Emergency winter knitting

It is absolutely freezing cold here, so cold that the local TV stations are running school closings at the botton of the screen, and I haven't seen them repeat in more than ten minutes. Every sensible school has called things off, since there's been a wind chill advisory, you can get frostbite in minutes, and nobody wants students out walking in that kind of weather- except our lovely university. Since I was out walking in the -20 and more wind chill today, and I didn't have a hat or a scarf, I needed to crank out some FO's, very fast.

Look, an FO!


I finished this guy last night, so it was ready to wear today, and I managed not to lose my ears to frostbite. It's a double-knit hat in what my semantics prof calls "patriotic" colors. Nice and thick, and...

Reversible. Isn't double knitting great? That folded-up part is the best, because it makes the fabric quadruple thick over my ears and forehead, where I need it most.

Next up: the dishcloth. This is so boring there's no point in taking pictures of it. It's just a super thick garter stitch washcloth, made as a hint for a housemate and said housemate's egg-coated frying pan. I finished it to be able to say I had finished something, and together with the acquisition of my soon-to-be job and the completion of last semester's coursework- finally- I had an excuse to celebrate by buying some yarn for a scarf.



Mmm, Manos. The colorway is mulled wine:



That's what I had on Friday, and today I had this:



Leftovers on the head of the Yarn Guardian.

No, really, the spider is the Yarn Guardian. He was a gift from my friend the Peony in the aftermath of a moth scare. See, his tag proves it:



(Too fuzzy? It says "I am the Yarn Guardian. I eat moths!")

Oh, what else did the Manos turn into? This:



Check out the awesomeness: It's a reversible cabled scarf. I was knitting away during Knitty Gritty on Thursday, when Lily Chin was on, and she uttered the magic words: Reversible cables. I about snapped my neck, I looked up so fast. Cables that look the same on both sides? Who ever heard of such a thing?

I wasn't sure I was going to have enough. I got two hanks, ostensibly of 135 yards each, but when I got done with the first one I had a little less than what I considered to be half a scarf. But either I had invisible gauge changes, or "about 135 yards" isn't a terribly precise measurement, because this is how much difference there was between the two hanks:



That's, like, a foot of knitting. Kind of a big difference. Fortunately, the scarf came out exactly the length I was hoping for, so all in all the Yarn Guardian and I are pleased.



With any luck, all this knitting will help me come through the long walks in the arctic blasts with all my body parts un-frostbitten.