Curmudgeonly

You know how sometimes you do things that bug you but you don't seem to change it?   You just sort of work and are bugged by it?  No?  Well I do.

See that ball of yarn?  Harumphhhhhh.  It happens when I frog and restart and don't do the sensible thing and get my ball winder.  I never minded when I had a yarn bowl.  You could pop it into it and just let it roll.  Without a bowl, the darn thing just rolls around and defeats you.  As you can see, I have adapted.  I just need a holder and I roll off as bit when I need to.  But it bugs the heck out of me.  

Sensible people would go get a kitchen bowl and stop whining.  I am not sensible.  I think I must like whining.  Curmudgeonly.  I have gone curmudgeonly.  
 

My knitting

When I rose yesterday, my hands did not feel like knitting the blue yarn.  It's as if all the things I find special about it, suddenly overwhelmed me.  I tried knitting a couple times but my heart wasn't in it.

Time to change projects.

I picked up my London Fog sweater and gave that a go.  Much better.  

Isn't that gorgeous?

It's starting to look like something.  A sweater I hope.  There are only a couple inches to go till the armhole split.  I love the rustic feel of the blue yarns but I also love the cozy soft of this yarn.  I am going to have to do some dishcloth knitting or weaving very shortly and I am looking forward to knitting with the cotton again.  I already have some linen ready to knit a summer top.  There aren't and yarns I don't like, corded fibres that I dont think about knitting with.  If I thought that Keith would put it up I would absolutely knit a fence.  If my hands could take it that is.  

I simply love the feel of string things running through my hands. It fills me and feeds my soul in ways that nothing else ever has.  Someone once said that they supposed it was a decent past time.  I remember how angry I felt that they would say that and think that.  I felt deeply insulted and indescribably hurt that what was like breathing to me was passed off as a 'past time'.    

My knitting is so much more.  The way an artist needs to paint or sculpt or make.  It's the way a musician has music spilling out of them even when music is the farthest thing from their minds.  It's the burning need to do whatever it is.   

I have to knit.  Even when I am not knitting it fills my head and soul.  It lives in every little corner of me, even the dark ones.  I wish I had found it sooner in my life, but I don't regret that I didn't.  I am just glad that I found it.  

In the Heat of the Night?

I got up early today.  It was warm and my usually cozy morning bed was uncomfortable.i went to shower and as I prepped, I thought wow, it's warm in here.  The furnace started up and I felt that it was too hot to breathe.  I texted Keith and asked if it was just me having a hot flash.  He was just noticing the heat too.  The heat was verging into holy batman territory and the shower I took was a very cool one.  Meanwhile Keith got up to find that the front door had popped open just a crack.  There was a nice little ridge of snow standing where the door ought to have been so Keith felt it couldn't have been open for too long.  No snow had come inside.  This house shifts a lot, so our front door is locked day and night. We had a delivery midday and Keith forgot to lock it after that and at some point, the wind popped it open.  As for me, I am finally feeling comfortable.  But that was how my morning started.  

I spent the day knitting yesterday and made good progress.

I've been using a progress keeper lately, particularly at this point in garments.  This part can feel as if no matter how many hours I knit it never gets any longer.  It was getting me down.  Sometime last fall, I put in a progress keeper on a garment and it helped.  If I can do an inch a day, I will be satisfied.  It isn't the several and more inches I used to be able to do but then, my hands are older now.  This will do.

More blue knitting today.  All of it good.  

Gee whiz.  I am starting to feel chilly now.  I need a heavier sweater.

Looking Towards a Great Day

Friday was not sweater day really.  As I was writing I forgot that I had planned to trick myself into knitting small things by making Friday a small things day.  I did knit on a sock in the afternoon Friday.  It was lovely to do that.  

I like this particular Kroy colour.  Plain stripes are not often found in commercial sock yarn.  At least not the ones in my sock yarn bin.  This sock won't be as long as I ended up making my Advent socks.  Those were 12 inches long between toe and cuff and that is just too long with my stubby feet.  The cuffs are too long.  I think I must have done 10 inches from toe to cuff on afterthought heel socks before rather than 12.  Oh well.  This pair will be my usual, which happens when I get tired of it rather than being a certain number of inches.

