Winter Weather, Knitting & Deodorants

I wrote this Friday, planned on working on it over the weekend and posting but that never happened as I never even opened my computer over the weekend.

This good news is how I get through winter, especially this winter with which the coming 3-5" (yesterday the prediction had been 5-10") of new snow predicted for tomorrow will bump us into the Top 10 (they say) of Detroit's snowiest winters. As I tromp through snow on a daily basis, I simply recite my mantra, "It's good for the Great Lakes. It's good for the Great Lakes. It's good for the Great Lakes." It's also how I manage to put up with rain in the summer when I want to sit outside. While the Great Lakes were at or near record lows last summer, even with the snow melt, they're a good foot below where they should be.

I'm just really thankful I bought these boots (in black) back in early November. I have definitely needed them.

And as much as I hate snow, I'm not overly fond of bitter cold. Is there a reason Roberta Jasina can't tell me EVERY DAY what the RealFeel temp is? Don't say it's 26F out there, which sadly, I would welcome, when the RealFeel (i.e., wind chill) is 12F!!! That's a big friggin' difference! I mistakenly took WWJ at its word one day last week when they told me it was 30F. Yeah, not so much, in actuality. I think it was actually 10F or something equally ridiculous.

In case you can't tell, I’m officially over winter. It can go the bloody hell away!!!! As much as I love my new boots, I'm tired of having to wear them every freaking day. I'm tired of having to bundle up like the Michelin man to walk to work. It literally takes me 5-10 minutes to get dressed to go outside. I'm tired of having to wear a hat (as much as I love my hat which keeps my ears toasty warm) and then deal with hat head once I get to work, as my hair goes every which way when I pull it off. At the height of the insanity this winter, I was wearing two scarves, two coats and two pairs of gloves. I don't do negative windchills very well.

It's now Tuesday and I ventured out without a hat and without my super warm gloves. My ears weren't happy, but I'm being defiant in the face of a continued winter. Actually, the weather types are saying that it's supposed to be 50F Thursday and Friday! I can't even stand how excited I am about that. I'd sit outside except that I have a feeling the ground will be wet and cold.

Saturday was an exercise in frustration for me. I've been working on this green scarf for the LB's girlfriend (it's her favorite color) in this quite lovely zig zag lace pattern that Beth sent me (we've been sharing free patterns). As of Saturday morning I had already ripped it out completely and started over at least 4 (probably 5) times. My problem was that the 2nd row (it's a 4-row pattern) starts with a yarn over while the 3rd row ends with a yarn over. I would be knitting along and find that I had an extra stitch. Turns out that I was ending the 2nd row with a yarnover as well. ARGH!!! Rip! Well, Saturday I was being ultra-careful about that particular issue and got through one whole skein. I was very excited. Then I tried to do something I see all the really good knitters in Knitty Gritty on the DIY Network do – add in the next skein without using a little knot. They just hold the yarn and start knitting. It looks so damn easy. I somehow messed it up so badly that I had to rip the entire bloody thing out (can you tell I gave up the "F-word" for Lent – otherwise, this entry would be chock-a-block full of it, trust me).

At that point, I put away the green yarn and got out this beautiful black alpaca yarn I bought in Maine. It was ostensibly for me, but a friend from work wants a hat to match her scarf and it matches the scarf a bit better than anything else I have or have seen. So, I start casting on my 98 stitches on the double-point needles and I join without twisting and knit a few rows where it became obvious that the joining hadn't gone so well – I had a good 2-3 inches of yarn at the join. *sigh* I take it all out and start again. The joining went a lot better this time and I did the 1 ¾" of ribbing and then started the pattern which is a lace-like pattern. I'm cruising along and after a good 3 inches or so I notice that it doesn't look like the pattern. Hmmm, I count my stitches and I have two less than I need and started out with. ARGH!!! I rip it out, wish I hadn't given up drinking for Lent, as a beer would have been really nice right about then, and start again. I get through the casting on, the joining and the ribbed band and am working on the body of it and being ultra careful. I'm counting every stitch as I knit muttering under my breath "knit 1, knit 2, knit 3, knit 4, knit 5, knit 6, slip, slip, knit through the back, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 1, yarn over." Repeat...until I notice that it looks exactly like it did before. Once again I count my stitches and once again I have two less than with which I started. At that point, I said the two words I gave up for Lent as I was so frustrated and pissed off. I rip it back, roll the-not-as-pretty-as-it-used-to-be-yarn into a ball and go to bed.

So, after knitting for about 12 hours, I had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to show for it.

I started it again on Sunday, but had to go to the BAB's house for my niece and nephew's birthdays, so I only got through a row or so of the ribbed band. As I was having so much trouble with it at home alone, I left it there and took something mindless to work on. Good thing as my SIL's brother was all intrigued by the knitting and was asking all sorts of questions. He's a mathematician, and he saw the mathematical nature of the lace pattern. He didn't understand how the project got from one needled to the next, so I showed him.

I didn't get home until 8:00, so I fixed my breakfast and lunch for work for Monday and then crawled into bed and read the Tao Te Ching. And for the first time in I don't know how long I actually slept Sunday night. Of course, I slept like crap last night. *sigh*

Tonight I'm supposed to go dancing at the old bar. It's Bauhaus, Peter Murphy and Love & Rockets video appreciation night, but my feet have really been bothering me the past four or five days. My stupid feet hurt just walking (in two different spots on the two different feet). Stupid feet. I hate my feet. The funny thing (funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha) is that they look fine. I've noticed that when most people complain about their feet, they have major bunions or their feet are malformed. Not mine, they look perfect, it's all internal messed-upedness.

I have a personal question to ask the females in the audience. I am completely unable to find an anti-perspirant that works for me. I have been using Tom's of Maine which is just a deodorant (as I figured all the anti-perspirants I've tried don't work for crap and why use something with aluminum and give myself Alzheimer's later in life for no reason), but it's reached the point where it's not really working very well and it's only winter time here. I figured I'm going to be doing my best impression of a hippie in the Haight come summer. What do you use that you find works well or at least works marginally well? Last week I was actually experimenting using one brand under one arm and a different one under the other. The problem was that I couldn't remember which was which at the end of the day. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.