Here we are, deep in a pandemic, isolated, bored, longing for good food and lost outings, and worrying about those we love. Hard days, huh. How about some happy things that I encountered this week? A little sunshine in the middle of the week, so to speak.
I bought some little bulbs to plant in my front garden in a school fundraiser a couple of years ago. I have no idea what this is, but after the snow melted this week there it was. Look at how cute it is!!My neighbor put fertilizer on his lawn last fall and it has greened up with a vengence. Look! The first bunny of the year has shown up to snack on the lush grass. Try to imagine me sitting in the street for several minutes waiting for this bunny to get used to me so I could take this picture. Yep, that happened. I was out there so long a squirrel arrived to check on me.I’ve set up the sewing machine on the dining room table in front of a sliding glass door so that I can sew in the afternoon sunshine. Doesn’t this springy quilt make you feel happy?Finally, I finished up my Pebble Tunic this week. The pockets are sewn up, the ends are all woven in, and as you can see, I put on the cat paw buttons.and they look fabulous!!
It’s actually a day here with little sunshine. In a few hours the clouds will finish closing in and rain will start, changing to snow before morning. Tomorrow and Friday it will continue to snow and carry on outside. I will get to wear my new sweater! That flower outside evidently is able to handle snow, and the bunny is hopefully tanked up on grass and will do okay in the icky weather. By the end of the week I should have that quilt done and I’ll be casting about for new projects to work on. In spite of everything, there are happy things and sunshine in the week.
I bet that you were expecting pictures of the fall foliage and some frost on my pumpkins, weren’t you. Nope. All of those things have been happening (but I most admit, most of the great leafy color has fallen to ground at this point), but what I’m talking about is the fabulous knitting colors that appear like magic at this time of year. I love fall knitting (especially since it is powered by pumpkin spice lattes in my case!) and have been bit by excitement as I pile more yarn into my stash, more patterns into my Ravelry shopping cart (I have 169 patterns in there at the moment…) and power up the needles with cool weather knitting.
Darn. I felt compelled to put in a picture of fall foliage anyways. See what I’m talking about? Look at those colors.!! I must have them in my yarn!
Last week I finished some cute socks in fall colors during some cold weather with snow outside. I kept pulling them up on my arms to admire the colors and to check on the lace cuff, and I couldn’t help thinking that they would make some cute arm warmers. Hmmm…
Well they almost became arm warmers, but at the end of the day they did manage to become socks. I was, however, completely entranced with the idea of arm warmers that were also mitts with no thumbs. I wanted to be able to pull these things up onto my arms while working in the kitchen, but also able to have over my hands while knitting. Not too tight so I could wear them over long sleeved shirts or gloves. Not too bulky so that I would be able to wear the arm warmers/mitts under sweaters. I wanted warm!! My poor Raynaud’s inflicted hands demanded them.
Ta-daa!! Check these out!
Look at that.. there’s a pumpkin after all. These are the finished mitts that exactly meet my cold weather needs. Do you like my fall colored table runner? I’ve put out all the Thanksgiving decorations . Did I mention that I love this time of year?
Aren’t those colors great? This is the purple yarn that I showed off in an earlier post. I still have some bright, happy gold colored yarn to use as a contrast; I’m torn whether to use the yarns for a pair of Jelly Roll socks or perhaps brioche stitch cuffs with both colors. Brioche could be fun…
Are these cute or what? Perfect for my needs. They allow me to use my hands easily while staying warm, but are easy to push up onto my arms while cooking or doing something that involves water (like bathing a certain yellow cat).
Did you glimpse the rosy rust colored knitting below the mitt? That is the sweater that I am working and working on. I just love the feel of the fabric and the pattern is one that I’ve done before so I know that I will love the finished product, but the simple, one-color stockinette demands that I take some breaks into some pattern or color excitement. I keep getting pulled into some socks and mitts, but each shot of cold weather finds me working like a fiend on the sweater again. I hope to have it done by Thanksgiving.
Doesn’t this look nice? This is the Drijfhout sweater by Isabell Kraemer. As you can see, it is knit from the top down and will have a henley type button placket in the front. I plan to use little wooden buttons when I finish it.
Thursday I knitted faithfully on the sweater and got another couple of inches on to the body, but this morning I went hunting for another cute yarn for mitts. Why, look at this! I have some grey yarn with a rainbow strip from Chasing Rabbits that just totally wants to be mitts. It is nagging me somewhat desperately. What is a kindhearted, cold-armed knitted to do?
I cast on, of course!!
This is another Chasing Rabbits yarn in the colorway “Colorful Yarns”, which was created for the LYS where I hang out and knit with my peeps. Pretty cool, huh.
I wrote up the pattern (such as it is…) and placed it in the notes of the Ravelry project page for the arm warmers/mitts. With this second pair I hope to clean up the opening for the thumbhole. Maybe there will be some ribbing around it? Hmmm…
Anyway, if you would like your own pair feel free to check out what I did. Add/subtract stitches to fit your own arm or needs.
I live in a city just east of Denver, Colorado. It snows here. You’d expect that we would all be used to it by now, but each time there is a major storm predicted you’d think it was the end of the world. The grocery store is mobbed. Gasoline sells out at the gas station. There are constant warnings and updates in the media, and a bright red “winter storm warning” message begins to scroll across the bottom of the television screen. Snow trucks begin to roll before the first flake even flies. It is particularly bad when the winter storm is predicted to unfold over several days and double digit snow is expected.
It is the Snowpocalypse!!!
OK, I did go to the grocery store to make sure I had milk and stuff for several days of meals. I filled the car with gas. I went to the yarn store. Hello. I might be cut off for days! I mean, it is the SNOWPOCALYPSE!!!
Woohoo! Look at this absolutely beautiful Malibrigo Rios yarn. I am so happy with the last sweater that I made that I decided to make another top-down sweater. Besides, it is the Snowpocalypse, so I probably will need the additional woolly layer to survive while digging myself out of the snow drift encrusted house later…I picked the pattern Mountain High by Heidi Kirrmaier for my sweater. Isn’t this color nice? It is called Jupiter and reminds me of the planet each time I pick up my needles to knit. I cast on late last week so that I would have something started when the snow arrived Saturday. Here’s what it looked like by Monday morning when we had (an underwhelming) couple of inches on the ground.
The predicted snow storm was actually a two-punch affair; the weekend snow was just the warm-up for the main event. Monday afternoon the snow started in earnest and once the wind picked up it began to drift. Schools were closed, most of my neighbors stayed home from work, and there was almost no traffic on the roads. Lovely. Seriously, it was lovely. I settled down and power knitted for a couple of days with breaks to forage for food (yep. I am seriously recovering from the flu and my appetite has come back was a vengence!) and snow shoveling outings. This morning the sun was out again and I got the last bit of shoveling down.
It’s a winter wonderland! It isn’t so obvious in the picture, but there is over a foot of snow here and a drift that was almost 2 feet deep lurked at my front door.Look how much of the sweater is now done! Looking good! Here are the project notes on Ravelry.
I am now almost 2 inches below the armholes and it is started to look like a sweater. The yarn feels just wonderful. I am so happy to have so much progress after just a week.
A friend just sent me a message: there is another snow storm predicted for early next week.
Woohoo! Maybe I should head to the knitting store and stock up again.
Yarn, Books & Roses 