November 15, 2020

 November is here, with blustery winds and rain.  This year we have the sailboats safely stored for winter, the canoes snugly tucked away and the dock sections all ashore.  Every fall is different, and we tend to procrastinate getting ready for winter.  We want that last sail, that last canoe ride, that last sunset on the dock.  Now it is sunsets on the deck, or from the dining table.  The house is fairly snug against the winter weather, so there is that. 

kn knitting news, I sent my daughter a picture ...

She was confused ... until I sent here THIS picture:

This is her shawl, quite possibly for her wedding.  It is the Diamond Rings shawl, designed by Donna Druchunas.  I used 8 balls of Sandnes Garn Mandarin Petit, in colour 7512, which is a delightful baby blue.  (I needed the 8th ball for the last 4 rows of the border.). I used a 3.75mm needle, as suggested by the designer.

Why cotton?  My daughter has a sensitivity to wool, so merino was out.  We do not know when the actual event will occur, so I didn’t really want to use alpaca. (In fact, we are not entirely certain that alpaca will not give her itchies, so that was another consideration.). Finally, she thought the shawl MIGHT be used as a throw over the back of the sofa afterward.  Cotton it was!  

I blocked this by letting it have a nice swim in the bathtub with a wee bit of Eucalan. Then it went through a spin cycle in the washing machine.  (Our machine is a front-load, so reasonably OK for knits.)  I had listened to a podcast that suggested doing this, as the machine spins so much excess moisture out of the garment.  Cotton does not felt, so it seemed like a safe thing to do.  Spread out on a double bed, this covered the mattress side to side, and three-quarters of the length.  I danced around, gently shaping it into a nice circle.  I did not pin out the points on the border because I think Carrie probably will not do so when she washes it.  Also, I did not have that many blocking pins!  It dried over -night, which I found shocking. Usually things require three to four days to dry, but using the spin cycle got so much water out that it was a quick dry.   

 Now to test the spin cycle with wool ...

In other news, I must say that I am GREATLY relieved that Joe Biden appears to have won the presidential election. I will not believe the Trump nightmare is over until the inauguration occurs, but I am beginning to have hope.  As an American living outside the borders of the US, things were looking grim.  Still are, actually.  I greatly feared I was watching the end of the US experience ... who knew there was that much bigotry hiding in the population?  Destruction of education systems, destruction of the postal service, destruction of the norms of every day life.  I am hoping that Mr. Biden will be able to bring healing and moderation.

And I am going to say “that’s  wrap” for this blog post.  Thanks for reading!