Life's Little Details: Knitting, Sewing, Green Living, Frugal Living and Cooking In A Little Corner of Southern French Countryside.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Spot the Space Heater

See Spot sit. See Spot follow Krista from room to room. See Spot get plugged in. See Spot warm Krista. Gooooood space heater.

It's freezing in sunny Southern France this week (but with beautiful, clear blue skies). This is craziness. It had been up in the high 50's just a week ago. Now we're down to actual freezing, with a nasty wind that makes it seem like it's well below. I looked at the weather report earlier today and, though it was only 36F, the wind chill made it feel like it was really 23F. And, it's supposed to be worse tomorrow. We just aren't equipped for this kind of weather around here (I know you blizzard survivors are laughing at me, I'm sure). Our badly heated, badly insulated temporary house is so cold, my trusty, little electric space heater follows me from kitchen to bathroom and back again (the two coldest rooms in the house). It's one of those days when it takes courage and a lot of self-convincing to pull yourself out of a steamy bath or to drag yourself out from under the warm sheets. We went over to the new house (the eternally-in-the-process-of-being-built-house), and it was toasty in comparison, with no heating system turned on at all. You can't imagine how we wish that house were finished on days like today. Which brings me around to knitting, of course. After all, all roads do lead to knitting (all roads worth taking, that is).

I'm very, very, very, very, very, very (as many a 3rd grader has said in school papers) happy to have my Alpaca sweater. I should feel guilty that it was intended to keep my sweet hubbie warm. I'm not. I'm just too busy feeling warm and cozy to worry about others' feelings. Besides, he's the rugged manly type (grrrrr), and I'm the girly wimpy type (brrrrr). I obviously need it more than he does. No, I actually do feel a little guilty (but not that much). I will make him one someday, but first I have to find the right yarn for it. Mom's bringing a bunch for me from the US when she comes, and I'm hoping that part of it will be just what I'm wanting to inspire a new and hopefully correctly-sized hubbie sweater. If anyone knows of any masculine, somewhat tame (even classy, maybe) multiple color, fair isle sweater patterns, please let me know. I think some of the yarns Mom's bringing would make a lovely one.

And, as happy as my torso is to have that sweater, my feet are tens times as anxious to have their new Koigu socks. They'll just have to be patient, though, if they want a good fit, because I frogged the one I had half-done. It'll be snugger now (which will make for happier, warmer feet). For now, though, they'll have to settle for Spot the Space Heater lovingly licking their toes with his warm air (no that was not meant to sound the least bit sexual, though I know it might to some - this is a dog analogy, remember?).

Well, off to slip between those cozy, warm, flannel sheets, for visions of needles and yarns to dance through my head. I'm almost certain it will be the prospect of working with that Koigu that will get me out of bed in the morning. That, or the sound of glass breaking in the kitchen, as the little devils of the manor attempt to serve themselves breakfast.