Winter therapy

The Umaro blanket is finished!  It was actually finished on Sunday, but I haven't had a chance to post until now.

I'm really happy with how it turned out, now I just have to block it.  I don't know how well it will block due to the high acrylic content of the yarn, but I'm hoping the 20% wool part of the yarn will listen to what I want it to do and whip the rest of it into shape.  And if not, well, it still looks pretty great.

It was a lot of cream though, and as much as I love cream (the colour and the food), I was ready for a bit of a change.  I've been reading Yarn Harlot's posts about how winter partly seems so long because it's all one colour, and how knitting bright colours (as opposed to cream) can help you feel better.

January was a tough month, as it usually is, but it felt like there was more to make January tough than usual this time around.  I'm not going to blame Umaro because frankly I loved every second that I was knitting it (except when the cat wouldn't leave me alone and it was too big to heave out of the way quickly).

We decided to say goodbye to our old 1997 Toyota Camry after it screwed us over just one too many times.  It was a great car, but it was squeezing more out of us than we were getting out of it, so it was time for an upgrade.  We now have a shiny new-ish 2011 Hyundai Sonata.  That was a good change, but stressful nonetheless.

We also had to replace the locks on our house because the cheap last-minute locks we'd bought a few years ago when we replaced the doors finally had enough of the cold.  Not only did the back door constantly freeze shut, but the handle eventually just broke and stopped letting us through altogether.  Now we've got super heavy duty locks that (hopefully) aren't going to be foiled by a mere bit of -40 (F or C, take your pick) degree weather.  So, another good change, but again, a stressful one.

Aside from that, work has been a pain, and we all know that this winter has been kind of nuts, like the winters of olde.  I keep telling myself that I like winter, and I do, but there's a huge difference between -20 C (which in my opinion is the perfect temperature for winter, since it's cold enough that it won't melt or snow too much, but not so cold that you feel like your face/fingers/legs are going to fall off) and -40 C/F (which is certainly cold enough for the face/fingers/legs to fall off, if you are outside too long).  I have to say that I think it is absolute crap that as adults, we are no longer entitled to snow/cold days.  I get that I'm old enough to know to dress warmly and not stay outside long enough to cause injury to myself, so I'm not saying the rules should be the same for kids attending school and the rest of the population.  Really though, there should be a law stating that if there is a blizzard going on, or it's going to be colder than -45 C with windchill, everyone gets to stay home!

Fine, I know it would never work, but I don't really care.  The point is, I miss snow days.  If I could still have snow days, there would be more time for me to stay home, and I'd be able to start knitting this.

This is the anti-winter colour therapy that is waiting for me.  It will be knit up into another pair of Hermione's Everyday Socks, this time for myself.  I told myself that I'm not casting on until I've finished the pair I'm working on for the Enabler, but we'll see.  It might be that my willpower cracks and they get cast on sooner than that.  I could just quickly finish up his pair, but I have other knitting distracting me now, too.  So much to knit, and not nearly enough time.  Winter may be long, but the days and weeks are just slipping by.  Can you believe January is already over?

Thank goodness for that.  Bring it on, February, I'm ready!