So Mixed Up

Yesterday was all about spinning.

The plan is to have these things ready for sale this spring.  Which is not that far away, considering it is only 1 day to March.  I have bobbins to empty and that is what I spent the day doing.

First thing to do was to clear off the bobbins from my lace flyer.  These are smaller bobbins with a thicker core.  Spinning very fine thread was easy with this flyer.  I didn't realize it was so fine.  I have three bobbins but only two needed cleaning off.  

Next up was a bright, fun, bag of fibre.  

This is probably the last thing I spun and I was hoping for something softer suitable for hats or mitts.  It is my classic thick and thin, but that will be great for either project. I am not quite sure how this will be plied, but I am aiming for a two ply.

And lastly, two bobbins of some lovely Colour Adventure fibre. 

I love this stuff.  It's such a beautiful colour and see that little tail end?  It's a hint of what it can be.  

Only I have to ply it and I hate plying.  Spinning is so wonderfully contemplative and absorbing.  There is so much to watch and the fibre runs through my hands and slips forward in a magical way by the gentle tension from the wheel, twisting finely to turn itself into a single ply.  Spinning the fibre is absorbing.  

Plying is not.  It makes me feel out of control.  I know that it would be better if I practiced, but I don't enjoy it and kind of resent the time. Which is how I decided to let my spinning things go.  My quandary is clear.  I love the spinning but hate the finishing. 

I am waffling, dreaming of making these things into yarn to knit with.  The want is still there and it is much stronger than it has been in a good long while.  This wasn't supposed to happen.  Letting it go was supposed to make me feel good and right now, it isn't.   

There is no rush.  I will take my time to do what is right for me.  

Or Not

I realized something yesterday morning.  I was avoiding knitting on the Utikiek sweater.  I love knitting on it, and yet, I was avoiding it with everything I had in me.  On Monday, I was even glad that I had laundry to do so I had a kind of excuse not to knit.  I made cookies and really that should have been a clue for me.  The last thing this household needs is cookies when we are actively trying to wean ourselves off of post Christmas, post dark season carb hangovers.  The days are longer now and though spring is not here at all yet, the extra light makes me feel more awake and alive and I start craving fresh foods.  

Yes, I was really avoiding the knitting.  It was all the purling and I like purling (as long as I can do it my way, a form of combination knitting).  I realized what I was doing midmorning and knew exactly what to do to fix it. 

I pulled back the body section of the green and started over.  It wasn't much.  Six rows but six rows is when the pattern starts to be well established and I don't have to watch so carefully.  At six rows in, I start to get a feel for what is going on and am where I can start to read my knitting and just relax and enjoy the process.  

But, so it goes.  I knit most of the afternoon away and am only one row shy of the end of the pile of ripped back yarn and am ready to move forward.  It is really much more fun.  

The only problem now is that the house is a mess.  All that avoiding knitting did not mean the house was tidied instead.  Sadly, the days were just frittered away. I am going to have to spend some time fixing the house problem and that has never been my forte. 

Still there is the long afternoon to knit and enjoy. I can put on a good book (audio) or a movie and just get lost in the adventure happening in my head and my hands.  It is easy to go far when you are surrounded by such things.     

Sticking with it.

The green sections on both sleeves are now finished and the body wok has begun.  

The sleeves felt like they were working up quickly.  

The body is not.  Plus the sleeves were in the round and the body is knit flat. When I started on the body, I was in full sleeve mode.  I started the patterning the way I did to do it in the round. Because of that, I am having to do a lot of purling.  The pattern, as written has a plain knit row on the right side and the pattern stitches knit on the wrong side rows. To do it in the round, I converted the knit row to a purl row and all was well. Knitting flat, it means a lot of purling.  Oh well.  I debated about ripping back but it isn't a whole sweater.  I let it be.  

I ought to finish this green section today.  Three more wide stripes to go.  Not too long, I hope.  The really cool part of the way I am working up this sweater is that the sleeves are being knit as I go.  When I cast off the bottom, the whole garment will be done.  It is an interesting feeling.  Very interesting.  