I have been giving myself the weekends to knit on something else but I found myself just wanting to keep knitting on the blue.   So, blue knitting it was.

I am pleased.  It's coming along nicely.  Sure it is just a plain stockinette raglan sweater but this colour is so good.  It raises my spirits to no end.  I did a try on yesterday.  It was perfect.  

I am also at the place where I should be thinking about adding the pockets from the Mayhemma sweater.  I love that idea but I am no longer as certain that I want to do them in this sweater.  I really love this as it is.  I can do that another time.  

So, more blue knitting today. It's going to be a great day.

The Time has Come

The time has come.  

For what?  Shoes my friend. Shoes.

It has been years since I needed to think about Shoes but, sadly, the sort I have been wearing are no longer available at a reasonable price, ie, a price I can afford.  Plus, since I started wearing shoes like this, they have been new and improved to  their detriment.

These are a pretty basic little shoe.  Nothing fancy.  No anything but a soft stretchable top and a good grippy rubber sole.  There is nothing fashionable about them.  I found them a couple years before my medical event that sorted out most of my health troubles.  They fit my very swollen feet and there was fantastic grip on the floor.  Having that good grip was a revelation in feeling plus, and this was a very big thing for me, I could feel the floor with my feet.  

Most of the shoes we wear, sneakers and the like, divorce us from the reality of the information that we get from our feet.  A thin flexible grippy sole is the number one thing I need from a shoe. Grippy thin soles are a rare thing.  Okay, grippy thin soled shoes I can afford are a rare thing.  

A very long time ago, I came across Sophie and Me on Ravelry.  The designer had Oxford shoe looking tops and a series of sole configurations depending on the materials you were using.  

At first, I just liked the idea of making shoes. I was gathering materials and then along came my first pair of little cheapie shoes and I didn't think about making them any longer.

Now, need is driving me.  I can't find what I am looking for in the places I have access to.  What I could find, was grippy sole material exactly like I have on my current soles.  I was just going to repair the soles but I started thinking about fit and the things I don't like about the fit.  I wear a 6 1/2 and like many shoes, particularly cheap shoes, they do not do half sizes.  The last pairs I had were 7s so they were a bit long.  This pair is a 6 and I find that a wee bit more room for my toes would be nice, necessary really particularly when I am wearing thicker socks.  

So here we are.  Ready to make shoes.  I have everything ready to make a test pair.  The yarn was picked when I was on the big dig.  Though I don't have any flip flops I have some foam that will work for a test.  Pair one is not going to get the good grippy soles.  It is simply a try out, a toilet if you will, a mockup.  I am not starting them today but they may well be my weekend project.  

Today is a sweater day. It's going well and I am focusing on wearing delicious yarn.

Looking for the Magic

As I have been chatting the last few days, there has been a good amount of knitting.   Since Christmas  I'd been working on my London Fog sweater, but I really needed to get back to the Blue Coned yarn Sweater.

 I had not touched it since before Christmas.  November, I think.  It was put away because from the cones the doubled yarns are fine and thus fussy to knit with.  It is not a project to work on when you have a lot of other things going on.  As a fussy sort of project, it had the potential to sit in the corner forever. This week, I decided to pull it out and make it my weekday knitting.  

As of yesterday evening, I have split the sleeves.  Go me!  Even in its partial state, it has great sweater vibes. 

What I am looking forward to with this sweater is the feel of the yarn.  I am still under the spell of the swatch I made many months ago. When I wash this very thin stiff coned yarn, it becomes something magical.  I want that magic.  

Accepting what is

The other thing I did on the weekend was a repair job on my Myrtle sweater,  a Kate Davies pattern that I love to wear.  It's been on the repair pile for quite a while now.  I have debated about repairing it for many months.  

Myrtle in her glory.

Myrtle"s problem.  I debated about doing a proper lace repair and then it sat.  For months.  I missed it in spring and I missed it through summer on the chilly days.  

I came across it again when I was getting ready for Christmas, in a bag in my WIPs pile with the yarn it needed for the repair.  I thought very seriously about getting rid of it but I really love to wear it.

