The Weather Defense

Today's post is brought to you by the letter V (as in vitamin) and the number two (as in bottles of Vitamin Water consumed today).

This craptastic photo basically sums up the entirety of my life over the past four days. Ew. Apparently, this Hurricane Dean or some such weather phenomenon has been dumping the Northeast coast with a heavy, solid dose of grey. It feels like I am in the middle of the frickin' Mists of Avalon. Only without the cool medieval costumes and magical powers. Yesterday was, according to many old farmer's almanacs, the coldest day in August in maybe 90 years. It's interesting to feel literally "under the weather."

Unfortunately, whether the symptoms are psychosomatic or actually connected to science, my body does not hold up well to alarmingly sudden shifts in the weather. If one day's high temp is 60 and the next is 90, my body decides to short circuit. If one day is 90 and the next is 60, my body decides that Ice Age is not a charming animated movie but the state of my skin.

So last night, my friend hosted a small dinner party with some quiche and a good strong doctor-recommended dose of Gene Kelly:



This movie makes me so happy that I could just curl up with glee. If Gene can brighten my day by tap dancing with such joy through milky water with a temperature over 100 degrees, then I can overcome this durn cold to knit, goddammit...

These are the fronts and back of Central Park, post-blocking. They've been seamed at the shoulders and the hood is in motion. Due to aforementioned greyness of the local atmosphere, there is no achieving any sort of pretty photography with my sadly out-of-date camera. So I fudged it in honor of Gene. Black & white hides so many multitudes of sins, no? I think this is why all those film stars of old seemed to have such porcelain skin.

Also, I bought some yarn. I actually bought more than this, but this is what I will talk about today. I went to String the other day when it was pouring out and I just wanted to take refuge in some yarn. They're not going to be carrying Karabella Aurora anymore and so all this soft, petting-friendly yarn was half off. There was plenty of Aurora Bulky and Aurora 4 left, but the aran weight was only available in Melange. Which was fine with me, because this turquoise, green and brown blend was beyond gorgeous.

I decided to purchase twelve skeins and the lovely owner, Linda, asked if there were any more left of the colorway. I said there were two more left in the basket and she threw them in for free! So, basically, I got fourteen skeins of this deliciosity for about $3.80ish each. I heart String. Seriously.

I started a swatch...That's not technically starting another project. It's preparation. Yup. Not cheating. The left of the purl row is on US 7s and the right is on US 6s. The 6s give me gauge for the Hourglass Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but I'm going to have to wash my swatch because I've heard that Aurora grows like a Chia Pet when it hits water. With the extra yarn I got (for free!) I think I might try to fiddle around with putting a big cowl neck on Hourglass.