Utkiek Work

Okay.  Back to our regularly unscheduled drivel.  

I got a lot of knitting in yesterday.  I have finished the brown and am really pleased.  I had enough to do a good wide row of it.  To goal is not perfectly matching widths of colour but that they be wide enough to look balanced.    

The pattern stiches seem to be playing into the way that works too.  Row gauge and stitch gauge need to be monitored closely, switching needles as needed according to pattern.  My stitch gauge is matching but row gauge is not always.  C'est le vie.

The stitch patterns I have used so far are shown:

The first is a basic moss stitch.  The second a slip stitch pattern included with the design. 

I haven't been enjoying the slip stitch patterns, so I picked a pattern from one of my Japanese stitch dictionaries.  It should have looked like this,

but because I mixed up right side and wrong side of my knitting, it looks like this.  Equally pleasing 

but the other would have been a better match.  The yarn couldn't have withstood yet another start so it will do. The strong vertical element of it is quite different than the other stitches so far, but there is another slip stitch design lower down that will actually balance it really well. As the pattern designer says, if you don't like one stitch pattern, use another.  I like how she put the knitter in the driver's seat.

And this is this pattern stitch of the green section.  I have a few more rows to work on this sleeve before I am done here.  I have lots of green so I don't have to worry at all about how much yarn I use.  Still the goal is to have pretty much balanced wide sections of colour and I will keep to that.  It is very much part of what drew me to the pattern.  

Just as I was sitting down to write, I noticed that I have unconsciously coordinated what I am wearing today.  

 😁

That never happens.  I feel so weird about this that I may have to put on something pink just to throw things off.  Hmmm.  Wondering if I have anything pink...

For Brian

 

Perhaps Love

Perhaps love is like a resting place

A shelter from the storm

It exists to give you comfort

It is there to keep you warm

And in those times of trouble

When you are most alone

The memory of love will bring you home

Perhaps love is like a window

Perhaps an open door

It invites you to come closer

It wants to show you more

And even if you lose yourself

And don't know what to do

The memory of love will see you through

Oh, love to some is like a cloud

To some as strong as steel

For some a way of living

For some a way to feel

And some say love is holding on

And some say letting go

And some say love is everything

And some say they don't know

Perhaps love is like the ocean

Full of conflict, full of pain

Like a fire when it's cold outside

Or thunder when it rains

If I should live forever

And all my dreams come true

My memories of love will be of you

And some say love is holding on

And some say letting go

And some say love is everything

And some say they don't know

Perhaps love is like the ocean

Full of conflict, full of pain

Like a fire when it's cold outside

Or thunder when it rains

If I should live forever

And all my dreams come true

My memories of love will be of you

Songwriter: John Denver

First thing when I woke this morning, I thought of you.  It's your birthday and I am filled with memories of you.  Sitting on the front deck when it rained.  Walking around our yard with our Saturday morning post hot tub coffee.  Watching stars with you.  Our dinners out when you would come home after being away for a couple weeks.  Coffee in the airport on our way to Kyiv. Rock Lake. The Hand Hills. Camp fires in the back yard.  

So many things run through my mind.  I am filled with sorrow, not for me.  I am in a good place.  I am filled with sorrow for all the things you did not have.  Our grandkids.  The dream of our farm.  Sheep. Okay, that was me, not you. In heaven, I know you are laughing.

Ten years on, my memories of love are of you.

My Kind of Magic

Yup.  It is going to be a struggle.  I have had to tell myself a few times that it is Wednesday and not Tuesday.  Good thing it is a short week, work week, that is, even though I am retired.  

With the decision made to sell my spinning wheels, I am busy gathering all the spinning stuff together.  The first thing I did, was to pull books off my shelves.  If I clear out the spinning books, I can open up some shelf space.  

Yesterday I reoganized my knitting and other crafting books.  

I still have a little ways to go, but that is more related to the other parts of my personal library and its shelf space than a desire to keep or cull.  I am not planning a big cull of books there.

