Snow Days

I seem to have lost my blogging voice of late, or maybe I've just got too little worth saying. There has definitely been a bit too much dull regularity around here of late. And everyone already knows we've had a lot of this:



That photo was taken at the home of my friends Shawn & Chris. I stayed with them Tuesday night in anticipation of the latest storm, since they live much, much closer to my workplace than I do. As it turned out, the storm wasn't quite as dire as predicted and I likely could have gone home. Since I don't see my friends nearly often enough, though, it was nice to have the chance to catch up a little bit.

Meanwhile, I noticed the night before that that the sweater Tuck was wearing had chafed him pretty badly on one of his legs, and since I was already planning not to head home and didn't have an alternative for him to wear, I figured I need to knit him up a new, non-chafing sweater toute de suite. Fortunately, I had some Berkshire Bulky from Webs that I'd gotten to try out a pattern idea and decided I could spare a ball to keep him warm. In the end, I needed just a smidge more than one ball to finish, but the end product certainly works well.



He was so sleepy, it was all he could do to hold his head up. Clearly, being a model is hard work.

Ancient Music

An appropriate verse for today's very inclement weather, even though we've missed any snow accumulation right here and I do generally like the season. Still, my poor aching fingers aren't pleased at the moment.

Winter is icumen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
Freezeth river, turneth liver,
An ague hath my ham.
Damm you; Sing: Goddamm.
Goddamm, Goddamm, 'tis why I am, Goddamm,
So 'gainst the winter's balm.
Sing goddamm, damm, sing goddamm,
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.

Thank you, Ezra Pound.

Glove-in-Progress

Took me a bit to get this up here, I'll admit, and I've actually completed the ring finger now. I didn't get to sleep during the day yesterday - filled peat pots and started some artichoke and rhubarb seeds, instead - and ended up as a useless blob yesterday evening.

I did, however, get home in the afternoon with a mission. I haven't had a haircut for a few months and was just sick of it - perpetual hat head, especially in this cold when I actually have to wear a hat. My hair, when long, just does not know how to behave. And while I have a stylist I really like, I've been having a hard time trying to justify the additional expense when we're supposed to be trimming financial fat.

So out came the clippers, and I set to work. The big challenge, of course, is to get the back blended without taking out any big chunks. Apparently I succeeded reasonably well, since David got home just after I had gotten out of the shower and declared it "pretty good". And while having more hair in winter may sound good in theory, it doesn't really make a difference when the crown is thinning and a hat is necessary anyway. At least now I don't have to worry about giving the impression of a slightly crazy person.

Not at a distance, anyway.

A Word of Advice, and Some Less Painful Stuff

If you own a wolf hybrid, you should make damn sure that he is not able to escape and run off into the woods. Otherwise, he might come back looking like this:



Can't see that closely enough? How about this?



Fortunately, no bones were broken and his toes were still warm, albeit very badly bruised, so he'll likely do fine. Turns out he's gotten loose and damn near gotten himself killed before this, too, so who knows what it'll be next time.

And Now for Something(s) Completely Different

Let's see.... It snowed here last night.



I'm very excited at the prospect of having a white Christmas this year, since we missed out on one last year and the year before started brown, then saw us driving home from my grandmother's in an ice storm. Of course, there are 11 more days to go and today's temperature is supposed to rise to about 40F, but we're expecting a Nor'easter on Sunday which should bring even more of the white stuff.

What else? I cast on finally for the wedding vest.



That's a provisional cast-on in purple laceweight with 341 stitches. I'm now 3 whole rows into the hem, and I am just hoping and praying that my gauge swatch didn't lie by too much. I'd really hate to have to start over. The plan is to knit the hem flat, then turn it up, cast on steek stitches, and continue in the round in color pattern. After the front steek is cut, then I'll knit on the button band and facing as one would a shawl edging. This will allow me to place horizontal buttonholes, which won't gape like a vertical buttonhole is prone to do. I've only got 6 months and one week to go, so I'd better get cracking, eh?

Oh, one last thing. On Wednesday, I got to meet this little fella:



Here's the video:



Once I actually sat down on the floor, he came back out and climbed into my lap for some more lovin'. He's the last of the frenchies to be adopted or go to frenchie rescue. His current foster person didn't want him to be bounced around between homes, as he's still coming out of his shell and learning what it's like to be a loved dog. He's also got some significant, but treatable or manageable, health issues. The only remaining concern is how he'll do with the cats, so I'm hoping to be able to bring him home for a trial run next week, when I'm off and will have the time to spend with him and supervise introductions. I'm pretty optimistic, though. So much so that I'm already planning a sweater for him in my head. I have some green heather C220 that'll be perfect.

The Ecstasy of Da Feet, or Ich Liebe Wärmflaschen

But first, an overdue FO photo:



I had intended also to snap a photo of the back, as that's not often shown, but I was all excited and running on too little sleep and packed it and shipped it off to my cousin Brian, who's currently stationed on a remote field operations base in Afghanistan. I had a packet of RedMaple Classic Crew socks to send him and figured he could pass the BSJ and a hat I knat along to one of the locals working on the base. It's a much poorer area than Kabul (which is already quite poor) and an area of at least some Taliban activity, so groups like Afghans for Afghans are less likely to do distributions there.

Anyway, onward to da feet. It has gotten cold here, folks. Colder'n a witch's titty in a brass bra, as we are wont to say in my family. And in the cold part of the year, the coldest part of my body is my feet. As I sit typing this, I am wearing two pairs of alpaca socks and felted wool slippers (those double-soled Fiber Trends ones), and my toes are at that painful stage of cold. I actually think it may be Raynaud's phenomenon, as it often takes some time for circulation to return to my toes and for them to warm up.

Since we keep the thermostat turned down to about 55ºF (13ºC) at night through the winter, this means that my cold, cold feet are generally getting into a cold, cold bed this time of year, and my blanched and ouchy toes do not make for good sleep. David's actually very good about putting his feet up against mine when we cuddle to help warm them up (yet another reason I love him so dearly), but my back just doesn't allow me to spoon all night long. His doesn't, either, for that matter.

So it was with a particular frisson of pleasure that I took delivery the other day on a pair of Fashy hot water bottles purchased through Amazon. I did not order covers, since I figured I could make them cheaper. It turns out much cheaper, as David suggested using some extra swatches he had for a bouclé alpaca throw in his line. They were of a perfect size, so it was a simple matter of getting out the serger and sewing around three sides to make wonderfully soft sleeves to put them in. I can slip one under the sheets on my side of the bed before David goes to bed, then when my bedtime rolls around I can climb into a toasty warm bed. And it stays warm all night long.

This week our friend Mendy has been visiting from Tennessee (photos forthcoming), so I let her use one of them, which will also be serving to warm our bed once she heads home in the morning. She loved it so much (She tucked it under her shirt and called it her "baby". I'm pretty sure she was joking. Mostly.) that we went online and ordered her one of her very own.

I may still need to make her open up her luggage for inspection before she leaves this morning, though.