Snow falling on Ottawa

Oh the irony of winter in Ottawa. This year has been very warm and very not-wintery (at least by our normal standards). So today, when we finally get a full day of snow (about 3 inches since this morning, and counting) the city somehow manages not to send out their snow-clearing equipment, creating total chaos on the roads. sheesh... this in a city where 8 inches of snow can fall in 2 hours!

anyway, I have opted to remain safe and warm inside, playing with my new toys - the mailman finally lived up to that "come snow or sleet..." slogan. just look what he brought me!
yay! now I have my very own ball winder (or wall binder, as I called it this morning) to go with the swift I showed you last week (can you see my iced-over window in the background) Isn't eBay the greatest? I wound two balls this morning (this one is destined to become a fun calorimetry-esque headband) and then had to hide the winder in the other room so I won't be tempted any more... but guess what I'm doing tonight - suddenly I'm actually quite pleased that Mike has a work dinner to entertain him for the evening! (hee hee!) Course this is now going to wreak havoc on my going-back-to-Newcastle packing plans... pretty shoes or fun yarn... which is more important in a girl's life?

The kid's cardigan I've been knitting is almost done (should be able to finish that tonight too), so you'll see it very soon... as for other knitting, here's a shot of something that may or may not become part of my submission to the knitablog...
the pattern isn't an exact Canadian flag (the chart is from www.planetshoup.com), but I had hoped that it would felt so small that it'd be really hard to tell. Um, yeah. Turns out that my great aunt Audrey knit aran sweaters for my parents (from which I have inherited several small leftover bits of yarn) from 100% ACRYLIC!! Oh, the horrors!! (yes I did consider that its actually superwash wool, but she knit them back in the early 80's... something tells me that superwash wool wasn't all that readily available in small town BC back in the 80's, pre-internets and all). so now i have a very oddly shaped , half-felted knitted scrap... looks like I may have to venture into the snow after all, to pay a visit to the LYS.

Hmm.. now where did i put those hiking boots?