Next up, will be clearing off bobbins and getting them ready for sale and after that, getting the fibre that I have organized.  Once those things are done, I ought to be able to significantly change my general storage around.  I will have one entire bookcase free as well as most of a closet. It is going to take a good bit of thinking to sort out what those 'found' spaces should hold.  

I don't know about anyone else but if I want to really think deeply about something, I knit. I empty my mind and just focus on small movements of hand and needle and string and things sort themselves out in my head. It really is magic and that is more than enough.

A Monday Tuesday

I  seem to have taken a bit of a vacation.  That is good actually.  I think I needed it. I woke this morning after a good long sleep and though it feels like a Monday, it is not.  It is Tuesday and I can already tell it is going to be a challenge to keep that in my head this week.  

I finished up the first pair of Big Fabel socks on Friday.  

I wore them on Saturday.  What a great pair of socks.  If you have never knit socks, consider it.  Wearing them is such a pleasure. Cozy, warm and comfy.

I set puzzles on Saturday, a puzzle for yarny folk this time.  The bright colours are kind of fun. The edge is done and I have a couple easy sections well under way.  

The rest of the weekend, I knit on the Utkiek.    

I was struggling with the slip stitch pattern for this section again, and went through all my stitch dictionaries to find one I liked better.  I did and seemed to be doing ok till I realized I was doing it backwards, a fault of my not understanding Japanese.  Still what I ended up with will do and it will have to.  The yarn could not be knit again.  I redid it four times, and the yarn was just not capable of more. It wouldn't take the stress of ripping back another time.

I am just past separating for the arms.  Today I plan to knit the sleeves.  I think it will be easier to sort out just how wide the stripes can be from my original two skeins.  Part of this sweaters charm is matching width stripes on body and arms and I mean to make that happen.   

I am off to knit.  I intend to keep on knitting the Utkiek again today, though the Linger sweater is calling my name loudly.  Linger is still on the body but with Utkiek, there will shortly be the thrill of adding in a new colour.  We shall see where my fingers take me. 

Letting Go

My mind is being pulled in a hundred different ways today.  There is always so much interesting stuff to do.  And yet I think this post is going to be about making there be less interesting stuff to do.

That sounds weird I know.  It's okay.  It flummoxed me too. 

Being ill in 2022 was very scary.  I have faced the hard things of life and death and have come to terms with it.  I don't think I was quite prepared  though, for the way thoughts ran through my head and I was also not really prepared for the ease and clarity of the decisions that would come to me.  

I sold off my weaving things.  Most of them at least. I have a few books lingering in the shelves that are strictly related to weaving.  I forgot about those when I sent the loom to its new home.  The only weaving I pursue now is on the pin looms and that suits me perfectly. 

And now it is time to look at my spinning.  

I like the end product of spinning.  We all know that.  I enjoy spinning too, but all the rest related to it, while it is interesting and intriguing, is not really what I want to fill my days with.  When I think about doing these things, washing fleeces, carding, combing, prepping for spinning, I think about how many hours they take away from my knitting.  I needed to do them to gain a basic understanding of them.  My hands needed to understand them but my heart did not need to.     

I am in the middle of prepping my spinning things for sale.  I am debating keeping a single wheel but at this point I am not certain which wheel it will be.  I am not even sure if I will keep that.  There are some things I would still love to spin up but my dreams of spinning up from sheep to shawl no longer burns in me. The things I may want to do myself are about texture and how it would feel as it passes through my hands.  Generally, I just want to get straight to the shawl part and enjoy that.  

I have a new carder, a some what mutilated pair of small combs (can be repaired), a selection of spinning books, a vast selection of undyed fibre of various kinds and two wheels.  Getting rid of all these things isn't going to happen fast but I want things sorted out and done by springtime.  If any of you out there are interested in such things, let me know and I will get in touch with you before putting them up on the usual websites.  

Bottom line, I love to knit. There are endless adventures that I still burn to have within it, endless paths to explore and travel on. Knitting lives in every corner of my brain.  All the rest are things I can leave behind.  