I decided on Sunday morning that my repair did not have to meet any body's idea of swellness but my own.  It is on the side and higher up.  And even if someone noticed it, phfttttt.  If I was worried about it, I could change if someone came.  I am not that worried about it.  

I gave it a good plain patch.

Not pretty but very workable.  

Hardly noticeable.  Good enough for me.

Many might feel I did not do it justice, but I have so many things I want to do, things I have been looking forward to.  A perfectly blended repair feels to me like going backwards.  This sweater has been worn and used and loved.  I don't mind it showing its scars.  That is part of its story, just like grey hair and wrinkles are part of mine.  Accepting what is gives me great peace and in this case, my sweater.

Update:  The damage came from a dishwasher incident.  The sweater got caught on the tray of the dishwasher.  It did not appear to be fatal, but I wore it as usual and washed it and that is when I noticed the trouble.  

Time to knit

Waving at Sigrun.  Yes.  Still here, still knitting!  At the far end of town, across from the two ball diamonds and community center aka the grey barn.  Second last house in town!  Stop for coffee any time.  That goes for all of you.  Stop by anytime.  

I had a busy weekend, though to the world looking on, I am certain it looked very, very quiet.  My head was so full of finishing things and putting them away.  Not knitted item finishing but tasks that I started the week before.  

Like the big dig.  I sorted and ordered and put and stirred in the yarn to my complete and utter joy.  I shopped my stash and took out just a few things.  And that meant I had to bag them up and get them ready for knitting.  

 I pulled out some Briggs and Little Sport.  

 I have two possible patterns that this yarn might become.  One is a variation on Andrea Mowry's Traveller.  I would knit it from the top down because I can.  Or the very interesting POV pullover by OlaLa Knitworks.  I do have an alternate set of yarns to use for the second pattern so we shall see what happens.

I pulled out my Plotulopi.  I love, love, love the Mountain Forest sweater from the last Knitty.  I knew I would knit it the moment I saw it.  I debated getting a few more colours so I could follow the pattern exactly.  That colour blend is just completely perfect.  But I have so much and I just could not buy more. (Whodda thunk it)  I do have two gradients of colours that I am going to make work.  I have lots of the body colour as well.  This is a knit I am looking forward to.  Working with Plotulopi will be interesting.

The other thing I pulled out is some of the lovely heathered brown Tove.  It will be used with my planned Kauni sweater a la the blue and white cowl.  I already had some lovely toasty oatmeal Tove out for it, but see what you think.

 This is my original choice but the more I looked at it, the more I doubted.

This soft heathered brown matches the soft dusty purples and blues and greens of the Kauni.  It blends rather than contrasting.  I usually go for a strong contrast, but I think this will be better, gentler.

I also did some patching of garments but I'm  going to talk about that tomorrow.  It's time to knit.  

Playing

The inspiration cabinet is empty and has become space to store sweaters.  It is getting moved over beside the sweater chest and will store sweaters that don't fit in the chest.  The inspiration cabinet yarn needs to go into storage boxes and will join its compatriot stash in the closet.  This is sad only because I am adding three more boxes to the stash closet.  Maybe two depending how much space there is in various existing bins.  

Besides moving and playing with yarn, there has been a decent amount of knitting.

  

I am so in love with this wonderfully mottled colourway.  Midknit Cravings in their London Fog colourway.  I have the other two sweater quantities that I have right behind me. (Steam Trunk and Storm Chaser)  These are deeply sophisticated, erudite colourways.  They teach that the depth of a colour is not always what stands out on the surface, but what  is hiding inside.  They urge you to look deeper.  They seduce you and still are exactly the right thing for beside a summer campfire or a winter evening in a cozy corner. 

I know erudite should not to be used this way but I apologize to the word police but these yarns teach me so...

Is it possible that I have been playing in the yarn just a bit too long?  Maybe.  I have more to go.  The closet is up next.

The inspiration cabinet

Working this big dig is taking longer than I thought.  And I am only working on the inspiration cabinet so far.  Putzing around is what I am actually doing.

The inspiration cabinet is a particular problem.  It stored the yarns I was planning on knitting shortly, as well as yarns I dream of working with but have no specific project in mind for.  It helps keep them in my head so I end up with the right design.  

My immediate plans are these.

