pushing through to the finish

ooooh, it got cold here this weekend—crazy winter that it is.

last week it was in the 50s all week, warm enough for the bulbs to start sprouting.
this weekend, it snowed for three days straight and the wind howled like mad. it was a very fine, powdery snow however; not much accumulated.

now the sprouts are covered with a white blanet, but fighting like champs to keep their tips in the sun . . . i love that tenacity.

spring is, indeed, on its way.

on saturday, i worked on the new sweater pattern and some secret knitting projects—something about all-day snow makes me want to tuck in and knit. after a day or so of that though, i crave company so on sunday, i bundled myself off to debby’s for the afternoon and we sat in her sun room knitting and watching the snow come down on the lake. nice, right?

and look—i got really far on david’s blue sock. i’m past the heel now and on to the foot. just a few more gusset decreases to go and i’ll be sailing down to the toe.

the fabric is SO beautiful, isn’t it? this is zen yarn garden squooshy, in colorway masculine wave; a gift from my friend roxanne (she’s a terrific dyer; you should check out her shop). what a great shade of cobalt. it was a limited edition yarn, but it’s really similar to her delphinium colorway.

i started and completed a tiny secret project and then started another bigger one. i love them both to bits and wish i could share them, but i’ll keep my mouth shut about them for a while more . . .

i did, however make great progress on david’s pebble stitch sweater, both knitting and pattern. the pattern is almost ready to send to tech editing and the front piece is now completed. i love how that stack of finished pieces is growing—it’s very satisfying.

here’s a closeup of the cable detail along the armhole—just enough to give a plain-ish sweater a little definition, but not enough for david to think of it as too fancy for everyday.

the back piece is already on the needles and i’m almost done with the hem ribbing; i’ll probably move on to the big stretch of body pattern tonight.

because i had to send for one extra skein after i received the initial batch of yarn, the color is slightly different than all the other skeins (which are a remarkably good match for one another). it’s close enough to blend, so i’m not fretting over it.

i know i’m supposed to alternate skeins in this situation (and that’s what i’d recommend if someone asked me, haha), but i am WAY too lazy to do it; i just can’t make myself (and i’m happy to live with random results; i embrace the the artisanal effect). so i’m hiding this are near the bottom of the back piece and using as little of this skein as i can get away with. i actually think that once i get the ribbing done, i’ll have enough of the remaining original yarn to finish out the back. the texture change will hide the difference even further.

getting to the last piece is a lot of incentive; i’m super-motivated now to motor through it to the finish (and you know how much i love finishing work!).

i was just texting with my SIL nan about how knitting gives us such a feeling of productivity—being able to measure and handle the actual results of your work—priceless. especially when circumstances seem constantly to be working against you.

(on the other hand if your toddler, in his enthusiasm to demonstrate new-found manual dexterity, happens to cut the sock you have in progress, knitting may not be the thing propping you up that day . . . just sayin’)

since we left las vegas, nan has knit four hats, a pair of socks for amad, and a pair of socks for micah (plus, the do-over one that got cut)—wow. and she joined ravelry, too—now we have to get her to post her projects and put a face to her name.

three of the hats matched, so that she and the kids each have one alike. she used leftovers of of briar rose robusta that i forwarded to her a while back; she loves chris’s colors and green/blues are a family favorite.

i think they need matching mitts for those, don’t you??

it just goes to show—if you give someone a slöfock, they get a cute hat.
teach someone to slöfock and and multiple happiness results.

speaking of which

there have been yarn sightings in our bareneaked clubhouse—packages that went out to the UK and beyond have begun to land—if you like spoiler photos now is the time to go take a peek. if you want to be surprised, now is the time to stay in the nonspoiler thread (if you can hold out, hee-hee!).

and that’s our monday—time to get back to work.