Ups and Downs

I took this photo first thing in the morning.  You can see from where the marker is just how much I got done the day before.  

I took this photo In the late afternoon, just before I put it away for the day.  I already had the marker set up for the today, but you can see that the side below the underarm is longer. This is not a fast knit. I only get in a few rows a day, but with a marker, I am seeing the progress.

I took this picture because this was the point in the project where I am starting to look hard at the yarn usage.  A big part of me is screeching " Eeeeeeeeep".  There is about half a skein of grey yarn attached to the sweater and these four balls.  That is it from my full bag of ten skeins of the grey. The half fisherman's rib is using up yarn at an amazing pace.

I know how long I want the sweater to be but I am, as usual, starting to feel as if I am going to be short of yarn. I won't be.  There is plenty, but it is time to manage the yarn.  I think after the ball I am working with at the moment is used up, I am going to knit the sleeves.  That way, I can finish the body by knitting till I run out of yarn.  

It doesn't look like a lot of knitting, but I can only work for a little here and there through the day.  The double stranded yarn makes for heavier work and I am trying to take care.  I am getting in some knitting time on other things in lighter yarns.

I pulled out this pair of socks.  This is one of my favourite yarns, Cotton Fun, an older Mielenweit sock yarn.  It is a bend of cotton and wool and is just a pleasure to knit with and wear.  I had a sock half knit and then realized I was not enjoying the stitch pattern, so I switched patterns and started again.  

I was so deep into thinking about the changes my feet have gone through, and deep into the pattern and the yarn, that I did a silly thing.  I knit the pattern the whole way around the foot and I kept doing it even after I realized it and knew that a lace pattern on the sole of a foot was never going to work.  Purpose made holes on a sock sole are not smart.  It was hard to face.  I stepped back and did not touch or even think about this sock for a good long time.  I was so deep into the dream of this sock, but I found some gumption, pulled it back to the toe and restarted.

I marked the front and the back with clunky stitch markers to keep the lace only on the top of the foot.  I have no idea why, but even with the markers, I found I had to really be careful and focus on what part of the foot I was working on.  I guess this is why most of my socks are plain vanilla socks.  

After all this trauma, I pulled out something solid and simple and sensible, the worsted weight socks.

Sock two of this pair is underway.  It is nice and plain all the way around the foot.  

Even though sweater knitting is going well, it felt like it was one of 'those' days. I don't like that feeling but the things that don't go so well are a part of knitting too.

No worrying about sock feet or yarn management today. I must tidy the sewing room aka the spare bedroom today so I can do some sewing.  After a weekend, chatting with Cassie about clothes and things we could use in our wardrobes, I feel the urge for something new.    

Dreams

There is a thing that happens when you dress in wool garments.  

Warmth.  It is called warmth.  It is a different kind of warmth than warm from your furnace heating the air around you.  It is different than baking under a warm sun.  It is a soft surrounding warmth.  It is a caring warmth even though it is a inanimate thing.  But I feel it every single day when I put wool on.

Today I am wearing the striped socks I knit in advent.  These socks just make me feel happy.  I love these simple stripes.   And they are comfy and warm.  No cold feet when you wear wool socks.

And I am wearing my comfortable Leisl sweater knitted a good long while ago.  

The chunky yarn it is made in is one of the nicest things I have worked with.  And one of he nicest things I have to wear.  I knit a vest out of another colourway I had and in the depths of my stash, I have one more sweater quantity.  I am going to keep it safe for a special sweater.  I have no idea what that special treasure will be, but I know I am going to like it.

I do wish I had some handknit wool pants, but I just do not the body to knit pants for.  That is just never going to happen.  I still like to dream of them.

Much of this deep thinking about what I wear is because my stash is sitting where it is more visible.  I see it all dozens of times a day.  That leads to a lot of dreaming and desire to knit and I like that.  It is all just possibilities.  Of sweaters.  Of shawls.  Of blankets.  Oh yes, even blankets.  There are a world of things I would love to make.  It makes me deeply warm and happy to see it all, waiting for me.  

