monogamy and continued cold snap

It's crackly, crispy cold outside. Temps ranging from early morning teens up to the high 20's the past few days. Cold for which I am entirely unprepared. Needless to say, my mom's Christmas gift of silk thermal underwear was a gloriously timely thing, and I'm layering like crazy. I had convinced myself that this is an unusual phenomenon in GA, but apparently we get a really cold snap every year or so, and people just seem to suffer bad amnesia or something. Nevertheless, the sunshine remains encouraging.

And, and, and...it snowed Thursday! Off and on all day, and into the night, all told, about an inch. Dramatic ice on the roads and sidewalks. My camera battery has died and I haven't taken any pics, so you'll have to take my word for it. Best of all, we got a snow day from school!! For an inch of snow? This is a crazy new world, but hey, I do not complain about impromptu days off, ever.

Knitting continues apace...I knit a few smalls, around Christmas: the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, which I didn't make so slouchy, and don't have a pic of thus far. But it's getting heavy wear. This is a pattern that seems to be viral; I was first made aware of it by my sis, and then my knitter Jenn has been rocking it hard this winter, as well. You know how I am for viral knits. I also knit Toasty, out of my fetishized stash of Noro Cash Iroha.
They are very warm, but I fear they're taking a beating...funny, I've knit a few sets of fingerless mitts, and ended up giving them all way. Toasty is for me. There's also a pattern on that site for Toast, a simple stockinette armwarmer, which I've been tempted to knit, in some luxe cozy yarn, say something long that runs from wrist to bicep, so I could simply continue wearing my uniform of short sleeved t-shirt through these bitter months... I love the Toasty!!

And now for a topic that has never been dear to my heart... monogamy. Gosh, I love that old '80's video of George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" where he, in all his bisexual gorgeousness, writes "MONOGAMY" across the sleeping lover's back in red lipstick. Don't tell me you can resist George in that fleeting moment... but monogamy? Always a toughie for me. Either I wasn't or my boyfriend of the moment wasn't, and it varied, back in the day. Till I took those wedding vows, and now it's a non-issue. I am a monogamous woman. But as a knitter? Never has happened. I have always knit all over the place, on a dozen different projects. But lately, it has seemed, through the knitting of the smalls, and the good examples of friends, who seem to knit monogamously on one project ongoing, and finish lots of stuff on a regular basis, that monogamy is the way to go... So for 2010, I am experimenting with knitting monogamy. Of course this means that upon completing Star-Crossed and Toasty, that I return to my girlfriend, Pink Ariann. So it's all Ariann, all the time. I'm halfway through sleeve #2, now, and intend to be joining that sleeve and finishing this sweater up in the near future, because there are NO DISTRACTIONS on the horizon, if you can believe that. I put the Central Park Hoodie away, and frogged the damn Simple Yet Dullsville shawl, and have started to attend to my Ravelry queue a little more conscientiously. My plan is to finish Ariann, then work on CPH feverishly, til the Olympics. Then, I actually am going to cheat a bit, as I'm planning Talia for Ravelympics. I'm knitting on Team Middle Earth, from the Lord of the Rings Fan Forum on Ravelry, and I figured a vest was both a reasonable and useful project. I'm making it in the recommended Lamb's Pride yarn, which I love.

So, knitting monogamy... just an experiment, but still, stranger things have happened. I leave you with a blog recommendation: Use Real Butter, which I've been cooking from and enjoying for a couple of months now, and a couple of pics from my walk with Ella last weekend, before the snow grabbed us: Doesn't this pine bark look like bricks?
This same Nandina bush has appeared earlier this fall in this blog. It's got a decidedly Holiday feel to it, now, though.