Knitting in the North

Snow is still falling, temperatures are dropping alarmingly, and there is just no good reason to leave the house that I can see. Other than my obligatory treks back and forth to the kids' school (and I seriously considered keeping Brian home today, so I wouldn't have to drive back over there at lunchtime to pick him up), I'm not going anywhere, which means I hope to get lots done here. I wandered over to Tammy's this morning, and took the “What Season are You?” quiz. Apparently, I'm a Winter, which is very fitting, especially on a day like this. I've always loved a good snowfall; in recent years we have had far less snow than what was considered usual, so I'm glad to see this. I remember as a child, growing up on the Prairies, being completely snowed in, and watching my dad crawl through the upstairs window, to get out and start shovelling out our front door. When I moved up here, someone showed me a cut mark way up in a tree, it must have been at least 8 feet off the ground. I was told that this was the snow line from last winter. No matter how much you love snow, that is simply too much of the stuff, so let's hope we're not getting a throwback year, here. The Weather Network is calling for another 10cm today, which is a lot of snow, no matter how you look at it. The only really bad part, as far as I'm concerned, is the accompanying temperatures. We're headed well below -20 C tonight, and it looks like it's going to hang around, at least through the weekend. Yuck. I made it to my knitting group last night, and finished up the neck kerchief for Brian's teacher. I can not believe how stretchy the sewn cast off is! Quite remarkable – do keep it in mind if you ever need a super stretchy finished edge. I also did a little more on the fingerless gloves, and hope to have them done tomorrow, so I can block them both and tuck them away. The kerchief is a basic pattern from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, knit from one 50g skein of Elann's Pure Alpaca in Garnet. I love how drapey and soft and warm the finished fabric is – I can so see this yarn for a shawl or wrap of some sort.