A Staffin sweater using this gorgeous Ultra Alpaca.  It is a deeper cherry red than shows here.  

This is going to be a sweater knit in the manner of the little cowl I made before Christmas.  I love Kauni and I plan on using some of my precious Tove stash.  They are an excellent match of texture and weight.  I am still deciding if the shoulders will be raglan or contiguous.  Using one of these two constructions will help make the colours flow evenly across the whole sweater.  

And then there is this Kauni.  This was supposed to be a shawl using the original colours for the design.  I am going to make a two or three row striped sweater instead.  I love the interplay between these two colours.  

This is some very superior BFL 2/8 from Fleece Artist.  

I bought this in a destash a few years ago and I am going to make a really nice vest.  Simple, striped, nothing fancy.  There are two photos because I couldn't get the lovely soft colours to show without doing this.

And this.  

This is going to be another Shalom sweater.  Or vest.  Not sure which it will be yet.  But I have a need for some more sweaters that can take heavy use around the house.  Not all yarns can do this.  (See yesterday's post.)  The navy yarn here is good old Cascade 220 which is a real work horse yarn.  It goes perfectly with the hand dye from Three Irish girls in an really nice worsted.  There ought to be enough of the Cascade 220 for a second project.  If so, it will be a textured sweater of some kind that I will knit sometime.

That is not all that was in the cabinet.  

These are some of the other yarns in the cabinet.  Some I have shown but many were only shown back in the dawn of time.  All of these have been in my stash for years and years.  All of them are yarns I really want to knit with.  

I need more hours and hands that can knit longer.  Oh well.  It is what it is.

  

 

On dear

I wore my Lusk sweater yesterday.  I cannot say enough about the fit of this sweater.  

The back of the neck sits perfectly to block the chill that I always feel on the back of my neck.  It stays there and I don't need to tug it down through the day.  I even like the way the sleeves turned out for my stubby arms!  It is the perfect fit across my shoulders. The neck is just the right width.  It is as if it is designed just for my body.  Rebecca Clow.  The Creabea.  I highly recommend her designs.  

What I am deeply unhappy with is this.

I have worn this sweater only three and a half days and while the white yarn is fine, the blue is a real mess.  The is a fine flush of blue fuzz across everything along my sides where there is more wear friction.  I made a wrap in the blue Alpaca Peru and I do not remember it being this fuzzy.  It is NOT a sweater yarn. 

The big dig continues.  The day will be full of joy.  Because I say so.

Shame

When I was digging in the WIPs bin, I found a corner of shame.  Not a project that deserved shaming, but my own shame that this project was still in the WIPs bin.  

In 2020 , I cast on two Elton sweaters by Joji Locatelli.  One was a lovely green combination of Fleece Artist BFL 2/8 in Cedar and a green blue multi colour.  It is now waiting on repair.  The cuff on one sleeve is worn at the edge and needs a bit of work.  The other is a symphony in blues.  I used RCY Adam and Eve and Fleece Artist Zambezi in coordinating colours that verge on a tropical turquoise.  I finished the one and wore it a ridiculous amount and the other was never quite finished.  

All the knitting was done.  All the hems were complete.  Everything was done but for finishing the button holes on the folded over button band and weaving in the ends on the sleeves.  I finished the knitting in the summer of 2023.  

It sat for a very, very long time in a literal corner at the bottom of the WIPs bin.  

I did not just ignore it, I actively avoided it.  It's silk mohair and some really beautiful hand dyed yarn.  Surely it's too fancy for moi?  Surely it did not have a place in my wardrobe?    And so it sat.  

I decided gather my gumption, drop all my notions of what belonged in my wardrobe and finish the sweater.  It took less than an hour.  And now I have to figure out what I will do with the leftover yarn from this.  

Harrumph.  According to my notes on Ravelry, there is enough here for another complete sweater.  

I still have buttons to put on.  They were in my guest room so I had to wait till my company left.  I am going to get to it today as part of the big dig reorganization and general stirring of the yarns and other sewing things that begins today.  I am almost giddy about doing the dig. 

The Next Big Dig

Now that I think of it,  Friday was not the first routine day of the new year.  I had company over the weekend so today is the first routine day of 2026.  I am doing laundry so it is about as routine as it gets.  

