Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Tropical Storms...oh my!

Tree in road, a photo by mad4marvin on Flickr.

Virginia has had quite a difficult time lately! First, the earthquake struck...luckily for me and my family there was no damage as the earthquake epicenter was a little too far Northwest to do anything to us. Yet, the Earthquake (and all its aftershocks! still going on by the way---a 2.1 today!) has caused a lot of damage to Lousia County causing significant damage to the high school and elementary school as well as a number of homes.

Then came Hurricane Irene! She was a monster! She blew through my part of Va and knocked down everything she could. Electricity, for my family, went out Saturday August 27 at around 3 pm and we were in the dark until Tuesday! It was crazy! Both of my sisters were without electricity two days longer than my family...and one of my sisters had 7 trees fall in her yard and her garage completely destroyed. Hurricane Irene is still being felt even though over a week has passed. Some homes in the Tri-Cities are going on day 10 without power, school systems had to push back their start dates, and trees still block roads. It will be a while before Irene is forgotten.

Today, Tropical Storm Lee moved into the area after striking Louisiana...ok so really he is more like "drop a couple buckets of rain on Va" Lee and not so much "Tropical Storm" but we do not need any rain right now so he is somewhat annoying. On the plus side for some reason T.S. Lee made me want to knit and I finished a hat for my 10 year old niece.

She loves knitted things and I thought it would be nice for her to have waiting for the bus (if school ever decides to start!) and then I figured I would make her some fingerless gloves so she can play her brand-new birthday present--a Nintendo 3DS (her bday was 8/13 and I do not think she has let the game down since then!) So because I was going to make her fingerless gloves, I also decided she needs a matching scarf. See? This is how this knitting addiction gets you! It gets in your head and makes you want to create more and more things with strings and sticks! It is nuts!

I just knew that the perfect pattern for her fingerless gloves would be on Ravelry.com but when I looked there were none that were small enough for her scrawny 10 year old hands so I have decided to try and make my own pattern...it is called Kirsten's Fingerless Gloves. I am test knitting a pair tonight to make sure that the pattern fits her! I am excited! I usually do not write my own patterns because the math...welll...the math scares me! I am a grown up, I can admit that I am afraid of numbers...oh and measurements! Really. I can. But I am not scared of these fingerless gloves because they are for a 10 year old...she would like them if they were too big, too small, smelled like burnt toast, or if I dropped them in a puddle of mud.

So I am making them for her. As for the scarf, I am not sure....I am thinking of making her a fish scarf....the pattern is a free pattern on Ravelry.com called "Recipe for Fish" and I think it is adorable but I am not sure if she would wear fish to school so I might just make her a regular scarf...still not sure. I will, of course, post pics when I am done. Try to stop me...because my niece LOVES pics being taken, I will have about a bajillion of her posing!

Anyway, the next post I have will be filled with knitting pictures as I plan to finish X-mas cards and my nieces hat, gloves, and scarf!!! Hopefully.....