Stuff and Nonsense

I am futzing around this morning doing nothing much but watching the testing sessions on F1 TV.  My beloved F1 is back.  Race 1 is in Australia in two weeks.  There is lots to do but I am not busy doing it.

As I was sitting here, I realized something.  I hate pants made of slippery fabrics.  Really hate them.  The pair I have on now was a test for fit.  It is in the manner of being a toile, made of fabric that is usually used for swimming gear.  My usual fabric source does not seem to carry a lot of 4 way stretch fabrics and this was the only one they had when I bought it.  While it is OK for toiles, it is not easy to wear and this one will not be a wearable garment for daily wear.

Some things need to stay in the experimental pile.  

Thankfully, I have some perfect four way stretch fabric to hand and when sewing resumes next week, I will be using it.  

The other thing I have been working on lately is to disentangle myself from Amazon.  My much enjoyed Audible is on the list to go too.  It isn't an convenient thing to do when you rely on the post office for your incidentals. Keith gets groceries but I don't want him to have to do more other chores than pick up the mail.  Online shopping is the best way to go.  

Sourcing some things from Canadian based small business can be hard, but it is doable.  Yes there is a price in shipping and occasionally increased costs but most places have free shipping over a certain dollar value.  The actual price I pay is not going to be very much different.  You just have to shop less often and buy more when you do shop.  It's a sort of first world problem though.  I have enough that I can buy volume.  When you are in stratitened circumstances, you cannot.  

One of the hardest things is going to be coffee.  We use Maxwell House at home because that does not seem to give me coffee headaches.  It is however, made in the US and we are going to try to find sources closer to home. I don't really have the budget for local roasters for my daily coffee.  Still, we are trying.  

That is what's up today.  Stuff and nonsense.  One of those days.

Rib rib rib

There. Is. Ribbing.

Just barely but it is there.  I should get to the end of the short rib the pattern asks for by the end of the day and I hope to start the neckband ribbing tomorrow.  

Feeling really good about this. 

Seeing More Brilliance

I was busy knitting yesterday, so no post from me.  Though I did not get here, my time knitting was very well spent.  Very well spent.

I have two and a half sets of short rows left to do till I can start the ribbing on the Hacho sweater.  I am so happy that it is hard to even speak.  After this, only ribbing and two short sleeves to go.  Each sleeve will be a day, but it leaves me open to thinking about this.

When I was doing a quick stash dive on Monday, I pulled out the cottons for a summer sweater.  The plan is for a quick Tolsta.  I had been thinking about using some Persian Red to help stretch the marine blue but when I held it together, it was clearly a no go.  The tones of the colours were just not right.  I pulled out the gold you can see above.  In real life, this combo is brilliant. Both are bright strong clean colours and are a great pairing.  I am looking forward to working it.

I also pulled out some sock yarns.  They were in the wrong box and the sock yarn box, even though the number of skeins only goes down,  is full. 

I kept them out.  I think the colours may have had something to do with it though I am planning to clean out used yarns from my sock yarn bag and want some new inspiration to replace it.  I have also been thinking about colours for this.

These are the squares for my pin loom blanket.  I love the colours and the way they look, but when I lay out the squares, I feel it needs more punch.  I only had a small and very diminishing bag of ends of sock yarns close at hand.  I was getting bored with what was left.  

When I was digging around in the bits and ends bins, I pulled out all the sock yarns.  I wanted to get these into a more ordered state.  I had been putting them away as they were just after use, but I can get much more into a bag, if they are each wound into a nice firm ball.  

There were three bags before I did this and there is now one.  I will have a much broader selection of colours at hand which is a huge boost for more frequent colour changes and less boredom with what is happening on this little loom.

Like this.

First square completed.  Second on the way and you can see where the next square is going.  There is very little deep purple in the bag of squares just yet.  

All this thinking of colour, makes me think of this top because this top, is all about colours.

I only wish you could see the brilliance of these rich tones.  It is the perfect way to get rid of winter blues.  Seeing it again makes me feel this needs to be on my back before I start my Tolsta.  

I love the act of knitting.  I love the product of knitting.  I love fibre in all its many forms as you can see above but I also love colour.  

Colour lifts you out of winter, and moves your mind to a different way of perceiving the world.  Where I live, the snow and cold still holds ultimate sway, but the thing about a sunny day's brilliant blinding white is that the colours stand out clear and strong and you know that right here, in your hands, you can choose to see more.  So I am.

