Wandering Needles

You know how hard I've been trying to stick to knitting that Sudoku strip, right?  Well, I didn't get a chance to knit at work yesterday and I was freezing even with all the clothes I wear to work plus a serape thing I keep there for emergencies (didn't think to turn on the space heater under the desk *head, palm*) AND my car didn't warm up until a block from home.  My fingertips froze and it took hours for me to warm up (and I never really did until I went to bed) so after supper I cast on a pair of mittens.  Now you and I both know that it'd be much faster to go into the coat closet, take down the two plastic crates crammed full of store-bought and handmade hats, gloves, and mittens (and I'll do that as soon as I'm done here) but starting another pair of mittens last night helped me feel like I was warming up faster.  I know it's not logical but I can't explain.  My first thought was to knit them two-at-a-time on a long circular needle as seen in the photo but last night I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to cast on so I went back downstairs for two sets of DPNs and cast on two cuffs.  I knitted five rounds of cuff on the yellow one and two rounds on the black one before toddling off to bed (where my electric blanket set on "1" finally warmed me all up).  Overnight my brain worked out how to get both cuffs on the same circ so this morning after yog-ing and eating a bowl of oatmeal (it seemed like the logical choice of breakfasts) I set out to make some magic happen.  Of course it never occurred to me to knit the last three rounds on the black cuff so they'd be at the same point when I got them onto the long circular so I spent three rounds slipping the yellow cuff's stitches from one needle tip to the next, mentally chastising myself for not thinking it through.  Now they're all cozy on the same loooooong needle ready for me to knit on or ignore as the whim strikes.

It was sunny yesterday.  It's sunny again today and we have an icicle.  Just one.  When it's this cold I pay attention to the open water of the birdbath and the seed level in the feeders so I went out (once I got dressed in actual going-outside clothing) to fill them both and gave a small flock of sparrows a heart attack when I drizzled a scoop of seeds on the birdie tree.  No picture, just a chuckle.

February 3--Kazimir Malevich, Black Trapezoid and Red Square.  The linoleum in the kitchen looked like an abstract collage of shapes cut from colored paper scattered over a white ground.  Maybe someone had painted it, Detective Elliott thought.  The round drops of blood sprayed across the floor and up the wall were in sharp contrast to the geometric precision of the floor.  He was glad that his neighbor Amy had taken her kids to visit her sister at the family cabin up at Parson's Lake.  He shuddered to think what would have happened if they'd have been there when the...

That was when the Sandman swept me up and carried me off into Dreamland.  Sorry.  I'd like to know what happened too.  Maybe the story will cycle back this way again someday.  We've got an appointment with our broker this afternoon to talk about our financial future.  I always hate these appointments.  I'm a word person, not a numbers person, and it mostly sounds like gobbledygook to me.  I try to ask at least one question that hints at understanding but I figure as long as the sheriff's not at the door to carry us off to debtor's prison we're in good shape.  Seems reasonable, don't you think?
--Barbara