We're Heading Into a Deep Freeze, and A Bit of This 'N That

After a very early grocery shopping run, I settled down with the second and third loads of laundry and set up my knitting machine. I was determined to conquer the second sleeve that was giving me so much trouble last week. Best intentions, etc, being what they are, after hours of growl work and several re-starts, I put away my equipment until I take it out again on Friday. I decided to check the manual for the tension setting dial. Voila! I probably should have checked the manual before because, as usual, I've been misinterpreting the tension dial. 

I had already changed the tension dial to what I thought 
was a looser knit, realizing it was tension that was giving 
me the problem for the second sleeve. Unfortunately, 
I mixed it up again, and tightened the tension instead of 
loosening it. It didn't work - at all. On Friday I'll try 
it with a looser number and I'm quite sure I'll be much 
more successful. 

On my dial, #1 is tightest, #10 is loosest. I always think of tension increasing as the number increases, and it throws me off every time. I may have to use a Sharpie and draw an arrow with Loose and Tight written above. But, in good news, I now know what I had been doing wrong, and have reset my tension to the number that will be appropriate for the cable stitch I need to produce. I want to get this sweater completed so that I can move onward to a Fair Isle yoked sweater I've got my eye on. 

I think this photo was from last year, when we had a solid week 
of sub-zero temperatures at the end of January. We're heading 
back into the deep freeze for a week or so now, starting 
late today. Saturday will be brutal. Ick!!!

Sweaters will come in handy over the next few days. Today won't be bad, but by Saturday we'll be in sub-zero (F) temps for the entire day, starting around -20 and "warming up" to -1. It'll be nasty. We usually get up to a week of super cold temps up here every winter, and we know how to dress and what to do when we get them, but my thoughts always move to the homeless. We lose some of them every winter on these extreme cold days - people who are so uncomfortable with buildings and other people that they would rather stay outdoors in wooded areas or in culverts or under bridges and viaducts. I hope they'll be able to stay warm over the next few days. It'll be a trial for everyone and everything living up here in the Frozen Northlands. 

Although this is a local photo, we have quite a bit 
more snow in the pictures now. Still, there are so many 
homeless people out in our Metro area and I know we'll 
lose some of them to the cold temps we're diving into. 

RE yesterday's naming post, DH has come down on the side of Voodoo, and although I had almost made up my mind to go with Anubis, his comments made sense. Computers are a sort of magic - something unusual and remarkable that we can now hold in our hands. Computers open doors, travel unseen pathways, and allow us to experience things we've never dreamed of before. I think they are a kind of magic, and Voodoo might be the winner. I'll start thinking of it as Voodoo today, Anubis tomorrow and see what feels right. Thanks for all of your input. 

Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. As always, please be kind, stay safe and wear your mask.