All Things Joyful

We had a great weekend.  Cassie and Emmett decorated the strawberry shortcake in honor of Grandpa Brian.  

Cassie carefully piled up the whipped cream topping and Emmett cheered her on begging only that she leave some in the bowl for him to lick.  He was also in charge of the deer and helped her put them on. No photos of Emmett.  The deer kept running away before Cassie could take a photo.  

Carter came along to supervise and you can see just what he thought of Cassie's quip that we were all going home with type 2 diabetes after eating this pile of whipped cream.

It was a great day.  There were cars all over and boys running through it all crashing and laughing and playing.  We looked at some of Grandpa's rocks and imagined how old the stones were.   Carter had some deep questions and looked at some books that could help us know all the things Grandpa did not have time to tell us. There were hugs and kisses galore.  It was a day of love in its active most wonderful form.  

And there was knitting yesterday.  Wonderful joyful knitting.  On Saturday evening, I finished all the rows before I could start the short row section and bright and early Sunday morning, I started short rows.

Actual short row.

I think that I am about half done the short rows, though they do get longer on each and every row.  Even so, it feels that the end of the body is so close that I can literally taste it. More than likely it's because there is a yarn fuzz in my mouth.

Still the sleeves are short and simple and will be speedy knits.  I am so looking forward to wearing this.  It is perfectly timed with spring coming.  It's slightly lighter weight means I will end up wearing it lots.  In winter, it will be great and look great with a turtleneck or a cozy flannel shirt under it.  

Ok.  Enough dreaming.  Time to get to work.

And so it goes.

Tiny bits of knitting gets results.

It isn't much but I have to add to that tally. I have a pair of pants and a pair of tester bike style shorts to wear under dresses in summer.  Not that there is any possibility of me biking but it will be nice to know that if I bend over in a dress my derriere is not flashing about for all to see.  

There is some adjusting to be done on the bike shorts but you have to wear a thing to really know if it is working for you.  Once that is done, then I can make a few more pairs before summer comes again. And then a couple more dresses.  I would love to have a few more for summer.  My skirt play of last year was great but dresses are still easier to wear and are nicer on a really hot day.

After the sewing was done for the day, I had to clean up the sewing room.  

All my family is coming on Saturday for a family afternoon.  We are celebrating what would have been Brian's 75 birthday.  Without him, none of us would be here in this place and in this time. 

I know that for some, they mark the day of someone's passing but this just feels wrong to me.  I mark those most terrible of days, each day.   Those days are counted in my soul and are, like breathing, just part of each day, silently adding up.  I don't need to mark his last. 

What is important is not that he died.  It is that he lived, that we are all part of him and his being in the world.  That all this joy and laughter that we have today is because he was with us for a time.  Too short a time for sure, but so it goes.  We will celebrate Grandpa Brian's Birthday with little boys chasing about, with noise, with laughter and with stories to share who and what he was with the kids who are now big enough to remember. They will pass his stories on.

In the way of the world and how time as we perceive it works, this day is moving, so...first up coffee and then some chores.  And so it goes

But first, coffee

I knit two rows yesterday.  Yup.  That is it.  Two rows.  I was planning to bake cookies but I don't have enough flour.  I ended up in the sewing room and I had a pretty good time.  

I wasn't doing anything spectacular.  I finished one pair of pants and made three quarters of the next pair I had cut out.  I would have finished them, but I needed to get up and move.  I never quite made it back in to finish it up.  That is on for today.  

And then I have to clean the floors because that is what grownups do.  But first coffee.  And maybe a tiny bit of knitting to take the edge off.

Yay for Play

This is more like it.  I stayed working on this no pressure vest and it is working its magic.  I might get back to Hacho tomorrow.  That is future and you just never know what will happen.

When I cast on the vest I had no firm intention in mind.  I only knew that I had enough yarn for a vest so that is what I started knitting.  Without really meaning to,  I seem to be exploring something that has been bugging me.

The Anyday sweatshirt.  

I started that sweater with such hope but found that I had picked the wrong size and because of one thing in the way it started, wasn't sure where to go next.  I loved what I learned knitting it and have used that on the last sweater I finished.  The way it fit at the back of my neck was better than anything I had made before, but Anyday itself seemed out of my league.  

