I avoided “second mitten syndrome” way better than I usually do with “second sock syndrome”.  Mostly because with the first mitten I had some issues and I was determined to work them out in short order on a second one.  It also doesn’t hurt that I was using a fairly chunky yarn in a straightforward knit stitch for little hands.  Neve now has a pair (though one is slightly mutant) of red mittens to keep her little fingers warm on the playground.  I’ll be working up another, better pair for her, and one for Emily, too, though she has a pair of fleece ones already.  Good thing, too.  Our highs this week are only supposed to be in the 30’s, with lows in the teens.  Now, I know what a lot of you are thinking.  “That’s downright balmy!!”  And you know, I’d have agreed with you once upon a time, when I’d stand waiting for the school bus at the bottom of an ice covered driveway at 20 below.  But that was in the days of the north country, when the snowbanks were so high in the winter you could barely see the houses in a neighborhood as you drove by, and there’d be enough snow that people would be skiing in May wearing tee shirts and shorts.  Those were also the days of living in homes with furnaces. Here we have heat pumps.  To me this means “has to work a lot harder and doesn’t always quite cut it”.  It could also be that after 13 or so years in the “almost South” I have just become a wimp.  Let’s just agree that here, for us,  daytime highs in the 30’s is COLD.  So I am glad that Neve has these.

I’m glad they’re done so I can get to finishing the socks for mom.  And the cleaning.  Good God the cleaning.  Oona’s been helping.  She found the under – bed fur babies and tried to flush them out.

Since it’s gotten colder they’ve been huddling together for warmth and Oona can’t resist aiming herself at them like a bowling ball.

And speaking of the cold, how is it that we still have spiders?  After dinner this evening I was cleaning up the kitchen and Emily pointed (I thought) behind me and yelled “SPIDER”!  And since I thought she was pointing behind me I ran in the opposite direction to get away from it, and toward her.  At which point she screamed and ran backwards away from me, pointing and yelling that I had walked into it and it was now on me. Lunatic that I am, I panicked and (of course couldn’t look for it lest I faint at the sight of it)  ran toward her, furiously swiping at my neck and chest and screaming at her to GET IT OFF ME!!! all while she was running away from me shouting GET AWAY FROM ME!!!!

Yes, dinner at my place.  Such a calm, sane time.