Hunkering Down

The Philosopher and I are fine thus far through the multiple winter storms. The temperature is dropping steadily and I don't think it's stopped snowing yet (6.2" in the past 24 hours) but we're safe, warm, indoors, and have power and water. Both of our universities have closed except for safety/food/hospital for tomorrow and so we're both just planning to work here at home and continue eating the ham and beans we tossed in the crockpot yesterday and cornbread that I made yesterday evening.

I'm glad we ran errands yesterday when it was hovering near freezing. The garbage and recycling went out, we stopped by the library to pick up books (because, you know, neither of us has ANYTHING to read), and popped into the grocery for more mayo so I can make egg salad tomorrow. The downtown grocery wasn't very busy though the ones out by us, we expect, were all probably absolutely packed.

Last night we headed down into Chicago. We'd not planned on going anywhere but friends sent out a call last minute for a birthday celebration and we squeezed into a small bar with them and traded holiday stories and general revelry. Several Stone Vanilla Bean porters were drunk, among other beers, and--as I explained to a very pregnant friend--it tasted similar when you lick a drip of vanilla off of your hand when you're making cookies, a very vanilla forward flavor. I found this most acceptable.

Our cab ride home, having missed the last trains, was slippery though I only held my breath during one point. Lake Shore Drive was still surprisingly clear and traffic was very quiet, so drivers could navigate slowly.  We both really appreciated the gracious care of our cab driver last night and yes, we tip extra when the roads are bad.

I got a whack of knitting done at the bar and turned the heel of Sock 1.  This was challenging in a dark bar because it's rather hard to count rows by TV-in-the-corner light. Fortunately, stockinette meant that the yarn started striping nicely in two row segments, so I didn't have to resort to asking someone to hold my cellphone up so I could count. This picture is slightly truer in color.

And after that it made an interesting larger stripe on the bottom of the heel.  I showed this occurrence to the Philosopher after I was working on the gusset again. He'd been eyeballing the yarn with a couple of subtle hints that if I decided I didn't like the yarn after all, I could always make the foot his size and he'd suffer through somehow. The heel somewhat negated this, he really doesn't like nice even stripes, though we agreed that if push came to shove, he could just wear them inside out so he only saw the purl side. 

So it appears that these will be staying in my sock drawer, which is a good thing. Before I started knitting copious pair of socks, the Incredibly Patient Mother had purchased me some wool socks. As they are warm and continued to be useful, they stayed in rotation even after my pajama drawer had to start making a lot of room for handknits. Tonight I pulled on a pair and found that I'd worn holes in the bottom of both feet. Thus it is that a new pair will need be finished soon, lest I have to wash my woolies more frequently.  

I hope you're warm and safe where you are. We'll be watching the cold front from in our apartment and wrapped in wool.