Snowday! and The 9 Row Frog

Monday night when I went to bed the snow was flying. We were forecasted a good old fashioned maritime storm. Now some maritimers may complain about the weather but I love winter. I love everything about it. Snuggling in with a good hot chocolate (preferably spiked!), warm socks, scarves and fuzzy slippers, the short days, the way the sun sparkles on the snow, the long nights, perfect for candlelight (you'll see the problem with this in a moment), soups, stews, skiing, you name it and I love it. I suppose it comes from not having grown up around snow yet knowing the whole time that I was Canadian. My first winter in Wolfville NS was a bit of a shock... like when they didn't cancel classes for what I would have called a blizzard! And waiting out all night in a snowstorm for supersub tickets under a blanket with Yolande and Super Keaner. Ah, those were the days.

Now as an adult with no kids (arranging childcare for snowdays can be a hassle, I know), I look forward to snow storms because they are an excuse to stay in my pajamas and snuggle in while waiting the storm out. But alas, I have dogs. And dogs must go out to use the facilities. And big dogs think snow is big fun. At the height of yesterday's storm my two illustrious beasts decided it was playtime. They frolicked like deer, pounced like bears on salmon and ran around like lunatic. All of this was heightened by me joining them to scoop the poop while I could still see it. It was too windy and stormy to video them but this is how they came into the house.

I spent a good part of the afternoon picking off snowballs, mopping floors and telling wet dogs that they were no longer welcome on the furniture. It took them a good 3 hours to dry out, all the while continuing to ask to go out again.

After all was said and done, the house looks beautiful. Certainly inspiring for Christmas knitting.
Hey, can you find my light reindeer? I think I'm going to have to dig them out a bit today. There are 2 of them out there.
Now you would think that a day so stormy that we couldn't leave the house, so why even bother getting dressed, would be a great knitting day. Well I worked on one sock. Yup, one whole sock. And I still didn't get it done! I finally got into a rhythm around 9 pm only to discover at midnight that I had dropped a stitch a few rows back. I decided dealing with it before I went to bed, so I would have a fresh start today, was a good idea. After I slowly frogged it back, stitch by stitch (I can't just pull out the needles, frog to where I need to and then pick up the stitches. I get too befuddled and end up fighting to pick up the right stitches) I ended up with 9 rows of fingering weight yarn frogged back. UGH!!!!!! I swear I am never going to get these damn socks done!
And the culprit of this mistake?! Candlelight. I decided to embrace the beautiful winter evening and light some candles while watching the last of the snow fall. Lesson learned, sock knitting by candlelight may not be a wise idea. I think I'll wait to further 'embrace' the winter season until after I have my Christmas knitting done.