beautiful, but cold

we had a little reprieve over the weekend from those plunging bitter temperatures, but now we are back to frosty windows and cold toes. the sky really is that unbelievable blue, but i’m not hanging around outside to admire it.

the good news for this week is that i’ve finished all secret knitting for the time being and since the projects in our next club are not secret, i’m getting a bit of a break from that. almost all my knitting for the next four or five months can be public (save for a few collaborations or gifts i might work on).

more good news: laura and sheyanne have put a little video up on the knitspot Facebook page to help promote a contest that our staff has devised. please take a detour over there to see what it’s about and leave a comment. and please share it with your friends; i am SO enjoying the responses to their message. thanks!

while we finalize details for our blanket statement club, coming up in february (still spots left; come and get ’em), i’ve been dreaming about working on some sweater projects and there are a few lace shawl projects i’ve been wanting to get to as well. i feel a sense of freedom about the approaching months; i just hope i can keep it going.

this kent DK in the caramel-y kelp shade has been calling my name since we received it in the fall; its golden highlights give it a bit of an aura for me. i’d like to knit a nice cozy saturday cardigan with it. it was a real tossup between this shade, which i’ve drooled over for months and the new mussel shell shade, which i instantly took to—it’s so my color. i’m actually still wavering . . .

i also want another ivar—mine got conscripted into another life as a shop sample. i’m thinking that for the next one i should knit with better breakfast fingering—how delicious would that be? i’m waiting to see what the next shade looks like—it’s supposed to be a charcoal—to decide. and maybe this time i’ll go for a pullover (which might help me justify using the mussel shell for my other cardigan; see above)

and there thee is the special, special yarn we made while visiting the mill last weekend. i know exACTly what i want to knit with this—a gorgeous openwork cardigan; wait til you see. look at the beautiful gold halo over this fiber—that’s not actual color streaking in the yarn but the light catching the blooming soft fibers.

but first, i had to spend the weekend tying up loose ends on the purple club, so i can launch new projects going forward.

i did my planning and scheming while putting some much-needed time into a big pot of soup and other tasty meals to tide us through the week. we still have lots of ingredients from the garden for soup, including potatoes, onions, carrots, and celeriac (that ball-shaped vegetable with the fascinating appearance at the back of the frame), plus frozen tomatoes, green beans, and corn.

for an hour or so of effort in chopping and getting it started, the return is great—several quart boxes for the freezer and future evening meals, a couple of larger cartons to freeze for impromptu company and the rest for meals during this week. not to mention the delicious fragrance that filled the house.

mmm.

while things bubbled, i worked on my sock a bit—it’s amazing how it grows when i actually work on it, haha. the yarn—our stone soup fingering weight in the travertine shade—is knitting up into a nice dense fabric, that yet will not be too bulky to wear inside shoes.

a pretty toasty brown shade speckled with white neps from the rambouillet wool that makes up part of its content. this fiber also adds lots of spring to the yarn, ensuring a cushy sock fabric. i’ve always wondered if it would make good socks and now i’ll find  out.

i’m using my basic sock patternfor numbers; this morning i knit the heel flap and soon i’ll be cruising down the foot. it’s a nice travel knit, portable and easy to pick up where i left off. all factors that make the knitting go faster.

on sunday it was more cooking, this time a vegetable curry. we can buy some nice organic vegetables in winter but they don’t last long, so weekend are my time to decide what to cook with them.

more chopping and then sautéing, layering each item into the pan as the previous one began to cook. once the liquid went in, i got to sit down and knit some rounds while it bubbled its way to doneness.

and today, leftovers for lunch, mmmm.

i don’t keep recipes for these dishes, but just construct them from whatever we have in the fridge (or the garden in summer). easy peasy; the hardest part is chopping stuff. pinky swear!

ok, time for me to get on out the door to yoga class—i’ll be back next time with a warm cowl pattern, something i kept back from the pre christmas rush that we can knit quickly for these coldest winter days.