Winter White

My husband went out and filled the garden cart with wood, but this cart's wheels make it too wide to get it through the door. What he usually does is blocks the door open with the cart and unloads onto the wood rack just inside the door.

But today it is 5 degrees F (-15 C) or thereabouts, with a -13 degree F windchill. Leaving the door open didn't seem like a good idea.

My mom called me about an hour ago to say that she saw on the TV news that the freeway nearest us had just been closed due to a multi-car pileup. This seems like an excellent day to stay inside and knit. And to be glad that we went ice skating yesterday, when it was a now balmy-seeming 32 degrees F!

When I took his picture early this morning, this male cardinal had frost around his eyes. Now that's cold, when the birds get frosty eyelashes. (Edited to add: Marguerite's cardinal had them, too!)

The bird feeders have been busy places today. I know eventually I'm going to have to go out and refill them, but I'm hoping the seed will hold out until either the temperatures go up a little bit, or the wind drops.

Meanwhile, in case my feet get cold, I'm knitting socks. Because . . . two pairs finished so far in 2008 just don't seem like enough. Maybe I should have joined the Southern Summer of Socks, since I've been knitting enough of them.

I'm loving how the Paton's Decor is spiral-striping. And I'm chafing a bit as I once again find myself knitting on two 2.25mm and two 2.75mm knitting needles, and wishing I could just find nine 2.5mm needles!

I was thinking about sock wear the other day, when my four-year-old mitten thumbs got thin enough to need darning. I don't know why, but so far (knocks on wood, or at least laminated chipboard) none of my handknitted socks have worn out. I guess that's an advantage of being a "holds water" knitter.

I'm pretty easy on socks, though: recently I threw out some that I think I got in high school. It seems almost impossible that they could be that old.

Here's another old thing that I've resurrected and am knitting on again: the purple waffle scarf from last winter, last seen in January of 2007. It was too hot and foofy to work on in the summer, and not really cold enough to need urgently this winter. (Well. Until today.)

These are about the biggest knitting needles I've ever worked on, a pair of size 11's (uh, 8mm?), and I hates them. They're so heavy. On the other hand, I've tried transferring this to bamboo and to plastic, and those are too sticky. So I rest the ends of the needles on things while I knit.

Ideally, since this is the fake double rake knitting from the sidebar, I'd be knitting this on a double rake, but I don't have one quite the size I want. I wonder how many winters it will be until I finish it!

Meanwhile, thanks for all the comments on the "Swamps of History." It's always nice to know that I'm not completely alone in being fascinated with this stuff.

And to end on a weird, tie-in note, yesterday, in February, in winter, in Michigan, we saw a mosquito in the house!