Rain, Rain Go AWAY!! Send me some SNOW

Yes, I'm going to bitch (again) about the weather. It is colder today, which is the proper trend for January, but it is cold and raining. Overcast, as usual. I don't mind overcast when it is snowing like mad. Yes, I love snow. I love the cold. Hellooooo!! I spent a whole year in Sweden. Of course I love the cold. I hate wearing coats, but that's another story. I have a wonderful really heavy warm coat for our cold northern winters, but it is so bulky that I can't wear it while driving. Anyway. There IS snow in the forecast, horray!! But not for a few days. I'm taking a cooking class at the Viking store in Lyndhurst on Thursday, probably that's when we'll get a ton of snow.

I'm excited about it, the class is learning how to cook once and eat twice. I grew up cooking for a big crowd; parents, 2 sisters, me plus whatever assorted friends we had over. My parents would always have prefered that we hung out at home, and the rule was that if you cooked, you could invite whoever you liked over for dinner. Consequently, if you need dinner for 12, I'm your girl. Dinner for 2? That's a problem. Total lack of portion control is how I got to be the lovely size 16 that I am today. I'm also excited about meeting some other foodies, albiet Lyndhurst is far away from home for me and undoubtedly everyone else there will be from the immediate area. But I am at least making the effort...remeber the recent post about making grown-up friends?

I've been looking through some knitting books trying to find a patteren for the baby blanket that I am going to make for Fred and Nikki. I know ONE (!) baby blanket pattern by heart, and I've made 3 of them. I'm tired of the pattern, but it is really easy. Cast on 150 stitches, knit 5 rows, then for the body of it knit 5, purl 5, repeat to the last 5 stitches, knit again.Do that for 5 rows, then the next 5, purl 5 knit 5, repeat to the end. Switch every 5 rows. When the blanket is as long as you'd like (about 36 in is good for a baby blankie), knit the last 5 rows, and weave in any loose ends. Couldn't be easier, and it is reversible; looks the same on the right side as the wrong, which is a great added bonus. So I checked a ton of baby pattern books out of the library, and most of what I've found is 1)way beyond my skill level, 2)ugly or 3)require me to follow charts, which I am TERRIBLE at doing. Why is it when they say "easy knits" that they DON'T mean easy? Easy if you learned to knit at your bubba's knee and she's still around to help you out of a sticky spot, maybe. I, on the other hand, took classes at a store in Cuyahoga Falls, OH, when I worked in Akron, which I don't anymore. Now that's so far out of my daily orbit that it might as well be on the moon. And they're perfectly willing to help you out of a tough spot IF you bought the yarn for your current project from them. I don't need to tell ya that they's ex-spen-sive, do I? Grrr.

Wish for snow for me, will ya?