When I cast on this vest, I wanted to keep that back neck fit so I did what Anyday did but for the selvedge or foundation knitting.  I never really thought about it but I found myself thinking about the shaping and went in a very different direction.

This is where I am right now, with one partial front shoulder complete and the other well on the way.  I did not get much done and yet, I went miles.  I was babying my hands (too much game play on my tablet) so I took it easy and let my mind wander and let my needles go where they would.

I am pretty pleased with it so far.  The magical thing is happening at the back.

This is what is called a European shoulder, where the front shoulder goes over your shoulder apex and meets a shaped back yoke that forces the neck to sit closer to your neck.  This was one of the things that drew me to the Anyday Sweatshirt.  It is seen in a lot of patterns right now and I love the look and I love the fit.

That marker you see is the shoulder where the front yoke will sit at the top of my shoulder.  If this vest works out and if the fit is right, then I am ready to make another attempt to knit the Anyday Sweatshirt.  I will understand what I need to do to get the fit what I want it to be and I can defeat the problem I had with the foundation piece. 

It's a bit hard to put into words to explain what I mean about not understanding the way it needs to fit me but down the road, when I get to Anyday, it will be clearer.

Yay me and yay for playing with my knitting. I am feeling pretty chuffed about it all and that ought to get me back to being friends with the Hacho sweater, plus I will have a nifty new vest as well.

Privilege

I'm not conquering it.  No Hacho knitting happened.

I gave myself a day off from Hacho.  I have been pushing to knit it but it just isn't in me.  I need a break from it.  Or do I?  Maybe I just need to knit the sleeves.  They are short and relatively close fitting.  It would be such a break from the long body rows.  It would also get me closer to finishing. 

No.  I need a day or two away from it.

I still found myself needing to do something.  I picked up my very plain vest and decided to work on it a bit.  

The back is complete and the next thing to do is to start the fronts.  

The really interesting thing is that only the last four rows have been from a new ball of yarn.  But for those rows, I used three ends of yarn left after finishing the first project I made in this yarn. They were various sized so I have no idea just how much was left on each but I am really pleased that they got me this far.  I only have four full skeins of this stuff left so every meter is precious.  Having the back almost complete before hitting the full skeins means that no matter what I do, I have enough.

That makes me feel really good about things. Knitting mostly, but having enough is a really great.  Enough to eat.  Enough hot water to shower long enough to warm up on a chilly day.  Enough to keep my house cozy warm.  Enough to indulge myself in knitting.  Privilege.  It is a privilege all the way. 

Conquering it.

Hacho continues.  At this point I feel as if that sweater is going to go on forever.  I have 7 whole round rows before the short row part.  I can do 7 in a day no problem, right?  I am starting to hate the thing but never fear, I will fall in love again as soon as I get to the short rows to shape the back hem.

I was thinking about what else was in my WIPs bin. One of the podcasts I watched was showing some of the Musselburgh Hats she completed.  Her hats were wide looking and fit great. She commented how that hat was the perfect car knitting, just round and round till it was long enough. I watched another podcast and she showed off completed Musselburghs.  They fit her great too.  

So how come I hated mine?  I love knitting socks which are very much the same if I am doing them my favourite way (a tube with and afterthought heel)  so why do I feel so negatively about mine?  I am worried it will be too small for anyone to wear. I even restarted it because I was sure it was not going to fit. What the heck am I worried about?

I am knitting it on a 16 inch needle and it just is so small looking.  I check and recheck gauge but we all know gauge lies. I need to see it laid flat.  I think that the only way for me to feel good about this hat is to lay it out flat.   I went to dig for a longer needle.

I moved it to a 24 inch needle and you know what?  

It's fine.  Gauge isn't lying and the hat is going to look great.  It is going to be a great double thick hat.

All of a sudden, I feel really good and knit a few rows on it for good measure.  

I went back to knitting on the Hacho sweater and felt really good about knitting on that too.  I don't love it yet, but I am not hating it anymore.  Seven rows is not that much and I feel like I am king of the castle and I am conquering it. 

For Spring

Yeah.  The Hacho sweaters endless rounds are really a pain. It is taking some gumption to keep going but keep going I will.  I am thinking about other things though.

I am thinking about knitting for spring knits.  I need a few more tops but there  is also the part where they are quick.  Less sleeve work or no sleeves at all.  I can do that.