There wasn't a lot of knitting, but I had a really good visit.  We set puzzles and talked about being kids and all the freedom we had.  

I did dig into my WIPs bin to assess everything in it.  I wanted to go through it and see if I still wanted some things.  I surprised myself.  I did not get rid of anything and indeed, saved one project that I was planning to take apart.  I did knit a bit more on the Musselbourgh too.

This week is going to be a week for a big dig.  I plan to come out of it with plans for only one project.  Maybe 2.  OK.  Possibly 3.  I am really looking forward to it.  

The first routine day

What have I been knitting through the holidays?  Well.  Let me see.  

I knit on socks and am pretty pleased with my progress.  

One side of the short row heel is done.  The only thing I regret on this sock is the toe.  I wish I had made my usual garter square toe.  But nope.  I will run with this.  I did a different toe because at the time I was looking for sock knitting MOJO help and to change it now might very well send the sock MOJO stealing elves back.  I like the yarn and am really happy with the colourway.  (Kroy in the Orchid colourway.)

I knit on my Musselbourgh hat.  

You can see how much I knit in the couple days I worked on this.  I am getting very close to half done.  Other than this being the longest time a Musselburgh has been on anyone's needles, I love knitting it.  I really love the colours.  It's everything I hoped this skein was going to be.  

 

And this sweater.  

This is my London Fog sweater.  After being the start of 2 different sweaters, I finally feel the simple Tolsta is the very best design to show off this gorgeous yarn.  It's exactly right.  Simple shape and comfortable knit for an everyday casual sweater.  

I thought about spending time with my blue sweater, but that project bag is large and was consigned to my room for the season.  I thought about doing a Christmas cast on, but really, as much as I would like to, I really want to get what is on the needles already,  done.  

I don't like to set 'goals'.  I just like to do stuff but the idea is and always has been, to get the things done.  I love the process of knitting, but without a product at the end to love and enjoy, it would all feel pointless.  It would be like watching a movie without watching the end.    I need the product as much as I love the process of knitting it.  I want my colourwork blanket.  I really want my colourwork vest.  And before I start more things, I would really, really like to have them done.  

That is my whole 'goal', plan whatever you want to call it, for the entire winter.  For knitting.  There are other things to do.  My miniature house demands a garden.  I would like to do some crochet.  And there is the inevitable need for pants.  Sewing has to be in my future.  

Speaking of miniatures, Cassie sent me a picture of her completed miniature project.  I love it!  

And that is it for my first routine post of the year.  Yea.  Routine.  Time to get to work on some very cool stuff.

2026

I have been thinking for a good long while about what I want to knit next.  My head is full of sweaters and yarns I want to work with and how I want to put them together for maximum fun.  So many things flit in and out on an almost daily basis that I am sometimes overwhelmed by all the dreams.  

Some things have moved into the realm of what I will knit in the coming year.  Of course these plans are always only realms of possibility and can be switched out for something new at the drop of a hat.  This is a short list of what I would like to do this year.  

I want to knit a Staffin sweater using some of my Ultra Alpaca stash.  I still have not decided if it will be red or rusty Terra cotta.  

I want to knit a narrow stripes sweater with the two colours of Kauni 2/8 that I bought for a magnificent shawl.  I love the way the two colours flow in and out with each other.  

I want to knit a sweater using Kauni for a stockinette portion followed by a section of my Tove yarn collection in garter stitch.

I want to knit my glorious yellow from Arcane Fibre Works using the coordinating yarn for the patterned front.  

I want to use my collection of specific bright mohair yarns to knit with some of my Einband and create a patchwork looking sweater or vest.  

I want a simple vest from some BFL 2/8 and a couple other lighter weight yarns to make summer tops.  I would like to knit a top with some of my denim yarns.

I want to knit with Plotulopi.  I want to knit with some of my Cascade 220.  I want to knit with some of my Harrisville Shetland.  I want to knit with Madelinetosh and Midknit Cravings and make dreamy wearable garments for every day.  I want to do interesting things with laceweights and fingering weights and marling and ...oh so much more.  

I can't wait for this year and all the hours in it.