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These mitts came off the needles this week and just in time. Colder weather is settling in, and I fear I have to return the pair of mitts I borrowed from my daughter.
Lacunae Mitts. This is my second Knitspot pattern in a week. Anne Hanson strikes again.
Lacunae - from the Latin, air spaces. The name takes me back to high school Latin - a dead language that is still so alive.
Try on these mitts, and, as if by magic, the air spaces appear. This wonderful little trick is achieved by a clever combination of cables and ribbing. As always Anne's pattern is well-written and includes both charts and written instructions.
The yarn is Dirty Water DyeWorks Edna, colorway Moon Shadow. This DK weight blend of Polwarth wool and silk is currently one of my favorites - durable wool with a bit of shimmer. As luck would have it this pattern includes a matching hat. I may have enough leftover yarn to knit the hat. If not, there's more yarn where this came from.
It's that time of year. If you're out and about first thing in the morning, you'll see a world transformed by frost. Colors glisten and take on a new hue. I captured this week's color inspiration on one such chilly morning.
From black to blue-gray. Magical.
Since I'm not traveling any more this year, I've somehow convinced myself that I'll have endless hours of knitting time. For one reason or another my endless hours have evaporated.
Or I haven't made the most of my knitting time. Normally I'm well prepared when I head out the door, but yesterday I took leave of my senses when I left with only one knitting project. I was on my way to an appointment that was going to be short - in and out without much time for knitting.
Instead the appointment went long - very long. At first I wasn't dismayed. I was a bit irritated when I thought of all the other things that weren't getting done, but I had my knitting. All would be well. I would knit my way through the appointment, and that's just what I did. I knit so much I finished the project. And then I had to sit and wait . . . wondering what other people do when they have to wait for appointments and kicking myself for not grabbing that second project. I'm blaming my temporary lapse on the full moon.
I did find time for this project over the long weekend.
Woodstacking by Anne Hanson.
This design has plenty of action without being too complicated - just enough to keep things interesting.
Short and sweet.
And the finished product is full of texture . . . tiny cables coupled with moss stitch.
I'm in the process of sampling this yarn base - a DK weight organic merino. So far I'm loving it. It's soft and squishy . . . it might be a keeper.
To complete the test run I'm going to be wearing this cowl, but I might have to make a couple more. Just in time for wintery weather, just in time for holiday gifting.
The Monday after a long holiday weekend can be rough. I divided my time between relaxing and working, so I hope the new work week doesn't bite me too hard.
I also did much more driving than I had originally intended. Road trips to central Massachusetts and New Hampshire - hours and hours of driving. If only I had been a passenger. Instead I listened to the same episode of Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me! so many times that on the final replay I actually got all the answers right.
To ease into the week I have a few random bits to share for . . .
THIS AND THAT
~ These days I keep an electronic calendar, but that doesn't mean I've gotten rid of paper all together. I still keep a paper calendar by my desk so that with just a glance I can see what the date is. Or on really bad days I can figure out what day of the week it is. Knitwear designer Becky Herrick has put together this lovely calendar with seasonal pictures from Vermont. It's on my holiday list.
~ Sweaters. 500 Sweaters. Loes Veenstra has been knitting sweaters since 1955 - over 500 to be exact. The sweaters are documented in a book, and to celebrate her achievement there was a sweater parade. Be sure to watch the parade - so many colors and designs. How many sweaters have you knit in your life? I haven't kept track, but I know it's not 500.
~ I'm all for recycling, so I was intrigued to discover this pedal-powered mechanism for recycling discarded knits. There's a bit of exercise involved, and it even includes a feature for taking the kinks out of the once knit yarn. Extremely clever.
That's enough distraction for one day. It's Monday, and there's work to be done.
The day after a holiday can be challenging, but I've given myself permission to ease back into the routine. After many, many hours of cooking I think it's well-deserved.
From the ingredients.
To the cooking.
To the eating.
It was an enjoyable day with family and friends - a good reminder of how much we have to be thankful for.
We topped off the day with our own parade.
The pie parade.
The day wasn't without its slight imperfections. I realized after we ate that I'd forgotten to light the candles. And we experienced a significant shortage of serving spoons. I have a hunch they're lurking in the dust under a bed. Teenage boys have been known to shovel food, and serving spoons are the most efficient way to do it.
After a day filled with plenty, my only hope is that the leftovers last the weekend.
To help me recover from the holiday.
A fun new project in progress. I think this calls for more coffee and pie.
Unless we get snow, November is a gray month. The trees are bare; the sky is overcast. There's not much color. These flowers brighten things up and remind me of the colors of the season. My color inspiration for the week.
Cheery red mixed with a healthy dose of yellow and orange.
Tomorrow is a holiday here in the States. People have been preparing for days. Lines are long, traffic is tangled, tempers are short.
I think I spend more time gathering all the ingredients for the feast than I do actually cooking it. I've made my last grocery store run. If we don't have it by now, we don't need it. At this point I'm a bit weary of the celebration, and it hasn't even started yet. I knew I would be feeling this way, so I devised a plan for a little pick-me-up.
A new yarn base to go with a new pattern. A little holiday treat.
But I promised myself it would have to wait until I finish my work for today. It's pie baking day, and the list is long.
As we enter the season of traditions, it's only fitting that I keep one of my personal traditions for this time of year. Lost fingerless mitts. I've been known to lose them in the mountains of Vermont. Or on a fairgrounds in Maine. It's a tradition I've inadvertently managed to keep for several years running.
I actually thought I was going to escape the tradition this year. This fall I had a pair of Maine Morning Mitts that would wander for a day or two and then reappear as if they had never been on leave. As long as they returned to their proper home, I was OK with that. We had a working arrangement.
Last week the inevitable happened. I took the mitts with me on a long day of errands. Too many stops to count - in and out, again and again. I had a feeling that something was going to happen to the mitts. When I finally got home, it was late and dark. And I couldn't find the mitts. I told myself that maybe they would surface in the light of day, but deep down I knew they were gone. Instead of finding a new home in the scenic New England countryside, this pair had probably landed in a parking lot.
The next day I made the decision that the time spent trying to track down the mitts would be better spent knitting a new pair. And while I was at it, I decided to use a different pattern. While I love the tried-and-true Maine Morning Mitts, they have a habit of wandering. I've lost more than one pair. So I went in search of a new pattern and settled on this.
Lacunae Mitts by Anne Hanson.
This pattern moves right along. In no time at all I had knit what appeared to be a skinny tube. The tube was transformed with a quick try-on.
Magic. If this pair doesn't wander, they will truly be magical.
This is the first week since mid-September that I'm not traveling or prepping for an event. The shift in focus has been a nice change of pace. The sifting and sorting in my office is well underway - insert picture of large trash bags here. Major tidy projects are always full of surprises, some more pleasant than others.
I don't know which thrilled me more - finding a long-lost handknit sock or unearthing this project in progress.
Secret of Change . . . a fun combination of short rows and garter. This project had dropped off my radar, but I'm happy I found it buried in my office mess. I'm in the final section and the rows are long, but there's nothing like the soothing rhythm of garter. Knit, knit, knit. Back and forth. Knit, knit, knit. It's a good project to pick up when I take breaks from reorganizing my office space. And since it doesn't require much thought, I can contemplate my holiday knitting at the same time.
The gnarly base of this old tree reminds me of the twists and turns of cables - in, out and around. My color inspiration for the week.
Blue-black with hints of green.