I am going to make at least one more Tolsta Tee.  I have this rich blue, a marine blue but not navy, Butterly Cotton that I only have four skeins of and I am going to stripe it with something, possibly a red for anotber Tolsta.  Or a gold.  I have some gold that is not going to be made into the intended sweater because I really do not like mosaic knitting. Not sure which colour though. Both will look great.

I also have been thinking about knitting another Blanche.  It is such an easy wearing sweater and in summer, I reach for it all the time.  I have yarn that I want to use for it.  Do you recall that green sock yarn that has been tried as several different sweaters?  Yeah.  I might try that again though honestly, I am a little afraid of that yarn.  I am not sure I am ready for it yet again.

I am thinking about the nifty Hortensia Tee too.   I love the way the neck is detailed.  I may have some simple yellow cotton and linen yarn that would look great in this simple tee.   Or there is some washed brick red bamboo.  I love the feel of bamboo for summer wear.

I have some linen in a lace weight that I have been saving for a top.    There are three colours, a white, a light grey and a medium dark grey.  They would make a seriously delicious Theros Tee.  See that little lace design? I am utterly charmed by that.  It would be so sweet and in linen?  I think it would be superb.

There is also the very pretty Lotus Lake Tee by Anniina Juuti.  I love that lace detail.  It would be so pretty over some of my simple dresses.  I am not quite sure which yarn to make it in.  I wish I had some pure linen.  Oh, I know what would be great.  I have some silk that might be just the thing.  Or a silk and linen. Whatever I make it in, it sure is a pretty pattern.

There are so many great tops out there that it is hard to decide.  Sari Nordlund  has several patterns I could knit right now. By several I means dozens.  And then there are all the simple shapes that I know I like to wear, like Henley neck tops and easy sleeveless vest shapes.  

The array of things I could knit is endless.  I wish there were more hours in a day.

Update:  

The Hacho sweater is now at 12 inches.  Just an inch and a half to go before the short row section.  Yippeeeeee.

Steady on.

I have no photos of what I did the last few days.  I ate it.  

In truth I had some and the rest is going into the freezer...so I don't eat it in one sitting.  I made poppyseed chiffon cake with peanut butter frosting, which is my favourite combination even over carrot cake and cream cheese frosting.  I am avoiding the kitchen even more than usual till I get the freezer job done.

I did knit and am progressing steadily on the Hacho sweater.  

I am measuring 11 and a half inches.  The 13 and a half inches that I need is creeping ever closer.  But it is creeping.  This is the place where knitting is challenging.  You have to keep on even though your heart is telling you it's never going to be done.  If it weren't for the progress keeper

it would be so easy to lose hope.  I have made good progress.  It only feels slow.  

I am keeping my head and am entertaining myself about the next knit.  I would love to keep working on the grey Mrs. Hunter's s pattern sweater, but it is the middle of February.  March is here shortly and that means spring is coming.  I need spring knits.  I pulled out this top to see what is what.  

My goodness the colours.  It is such a lush symphony of colour.  It makes me itchy to play with this but I am going to behave and stay with Hacho.  I want that sweater done.  

This teal sweater is a multi season garment.  It's going to be loose and easy fitting but not oversized.  Perfect for spring and fall.  

I have a couple of great summer garments but I could use a few more tops to keep the early morning chill off but that look good over dresses and with skirts.  I wear those all summer.  They are so much cooler than pants but mornings and evenings wearing them can be chilly.  A nice light weight slightly cropped sweater is just the thing.  It works over dresses and still works with skirts.  I have a few patterns in mind but I don't have time this morning to go through them.  Maybe tomorrow?  

I want to finish my sewing from last week and get on with the next bit.  I want to finish cleaning my bedroom.  I want to put away delicious cake without eating another piece.  I want to knit.  Lots to do. Time to play.

Something different.

I did my knitting yesterday and then, when my hands were done for the day, I decided to pull out something very different to do.  

I have not made little squares for a long time.  

These really are a lot of fun.  It isn't difficult and each square takes little time to do, maybe half an hour.  At my speed that is.  It is such a tidy craft and one day, I hope to make a blanket with them.  Since all the little squares are made with leftover sock yarn, it is going to be a wonderfully easy care blanket.  

I have no idea what today might bring, but it is bright and very very cold.  Coffee and tea are the order of the day.  So are cozy sweaters and knitting and in my world that is enough.

