New Game

The first sweater that I successfully knit, a few years ago, from start to finish: Bubbles.

No, really, that is the name of the sweater. It's a Rowan pattern from The Next Big Thing, one of their first books on Big Wool. Big Wool is a wonder: soft, smooshy, feels wonderful as you work it, and if you want a sweater to keep you warmer than the inside of the oven on Thanksgiving, this is the ticket. Today, maybe four years after the knitting, I finished the I-cord tie that goes through the eyelets at the waistline. I'm so not a process knitter.

And because what would a blog be, this season, if not for a dissertation on snow: the backyard.
Did you watch the Bears' game last night against the Green Bay Packers? Was it 5 below zero, or 20 below zero with wind chill? They gave the players these cunning little muffs to keep their hands warm between plays, and some of the players were wearing balaclavas or knit caps under their helmets and tights (I imagine that they had a more manly name for them) under their breeches. Like that was going to keep them warm. My question was why football players don't wear down jackets for a winter game? It's not as though they are pole vaulting or ice dancing or doing some sport that requires a high degree of flexibility in the upper body (except for the quarterback and receiver, and they can glory in their mission and ignore the cold). But the rest of these guys, whose main job it is to run and tackle and block? Why not a warm jacket, which could also serve as body armor? (But yeah, the Bears did win the game and thus secured a berth in the playoffs. It couldn't have been a more Charlie Brown moment: they only had the chance because several other teams all conspired to lose this weekend AND somehow they beat the Packers, who were playing much better because they are used to the cold in Wisconsin.)

Here's the dog's new game:

1. Leave one tennis ball outside until frozen solid.
2. Drop said tennis ball into deep snow, then paw at it as though one doesn't know that it is there, until it is rediscovered.3. Refuse to yield frozen tennis ball to friendly human who would be happy to throw it, if only said dog would release it from his jaws.

4. Repeat as possible.