gender-bending thing I could think of and called my husband. So much for all those women's studies classes in the ‘70’s…sexism reigns when there's a flat tire. He was about 20 minutes away at the hardware store – his Saturday morning home away from home.

After about a half an hour, a very pleasant police officer pulled over and surveyed the damages. I explained that my guy was tool ogling and would be by shortly. The nice cop and I discussed how to deal with the broken highway. He said he’s seen a sharp rise in pothole vs. car incidents these last few weeks. He had no idea when the highway department would get around to making the repairs on all the potholes. After a short discussion about our mutual love of rockin' to Clapton while driving, he bid me farewell and said he would check back in about an hour - just in case my knight in shining armor forgot about me. Ha, cute cop.

As it turned out, I did have a bit more time to think about the pothole situation.

If the highway department fails to deal with the craters before they eat up tires and rims, we might need to find a swifter, slightly more subversive alternative. I had written a post over on Planet Green that might be the key to the highway…Go Bomb Something With Yarn - Knitting Over The Edge.

Credit: Flickr - Pothold Project via CMYBacon