And these are the thoughts I have before coffee.  It is time to go find something interesting to do.  Linger or Utkiek?  I don't know.  But whatever it is, I am going to enjoy it.

Linger should be Mosey

Finally, photos of Linger.  

This isn't a knit that goes fast.  The half fishermans rib stitch which makes the fabric so cozy and deep is also what makes it seem slow.  Each right side row knit stich is a knit one below so that the fabric is not quite as long as a plain rib would be.  What you gain is well worth it though.   It should be noted that I am only following the pattern approximately at this point.  I am not into stich counting and rows but prefer to knit to fit me.  I wont have to knit many increases at the side under arms for this one.  It is such a stretchy fabric it won't need much.

I put it on a holder string and gave it a good try on.  It fits great and I am very pleased with how it is going.  The only problem is that I did not want to take it off.  It was deeply warm and comfortable, and I will be using this kind of stitch again for more sweaters.  I can't wait to wear it.

On Saturday and Sunday, I devoted my time to sock work.  I tried the red sock on last week and thought it was ok, though I felt it should be longer.  When I started to do that, I tried it on again and thought I was utterly off my rocker when I felt it fit well.  It was too short.  I really love this yarn and I deserve socks that fit right so I pulled it back to just past the heel and made the foot longer.  

I also changed the heel from a short row garter stitch heel to a toe up heel flap heel for no other reason than that I felt like it.  That is one of the wonderful things about socks.  There are so many way to get what a sock needs to be from a thread and some needles.  

The weekend itself was really great.  It is always so special when the grandkids come.  We baked a big batch of Monster Cookies.  I don't do that often. The recipe I use makes a monster sized batch with 18 cups of oatmeal and takes all day to bake the whole thing, but luckily, the dough freezes well. We sent cookies home for Marcus and put some in the freezer for later too.  The next day we baked buns and ginger snaps.  As quality control man, Uncle Keith had a wonderful time. 

Cassie and I decided her next sewing project.  Now it is up to me to  make sure we have the right fabric and a pattern.  

Today is the day for routine household chores but in between I can knit and see how much farther along I can take Linger.  

Linger

I meant to post this morning, after not posting yesterday, but suddenly there were kids here last night and since one of them is asleep on the sofa in the livingroom, I cannot get to my tablet to post pictures of what I did yesterday.  I might get there later in the day.

Suffice it to say I knit.  I knit a lot.  I decided to work on my Linger sweater.  Linger was in Knitty's Deep Fall 2023 issue and may I just say, this is going to be wonderful.

I gave it a good try on yesterday and it was so hard to take it off.  It might only be a few inches below the armpit, but it was so cozy.  I just know I am going to like this thick deep rich fabric.  It is the cozy comfort of being wrapped in the arms of someone you love.  It is not flashy but everyday.  It is a safe place where you can just be your true self.  It is the sweater of all sweaters.  

And I think it would be so no matter what yarn you are making it in. Mine are both pretty ordinary standby wools.  Nothing fancy in them at all but oh my the fabric is something special.  

Whatever knitting I get to today is going to be on that sweater. Things are setting up to be a good day.  Kids, knitting, baking cookies (the other good thing we are doing today).  What is not to love?

Update for Fay

My hands are better right now though it is something I will have to live with.  I thought it was carpal tunnel, and it is a very small bit but mostly it is arthritis.  C'est le vie.  

Joy and Sorrow

One finished object.  

I am so happy with this sweater.  Everything about it is great.  I love the yarn from the inimitable Midknit Cravings and the sweater detail at the hem which I completely fell in love with on Laura Aylor's pattern.

I did change the neck to be a turtleneck, but no matter how great a pattern is, it still has to work for the wearer.  I need a warm neck and this has it in spades.

When I finished it was time to clean out the bag and prepare it for the sweater chest. 

The bag was stuffed.  All of this was at the bottom of the bag, along with the yarn leftovers.

I should be able to make something lovely with this, two full skeins of Pesto plus about half a skein of Kelp.