No Pressure, Good Pressure

I keep weekends.  I wouldn't have to.  I am retired but now weekends is one of the things that can trip up the unwary.  I try to do something just a bit different on Saturday and Sunday.  It really helps that I follow F1.  That is very much a weekend sport but I do it in small ways too. I always try to work on something just a bit different on Sunday.

I worked on this yesterday. It is going to be a simple ordinary vest.  I am using large needles and knitting a fairly open fabric.  I can knit on this after other knitting is done for the day because of the size of the needles.

I usually feel a strong urge to finish a thing, but this is different.  It is yarn that is leftover from another project.  It is a relatively quick knit because of gauge and no sleeves.  It wasn't a plan.  It just sort of was cast on.  Funny that. It is quite relaxing, a no pressure vest.

What I am putting pressure on myself to finish is this. 

Not bad pressure, just a sort of strong urge to wear this garment. I really want this top. I have wanted it for a long time.  I knew just what sort of sweater it should be and it is interesting that even after so long, the sweater is very close to what I saw when I bought the yarn. Often, the sweater I saw when I bought the yarn is very different than what is actually made from it. A good example is my red Third Coast sweater. That was bought to make a Bountiful Bohus but became a very different sweater that I am wearing right at this moment.  

I want the Hacho sweater badly and that makes for a little bit of healthy creative drive.

I wore my first Lipstick sweater, my Ripstick 

on Saturday so that I could remember to get some measurements from it, most importantly, the measurement from underarm to hem on the front of the sweater.  I am getting close.  The original Lipstick is straight to the pattern, 13.5 inches and on my Hacho Lipstick sweater, I was at just shy of 10 inches.  I should be at 10.5 inches after weekend  knitting.  It is never very much, but it is getting close.

I can see the end and I am so glad. There is a short row back hem that is three inches longer than the front but that is easy and fast.  Each row gets shorter. Then sleeves but I will make them all stockinette again and they are only short sleeves. Not too much work.  

I can see and almost taste the end of this one.  Then as much as I want to finish the grey Mrs. Hunter' sweater, spring is soon on its way and I have a top in the WIPs bin that I want to wear for spring.  Then it will be a few lighter summer tops but they always go quickly.

So many things to look forward to.  I love that about knitting.

A Great Sort of Friday

I got an early start yesterday.  The blog posted just after 8 a.m.  That meant that I hit the sewing room before 8:30.  

I cut out the next project and then had to contemplate what to do with the remainder of the cloth.  It's a black fleece fabric and there is lots there for something.  The problem is that my remainder fabric bin is full.  What do you do with remainder fabric?  

Then I sat down to sew.  I don't know why but sewing went really well.  No mistakes, no running the bobbin empty.  No needle glitches.  It just went well.  It just took time.  It's complete.  All seams overlocked too.  Only the elastic remains and that will happen this morning.  I hope.

Project success made me do a heavy dig for all the rest of the bottoms fabric.  After this pair of pants, I want to work on tights.  I finally have good 4 way stretch fabric that is not shiny slippery and I could really use tights.  This new Fifey pattern from Muna and Broad is perfect for it. Fifty is a pj pattern but the comfortable relaxed fit of the pants is just right for mangling into easy fit tights for me.  I have fabric a plenty for some fails so I am game to give it a try. 

By the time I had fabric dug out, it was 10:30.  

I didn't want test sewing success by pushing too hard, so I pulled out the ball winder and started winding my new yarn into cakes.  

Chaos.  

I have to do a bit of putting away before I can do some sewing.  Step one is to finish winding.  This is new yarn and it is pretty.  It is not going to be a hard job.  I may wind up some stash yarn too.  In fact, if all I do today is knit and wind yarn, I am pretty good with that. It feels like a great sort of Friday to me.

Tribulations

Whatever I planned to do yesterday, I did not do it.  

I picked up the grey Mrs. Hunter's pattern sweater and worked on that.  I wanted to get it long enough below the underarms that I could really see how it was fitting.  After the changes of needle size, I was apprehensive.  I feared that I was going to have to redo it again.  I made up my mind that if it did not work, it was going to be ripped back and the yarn used for something else.  

I don't need to rip back!  I did the try on yesterday afternoon and it is just right.  It's a relief.  

And then there was puzzle setting.  I have been working on a puzzle Cassie and Marcus and their mom and dad gave me for Christmas.  It was a 500 piece one.  I thought it would be a nice break between big ones, just like socks or a hat between sweaters.  

I was so wrong.  

