Would anyone be surprised that mohair was in mine? Normally tornado weather doesn't worry me, watches, warnings, sirens and the like? They usually don't get my pulse racing at all. I grew up in Kansas, for cripes sake. No biggie. Until Joplin. Watching that kind of destruction in such a short amount of time really got to me. I'm proud of the community and the fact that our kids are even getting involved gathering water, soap, necessities, toys, clothes, etc to send as well as money donations through the red cross & heart to heart.
The Wednesday after that horrible tornado came through was a bit overcast in the morning. I watched the news, the meteorologist said with the colder temperatures, there was almost no risk of dangerous weather. I gave a big sigh of relief and headed out to run errands. A little before 11am I heard sirens. It actually pissed me off. I thought, what kind of crappy ass idiots were running a tornado siren test TODAY? (KC tests its sirens on some Wed's) With the skies all cloudy and dark? Just 3 days after Joplin's devastation? What kind of jackasses would DO that? Then I looked at the sky again. Huh. It WAS pretty damn dark out. Huh. Mayyyybe this wasn't a test. Huh. Those sure look like wall clouds as far as I can see. Maybe I should get myself back home and check the news. Just to make sure.
Yup. Tornadoes. Just very small ones and thank goodness no damage for us. BUT not only are sirens going off and my kids are in the basements of their schools (gotta love texts nowadays--keeps you in touch), BUT there are multiple tornadoes spotted. VERY close. SO after hauling the bug-out bag (emergency supplies in a backpack), the small safe with our family papers, the laptop & ipad down to the basement back closet, I grabbed a knitting bag on the way down. Somehow the one I chose? Lovely, soft, comforting, MAHVOLOUS MOHAIR! I didn't do any actual knitting until later.
I actually had a knitting friend driving through that crap to come & knit with me. I pretty much told her I was leaving the front door unlocked, there was a tornado spotted 2 blocks away, for her to either run the heck away or get the heck into the basement as soon as she got here! I admit I did freak out a bit, When I heard the news call out another tornado 3 blocks away on the other side of my house, I grabbed a twin mattress and shoved it into the closet as well to huddle beneath.
Needless to say, we didn't blow away. My friend and I sat & knitted after the danger had passed us by. I was very shaken up by the close calls (one tornado did touch down right near our oldest kids' school, but no damage other than blowing trash around). It was comforting to just sit and knit good old garter stitch in this lovely blue mohair 2 ply yarn. We watched the news until the storms passed by and were very thankful for no loss of life or property.
This heavenly mohair was a gift from my friend Tanya (blogless) in a Christmas swap a few years back. It's been waiting patiently and somehow I don't have it in ravelry, so until I find the tag, will remain nameless. I'll do some digging and find it soon! I'll also have a free pattern up shortly to share. It's very VERY simple, just start with twice the stitches you want, knit every row (garter stitch) for as long as you want your ruffle to be, then knit 2 together across, then continue on knitting every row until you have just enough left to knit the ruffle on the other end. Knit one in the front & back of each stitch across (or Knit one, Make one across), knit the same amount of rows you knit in the first ruffle, then bind off knit wise.
Heaven, pure heaven. Somehow out of a laceweight merino cardigan in process, socks on the needles, handspun wool/alpaca/silk cowl in progress, the stressed out woman in me grabbed just what I needed for a calming project to take along, mohair. I was surprised when I looked to see what I'd grabbed as my mind didn't even register that I'd grabbed a knitting bag in the process. :)
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