Somewhat at a loose end,  I went to the WIPs bin, closed my eyes and pulled out whatever my hand touched.  Ah, a summer top.  

I love this yarn and hope it turns into a reasonable facsimile of a short sleeve summer tee.  It is brainless knitting.  It's only challenge is to manage the yarn and switch every second row.  Even that will be more intuitive once the sleeve is a bit farther along.  The shoulder is a wide contiguous saddle style shoulder and right now, I am at the part where the sleeve increases each row till it reaches a healthy third of the stitches needed for the top of the shoulder.  After that, it increases every second round as you knit down the yoke, till sleeve and yoke are long enough to separate the sleeves. Knitting it was a nice way to spend and evening.

I had a great sleep and then this morning was looking forward to putting on on of my favourite things, (They are all my favourite things), my version of Kate Davies Myrtle sweater.  I was about to put it on when my eye caught this.

Last time I wore it, I was emptying the dishwasher and got caught on a rack.  I couldn't find any damage that day but as you see, there certainly was.  It is repairable though, but it is not a happy thing at all.  One happy thing.  One sad thing.

I used to try to focus on being happy, picking apart my world, trying to sort out the things that made me unhappy and trying to clean those things out of my life so I could be happy. I have come to find that that way lies madness.  Happy is a moment in time.  It isn't static.  Happy is bits and pieces, important bits and pieces but it isn't natural to be happy all the time. I know that what I was searching for was contentment and once I started searching for that, rather than happiness, things worked better, life was better.  Trying to be content was something I could accomplish. It was okay to just be.

My sweaters are joy and sorrow, a rather small joy and  and a rather small sorrow in the great scheme of everything.  Joy and sorrow.  Two sides of the coin of life and contentment living on the edge between.

A Chaos of Dreams

 It was a great day for knitting yesterday.  I picked up the socks and just played.  

The sock foot looked awfully short even for my stubby feet but all is good.  I tried it on this morning and it is just fine.  I am looking forward to this pair.

All day, I was thinking "Why aren't you working on your sweater doofuss?"  I had no idea because I am only one sleeve trim away from a finished garment.  To be so close and not pick it up because you are distracted by other things is.... so very me.  It is how I end up with 16 WIPs after all.

But by the end of the day, I had settled down 

and did a decent bit of work in a very short time.  Even with all the ends to be woven in, I will be finished by lunchtime.  

I am at the point where I ought to be working on another of my WIPs considering it is Finish it February or so I am told.  If I waited to cast on something new just because someone told me that I could only finish things in the WIP bin, I would never ever get anything done.  I would end up feeling very downhearted and miserable. I would end up not knitting. It would all feel like work and that is just not what I want out of February.  Or knitting.  I knit because it brings me joy in a hundred little ways and whatever journey a garment goes on, I just want to be there for the ride.  The journey is more than half the fun.

At the same time, I wish I were a Finish it February kind of person, aka a more monogamous knitter. I admire those of you who are. At the same time as I am thinking how much I admire knitters who are inspired by the thought of Finish It February, my brain is going "Just think of all the things I could start if I had room in the WIPs bin!"  

More monogamous sweater knitters seem to be much tidier and more organized than I. I am more like chaos but a good sort of chaos, a chaos of dreams.  That is me and my knitting.  I am just going to keep on wandering, enjoying every step along the way.   

Good Days Off

A finished object appeared on Sunday evening and I am so completely happy.  

My first socks of the year.  Finished socks are usually more than enough to make me happy but this time, I am thrilled because now I get to do this.

This is another bag of yarn, all Drops Big Fabel, a yarn which I dearly wish they would bring back to production.  It is the last of it in my stash.  Now I get to make socks with it.  I need them on my feet far more than I need the yarn in my stash, saved for goodness knows what.

 

And begin.  Working with big yarns fr socks is fun and fast knitting.

That was it for knitting this weekend, but it was time to do a little something else besides knitting.  These are not words I say often.  Last winter, in the time when I was not sure what was going on with my hands, I set puzzles.  I have always liked doing it but there has always been so many other things to do.  I got myself a couple puzzles at Christmas and I thought it would be nice to do while F1 is on its break.  This puzzle was the last unset from 2023 puzzle palooza.

