The insane first snow of the season

Well, I guess all the posts this week will be published from drafts I saved weeks ago and never hit the "publish post" button.

No way was the snow going to be bad. Picture it, Sicily 1925...

Friday morning all the schools are closed because 8 to 10 to 12 to 24 inches of snow is going to start falling sometime around 3-4 pm! I went out at lunch and it neither smelled nor looked like snow. Then at 1:55 someone says it's snowing - no preliminary flakes, just a switch from nothing to a downpour. Our boss (bless him) walked around telling us to wrap things up and go home. After 25 min. on the road (my normal commute time) I was only 2 miles away from work. The road was incredibly slippery and all the cars and trucks in ditches made it look almost like a movie set. The snow was so heavy that I couldn't even call anyone or get a text through. Hey! How dare you think I'm a text-while-driving person? We were as such a dead stop people were playing in the snow on the interstate banks. I finally got a text through to D, tersely insisting he leave work ASAP. My shoulders and neck were painfully tight from keeping control of my car and the fear someone was going to slide into me. After 3 hours I was approaching the turnoff for my street when D called and warned me there were 5 cars skidded out on our street and I should park at the church on the corner a mile from our house. I looked down at my skirt and dress shoes, and out at the ankle-deep snow and knew it was going to be a rough trip...uphill...in the blinding snow...with no pants or real shoes. I bundled up as best I could and headed towards our street. A guy straightened up from putting chains on his tires and asked where I was headed. I vaguely told him up the main street through our neighborhood. He nodded, told me he lived there too, and asked if I wanted a ride. I told him the road was blocked and saw him hesitate. I asked if he wanted to try the back route and he agreed. On the way he commented that he was glad I knew about the back way, since if I was unfamiliar with it I might have worried where this strange guy was taking me. He's not kidding, it's a winding road up a ridge, with all these old scary homes down in hollows. He dropped me off at my door and I was so thankful to still be relatively warm and dry. Tire chains are freakin amazing!

Awesomest cookies ever!

I just made a trial batch of Southwestern Thumbprint cookies - shortbread cookies made with blue cornmeal and jalapeno jelly filling the thumbprint dent. They have totally surpassed any other cookie to be my #1 favoritest cookie OF ALL TIME. When you bite one, your teeth cut right through the jelly dollop and the shocking heat of the jalapeno jelly really wakes you up. It also cuts down on the icky-sweet feeling of eating too many cookies. The cookie itself, without the jelly, is pretty damn tasty too. It's a rich tasting shortbread (brown sugar, flour, and too much butter for heart health) made slightly chewy by the cornmeal. I found the recipe in the new Better Homes & Gardens magazine called '100 Best Cookies: Love on a Sheetpan' that's out in stores now. I thought I'd try it on a lark to eat with a pot of chili, it sounded interesting and fairly easy to make. I *never* expected it to be so snarfable. I'm totally bringing them to my company's cookie tasting (akin to a wine tasting) party in a couple weeks. Admittedly they're not for everyone (I think a little kid might start crying if they bit one), but we have so many pepper lovers there I'm sure they'll be a hit. Now all I have to do is avoid eating any more than I already have tonight...I kind of lost count...there was the first one hot from the oven, a second to make sure it really was as good as I thought, one to see what they're like cooled, one nibbled around the edges to see what the dough alone was like...um...I'm going to pretend that's all I had. It might be, I don't remember any others...

You're doing it wrong

Some recent landscaping in the lot next to my office building. I'm not sure which tickles me more- that these trees stayed "planted" on the asphalt all summer, or that they refreshed the blacktop around the trees (note the blackened mulch) rather than wait for them to be moved. The trees went through full leafing and flowering cycles happily (?) growing on the pavement. They were finally removed to their final home just before the fall weather started.

Over the top? Me?

Oh yeah! Check out the awesomeness! I finally got some way over the top eyelashes for performances. Aren't they just ridiculous? The spidery ones kind of scare me, but I figured I needed to get a "subtle" pair in case I wasn't feeling all green feather polka dot or barbie doll hair blue. Seriously, these things are humongous. I tried on the blue ones and with my eyes open they fill the entire space from my lashline to my eyebrows. Yet they are surprisingly easy to wear. I was afraid they'd noticeably waft with every blink, but it wasn't any problem. I think they'll need some mega heavy makeup so they don't seem so overpowering. I can't wait to try some in public :)

The socks that never die

So remember that pair of socks I was knitting and FROGGING, and just couldn't get the size right? I bought new, slightly thicker yarn and it was all working beautifully. Knit down to the foot on the left sock, then cast on the right sock for a long car trip. Yes, these socks have definite left & right feet, which are mirror images of each other. After I knit the entire right sock I realize oops! I used the left sock's pattern by mistake. FROGGING! (Unravelling, for you non-knitters) Go back to the Left sock, and decide I should've used a slightly smaller needle (2.5 instead of 2.75) since the sock is slightly too big. Cast on the right sock again using the smaller needle to see how it looks and like it. Guess what my next task is? FROGGING the left sock completely! And restarting AGAIN!!! Astoundingly, I'm still liking the pattern and not minding that I could've knit 4 socks with the number of stitches I've wasted on this pair. In fact, these are going to have to be known as my Tetra-Socks now. Keeping figers crossed they don't turn into Penta-socks.

That pesky 1/2"

I normally make up my own sock patterns, so they are always the correct size. I'm delving into published patterns and twice encountered a problem I'm not sure how to address. My foot circumference is 8.5". One pattern I want to use give sizes for 8" or 9.25", nothing in between. I started the Maelstrom pattern in the 8" size and after a while tried it on to see how it fit. I couldn't stretch it over my heel! I assume that means it's too small, and try the large size, but it's way too big (I feel a bit like Goldilocks now). My gauge is correct, so that's not the answer. I love Cookie A's spiralling asymmetric patterns, but I think it's important to be able to knit the sock in a fitting size, rather than catering to odd sizing just to fit a pattern repeat. Ok, then I decide to knit the Holidazed pattern, which does give multiple sizes, but they are all whole inch sizes, so do I try 8" or 9"? I'm using knitpicks superwash sock yarn rather than the med. weight yarn called for, so I'm going to have use the largest listed pattern size since my gauge is so much finer.

So my foot (like my entire body) is apparently between 2 sizes. The 2-row striped socks were knit on 68 sts. (8.5") fit great. But I also have a pair of stockinette based socks knit on 64 sts. that also fit. I really like Maelstrom and WANT to knit it. But it's not very stretchy, and the 64 sts. for the pattern couldn't fit over my heel. What's the deal? The pattern repeat is 13sts, and it'd be impossible to break that up. But I might be able to tuck a few extra stitches in the pattern by making the 2st ribs into 3 st ribs. It would add 2 sts. per repeat, which would be 10 sts. overall. But that'll obviously change the look of the sock. Hmm...

I can't be the only person with this problem. What do you do? Make socks that are too big and may slouch? Fudge the numbers to make the size right? Skip patterns that don't give correct sizing? Grr! Whine!

Nom nom nom

I've seen some strange things driving on the interstate, but rarely do I have my camera handy to snap a photo. Thankfully I did have it out the day we saw a car eating a tree. Not sure why or how this ended up like this, I can only assume the driver knew what was going on.