Knitting in the Frigid South?

First I have to say BRRRRRRRRR! Our temperature with the wind chill this morning here in sunny Orlando was 18 degrees. On the down side, all my flowers and potted plants had to be covered in sheets and blankets and will stay that way for a few more days. Also, since my house is mostly tile, barefootin' it is a bit too invigorating. Ditto the shower, the bathtub and anything else made of porcelain and surrounded by tile. On the upside, the dogs get right down to business when we go out in the morning. But the best part is the extra enthusiasm it brings to my knitting mojo.

When I travel to colder climates (normally in warmer weather, though), I'm always mesmerized by the wonderful wools, alpacas, camel, llama, cashmeres that fill the shelves. If I'm knitting for myself, I'm mostly in the cottons, bamboo and silk sections as we don't get much call for heavy sweaters here in Florida. When the thermometer reaches 100 degrees and the humidity is 90%, knitting even light fibers feels like you've got a thick blanket on your lap. Bleech.

But does this cold snap makes me want to knit, knit, knit. I have Ben-Gay on my elbow, my "knitting elbow" brace on, took 3 Advil as soon as I ate breakfast and am hunkering in for a very productive day of knitting. I have three projects for the book pulled out and ready to alternate based on needle size to keep my hands happy, have filled the water reservoir on my Keurig coffeemaker (it feels like the perfect day for mocha), stacked up DVDs of all 4 seasons of Battlestar Gallactica, and am now ready to make some major progress today on: 1) finish work on my Honeysuckle Bridal Set; 2) the remaining 50 rows of the first colorway of my Gilded Age Placemat; my warm and cuddly alpaca (yum!) Great Smoky Mountains lap throw. So time to stop typing and get knitting already -- this cold weather won't last forever!