It is a library full of odd books with titles like  Lord of the Pies, A Room With a View Finder, and One Flu Over the Cuckoos Nest.  It is also much more than that.  It is filled with tiny creatures and beings and their homes tucked between books, in books,

sometimes in shelves, each door carefully numbered.  There are book creatures and fairies and all sorts of odd things.  I wish my photos were clearer.  When I opened the box to begin setting it, I thought it was going to be one of the painful puzzles that I wished I had not bought, but it was just fun and a surprisingly quick set.  It took a while to figure out where to start but as you got familiar with it, the huge amount of detail, though hard on the eyes, but it was also its saving grace.

And that was my weekend.  I hope yours was as good.

Step one of finishing this sweater is done.  

The bottom hem is complete.  All that remains is the cuff trim on both sleeves.  Cross your fingers for good knitting today.  

Updated to add

I am watching the sky to the northwest this morning.  When I finished writing the blog, I came and the band of cloud at that horizon was a very dainty sort of pink and a gentle grey blue.  As I watched, it turned a brighter, cleaner, more vibrant pink and a stronger blue.  That blue has shifted to a dusty lavender and is slowly sifting away into grey clouds while that pink is ever more intense.  The sky above that band of clouds is almost blue.  It is between the colour of early morning and the bright clear blue of a winter day.  As I write the band of clouds at the horizon has lost its blue and lavender and has become a gentle hazy pink.  The higher clouds have a hint of coral starting to show, and the far away snow covered fields are suffused in rose coloured light.  It's fading now, into the reality of morning and chores and the regular world, but what a show. 

I think a show is out there just waiting to be seen most mornings, but we usually miss it as we start our regular days.  Getting into the car with kids, lunches, school bags, pets, thinking of the busy day ahead.   Our normal routines occupy us and consume our attention and we miss the glory that is.  

I will be thinking of this morning all day.  I am filled with wonder and contentment. What a world.

The Finish Line

Finished.  

It looks odd laying flat, but it works great.  The neck with its soft red Rios is so comfy and that bit of flap back and front are perfect.  Dickies may have been derided by fashionistas, but unfussy as they are, they just work. Neck cozy? Check. Upper back warm? Check.  Front tidy and looks good under sweaters or coats?  Check.

The little bonus for me is that all these small things look really good together too.  

It almost makes me wish I had a plain black coat to wear them with.  A tidy pea coat style perhaps?  Yeah, NO.  I refuse to pay hundreds of dollars for a coat that will fit badly and be made out of atrociously cheap material and will not be as warm as sweaters.  I just refuse.  However, I may start looking for a good black sweater yarn. Black is a challenge to knit and that is why you see so few black sweaters in handknits.  It is hard to see your work.  A dark Grey?  Oh yes.  Now we are talking.

It would also look seriously fine with a natural brown or cream colour.  I have lots of different creamy natural colour but I am afraid I am far too sloppy and clumsy to wear that.  I would spill something on it the first time I wore it.  It would stain and there I would be, wishing it was a colour to hide the mess I made.  So dark grey it is.  And I know just the yarn I will use.  Eventually.  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch so to speak, I have bits left over.

I know what I am going to do with them too.  Piecework had articles years ago about wristbands that one of the Baltic nations used to make.  Just like wrist warmers, they help to keep the pulse points in your wrists warmer and that can make a difference to  achy hands like mine.  Without the hand bit they are much more practical for all day work.  I had a pair out of tiny bits of Mission Falls 1824 Wool a few years ago, back just when I started wearing wrist warmers to sleep at night,  I have often thought about making more.  These yarn ends will be perfect for a few pair.

I am happy to confirm that I feel a hundred percent this morning.  The new machine and I are now best buds.  I feel awake and alert and a lot less frenzied than the last few weeks.  Today, it is back to the Sun Dogs Variation and finishing it.