Snow day, a baby blanket, and The Pillars of the Earth (the miniseries)

I know it may come as a shock (OMG, there's snow!?) but New England is still in the throes of the ice storm (I think its name is Ella), and I'm home again from work.  The husband, unfortunately, is not -- he works for a hospital and he's considered "essential staff", which I hate, because it means he has to drive in this crap.  So I'm home alone, except for some cats and a guinea pig, iced in, and knitting on a baby blanket.

It's the Big, Bad Baby Blanket from Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook, which didn't help me learn to knit but has provided me with some good patterns.  I knitted this in summer of 2009, when David had first moved down to Connecticut, for my good friend Kim, who was pregnant with her second daughter, Anna Sophia.  I knitted it of the now-discontinued Noro Yuzen, which was really not suited to a baby blanket, but I loved the colors and figured it was more an heirloom than a practical gift.

This one, I'm making for David's cousin's baby, a boy, out of Mirasol Cotanani, 60% pima cotton, 40% merino wool.  It's in shade #407, "turquoise", which I guess works, I think of it as more of a sky blue though, instead of the normal "baby blue".  It's really soft and the wool keeps it pliable.  I tore out everything I did yesterday.  It was riddled with mistakes.  But it's really all right when the yarn is this comfortable to work with.

And what's keeping me company (besides the knitting, the cats, and the guinea pig)?

The Pillars of the Earth, the miniseries.  My parents watched this last year and my father's been professing his love for it ever since.  I started it on a whim today (since we all know how much I loved the book), and now I'm completely involved.  It's got episodes.  I'll more than likely be done with it today.  I love it when film actually respects literature (unlike with Angels&Demons).