In The Long Winter (Chapter 26, “Breathing Spell”), Laura Ingalls Wilder tells of the special joke that Pa and Grace share. When Pa comes home from hauling hay, Grace asks Pa if his nose had frozen.
Of course in this weather Pa’s ears and his nose froze so that he had to rub them with snow to thaw them. He pretended to Grace that his nose grew longer every time it froze, and Grace pretended to believe that it did. This was their own special joke.
“Froze it five or six times today,” Pa answered her, tenderly feeling his red, swollen nose.
“If spring doesn’t come soon, I’m going to have a nose as long as an elephant’s. Ears like an elephant’s, too.” That made Grace laugh.
In the handwritten The Hard Winter manuscript, Laura added a bit to the joke. Pa comments that he “wishes he had a mitten for his nose.”
Today is the coldest day so far in my little part of Montana. It’s below zero after noon, even though the sun is shining. The perfect day for staying indoors or, if you have to be out in it, wearing your nose mitten. Lo and behold, there are other people that know the benefits of nose mittens. You can read about it HERE.
Last winter I knitted some nose mittens. If you’re a knitter and have knitted socks, a nose mitten is no more than toe of a sock knitted as pointy as you like. There are instructions for knitting your own nose mitten (or nosewarmer, as the designer remembers them). I like the tassel on the point.
I actually was going to brave the elements to build a small snowman to model a nose warmer for the blog photo, but our snow is as fine as sand and won’t pack into a snowball. So I used the next best thing – the face of a clock!