This is a mean puzzle.  There are edge like pieces that are not edge pieces.

There are running man nightmare pieces.  

There are pieces that made Keith want to ask the puzzle maker "Who hurt you?  ".

I worked on it for most of the day and I was starting to have a tiny bit of progress when Keith came home and sat to play (fight) along with me.  Eventually we got started but it was never easy.  There was language against whoever thought this kind of puzzle should be a good thing.   It was tremendous fun. There was a lot of laughter. Shared tribulations  and talking about it make things better.  Even so,  I am glad that it is only 500 pieces.  

Who knows what the day will bring but I can say I woke up thinking about sewing.  Might do some of that.

 

Priceless Squirrels

I went into the sewing room yesterday with really great intentions.  Other people would get down to sewing if they touched fabric and while I laid fabric out, and checked how much I had, I did not cut and I did not sew.  

I was distracted.  

I was in the fabric bins and as I was putting things away, I pulled out a bit of a kit I made for a miniature project.  I meant to simply pull it out and put it where I could do it sometime, but you know how it goes.  Before you could say squirrel, I was off.  

I wanted to see if I could make a tiny granny square with a single thread of embroidery cotton and which of my smallest crochet hooks would work.  

I have had the middle hook, the .75 mm hook for decades.  When I crocheted as a teenager, I once made a doily using it and size 30 crochet cotton.  It was very very fine.  I only ever made one at that scale and settled in to a nice size 20 thread and a 1.25 mm hook for doilies.  The top hook is a 1.00 mm hook and the lowest is a .60 mm hook that I got for beads in shawl knitting.  

That tiny square was very difficult to do.  My hands shake just enough to make that extremely fine scale work impossible.  If I had someone to start it for me, it might be different.  I think it would be okay, once there was more fabric to hang onto.  

Maybe it would be easier if I knit?

My smallest knitting needles are really tiny.  

I have no idea  what the tiniest is but it is quite fine.  The circular is a 1.5 mm needle and even that is very small.  

I gave it a shot.  

Cast on was easy enough.  The next row was a bit more challenging but once I got to the third and fourth row, I was cruising.  

Look!  Actual garter stitch ridges!  Just for fun and to give you an idea of the scale, this is the garter stitch toe of the sock on 2.5 mm needles.  

That really brings the scale of this to life.  

I know it isn't much but I proved to myself that I could do it.  That shaky hands, be darned, I could still do it. 

I have no idea if I will ever actually make the afghan I wanted for my miniature house but I'm not sure that is the point anymore.  Just the knowledge that I can do it is priceless.

Progress

I do seem to be getting some knitting done even if it feels as if I'm not.  

Progress keepers help. According to the progress keeper, I usually get between 6 and 8 rows a day.  I was a bit short yesterday.  Oh well.

It's going to be a busy day here.  There are things that did not happen yesterday because I slept in, that need to happen today.  So I have to drink my coffee and finish writing this and get busy.    

Leaping into the day

I thought I would have done more on a weekend but nope.  Our weather was yucky, stormy and cold and snowy.  It never made it to blizzard status but the change in weather conditions made my hands ache.  I knit only in dribs and drabs and I wish I could have done more, but after all this time, I am getting better at paying attention to my hands.  

My dribs and drabs of knitting went into the sock.  

I was near the end of the plain cuff by Sunday morning and it took the rest of the day to finish the bit of ribbing.  

And that was it for knitting.  

For the same reason, I did not get another sewing project cut out. I did, however, decide what to sew next.  More pants.  I looked at the fabric I have sitting out and I was overwhelmed by the desire to NOT have to put that piece of fabric back in the box.  I just want to get it out of the fabric box.  Another pair of pants is not needed but it is usable.  I am on the verge of enough.  

After this, now that I am really comfortable with this new pattern I am going to sew up some bike shorts.  No, not for biking but to wear under some of my dresses.  Some of the early ones were cut a little bit differently than I cut them now and leave me a bit exposed when I am going about the house.  Bending is a problem.  Bike style shorts will be a very good solution.  The new pattern makes a perfect base for this job.  

And after those things are done, I am going to play with circle skirts again.  I think I want a circle skirt as the skirt part of a dress or a jumper style garment.  Maybe.  I guess I want to play.  

The weather looks stable, the sun is shining brilliantly over the new snow and the sky is that blue that winter skies are.  The day is filled with promise and I am going to take a leap of faith into it.