Sigh.

 This has been a very strange winter.  So very little snow, and what there is has been ruined by freezing rain.  I really miss my x-c ski outings, even though I was not any good.  I will say, however, that there is one nice thing about the mild winter.  Monday afternoon, we met up with some friends amd had a nice little fire down by the lake, enjoyed some nibblies, drank some wine and watched the sun go down.  We did walk to their house and home again so at least we had some exercise. 

I finished the Soft As A Cloud cowl from Purl Soho.  I used two skeins of Juniper Moon Farms Stargazer in a lovely deep green.  There is a four stitch column of twist stitches, and a three stitch column of fake cables.  All very easy to do, but a bit hard on the wrists and elbows.  I didn’t think I was THAT tight of a knitter, but apparently I could stand to loosen up a bit.

The colour is deeper than shown in the photo — despite the dye coming off on my hands, the yarn retained enough dye to be beautifully luxurious looking.  Here is the store mannequin wearing the cowl —

Overall, I am very happy with this project.  The pattern is free from Purl Soho and offers three variations.  You can do the cowl with only the fake cables, or only the twisted stitches, or as I did with a combination of both.  I can definitely see myself doing this again. 

I have been working on a throw for my newest grandson in Arizona.  The young man is wild for firetrucks, and his bedroom reflects this.  I went searching and found a chart for a firetruck, and I cast on and started improvising.  Last week, the blanket looked like this —

I finally got the third panel finished and attached. Onwards to a border!  I picked up stitches around all four sides.  (Thank heavens for my Addi interchangeables!  I used a connector and have two cables in play!). Each corner has a knit stitch going out diagonally and I am increasing both sides of that stitch on alternate rows.  As I left today I took a photo.

I just have to finish my current white stripe, add a yellow stripe (2 rows) and one more white stripe (4 rows).  Then I plan on doing an i-cord bind off in red.  Adding all the colours to the blanket was an attempt to use up as much yarn as possible.  It is fitting that I will need one more ball of red.

I have started knitting socks for Christmas 2024.  If I can do one pair per month, I stand a good chance of being done by the holiday.  To that end, I present the first pair — Socks on a Plane worked in Gathering Yarns Homestead Painted.  I used a 2.75mm needle and 62 stitches.  The pattern asks for 64, but I was working off memory and these will fit just fine. 

Having completely finished two sweaters, a cowl AND a pair of socks one would think my list of projects screaming for attention would be diminished.  You would be incorrect.  It turns out that I have a hard time counting, and there are still 12 items on the list.  

Sigh.