merry, merry

Posted on Posted in book reviews/events, projects

merry christmas everyone . . . i hope you are enjoying a day off doing whatever you love most.
for us, it will be a quiet day at home with each other. somehow, i’ll figure out how to turn the tree lights on without waking david up (they’re on a timer and i can’t seem to override it, electronics genius that i am). then i’ll knit the day away, maybe take a break for a “nap”, heh. we’re having homemade pizza for dinner, yum.

as promised, i started right away the other night on a new project for myself

in a cheerful color of henry’s attic mohair (my favorite) that’s been in my stash for ages—i mean, like ten years. i’m going to keep it a bit of a mystery for now because i want to do a reveal when it’s complete.

(hint: it’s not a bathrobe. not because i won’t make one, but because i don’t have enough of this yarn for one . . .)
it’s a really quick favorite and i hope to finish it in the next couple of days.

the color is the perfect foil for the weather—guess what? it’s gray outside.
some people have asked me what i mean when i talk about it being so gray in ohio. they just can’t picture that gray skies could be such a bad thing. let me illustrate

this was the sky yesterday morning at 10 am. it was pretty much still the same at 4pm, maybe a little darker.
now, granted, today it is “sunny”, so it’s a little brighter

see there? in the bottom right corner?? that bright spot?? that’s it. that’s the much-talked-about-
but-rarely-glimpsed sun. if i go around to the front of the house it’s slightly less cloudy

and you can even see that the sky can be blue.
this is winter in ohio. it’s like this for approximately 29 out of 30 days from mid-october through march. fortunately i am a gray junkie—i can look at gray all day, so visually i don’t mind this a bit.
it does make it hard to get out of bed in the morning because i can’t tell if it’s daytime or not (that’s my excuse and i’m sticking with it).

so we concentrate on making colorful things indoors to avoid the cold and gray outside.

last night we went to beckie’s for christmas even and had a wonderfully merry visit with friends. i brought my sock to knit on and got the cuff done

i’m like to finish these socks this week to send to my brother joe for his birthday next week.
they were originally intended for my nephew james, but i switched them out when i saw they wouldn’t be done for his visit monday. and now i’m really glad—james got the woolier tesserae socks that were originally on joe’s pile

and was completely smitten with them. he announced at breakfast the other day that he decided they’d be his “around the house” socks for keeping warm because they’re so snuggly.

and the blue-gray socks will be more suited to my brother’s texas climate. the yarn for those is araucania ranco, and i’m liking the way it knits up a lot. that is, i like having knit it. it’s not as luxurious as some other yarns to actually make stitches with, but the finished fabric is really good. david has been test-driving the quality by wearing his school socks regularly, which i knit with ranco, and it seems to wear very well—no pills, no excess fuzziness, no thinning of the fabric yet. it’s a lot like lorna’s laces, i think.

i also put a few inches on my second lacunae sock while we watched movies the other night

another one i’d like to finish this week; we have a pattern, it’s been test-knit, and we’re all set to go, except for some photos.
now, this is a yarn that is a pleasure to knit stitches with—blue moon socks that rock lightweight. i don’t have socks made with STR yet, so i don’t know how it wears, but i can tell from trying them on that they’ll be cushy and wonderful. the fabric does, indeed rock, with crisp stitch definition and great depth of color.

a couple of absolutely beautiful christmas surprises arrived in the mail from friends this week that i want to share. from my friend lisa (lisa who also gave me blocking wires once, and who i thank silently every time i use them, which is a lot).

this gorgeously cushy neckwarmer, the colors of the ohio sky, hahaha. but since i’m an addict for the color gray, this piece is really, really me. thank you lisa; this is incredibly thoughtful and precious; getting handknit gifts is a rare treat.

and then there was a box from my good friend nan (who started her own blog this week—go see, i’ll wait). you already know nan—she is one of the amazing women who has test knit many of the shawls we completed in the past 18 months. her work is exquisite and she’s willing to take on any project, even if she hasn’t done a particular thing before. and she does it really, really well.
i can’t help myself; nan likes to stay behind the scenes and i want to brag about her, what can i say?? now she has a blog though, so it’s a must to talk about her beautiful knitting now.

so the other day a heavy box from nan lands on doorstep. inside were a couple of boxes of favorite chocolates from see’s, with a small wrapped bundle of softness tucked between (great camoflauge, nan). these are a pair of entangled stitches, in dream in color smooshy, colorway november muse.

aren’t they exquisite?? i can’t believe someone made these for me. this is SO not a project i would knit for myself in a million years. but the best part is—well, actually, there are two best parts. first, the gloves have been nan’s companions on a recent trip through latin america, traveling the panama canal by boat, traversing costa rica, traipsing through mexico, and on home to the west coast again. a written summary of their trip was included with the gift. fabulous.

the other best part is that they fit as if nan measured every square inch of my hands. and that’s no small thing—i have unusually large hands for my size; i normally buy men’s gloves to get the right fit (but those aren’t always pretty . . .). women’s gloves never quite work. i was a little nervous when i slipped these on but no need to be—they are absolutely perfect. and they look great with my new jacket—SCORE. how did she do that?

it’s a wonderful christmas already and we haven’t even really started the day here; there are a couple of things under the tree to open, and a luxuriously empty afternoon. so i’m off now to pick up my knitting and make some holiday calls to family. have a peaceful day.

32 thoughts on “merry, merry

  1. Such beautiful gloves! They are indeed exquisite!

    Pacific Northwest looks normally just like Ohio, very gray! Now, it’s mostly white though, even the sky! Great knitting weather 🙂

    Have a very Merry Christmas!

  2. Maryland, too, was pretty grey throughout the winter. Kansas is a bit better.

    Yay for the home-made pizza for Christmas dinner! We happen to be doing the same, with the kids and their assorted girlfriends joining in for a make-your-own pizza dinner. I’ve got the sourdough sponge rising on the counter – I think I’ll get the crew to help with all the chopping, grating, and slicing of the toppings.

    Lovely gifts you’ve received; what a blessing. Enjoy your day!

  3. Those gloves are amazing; it’s so perfect that they fit well. Nobody appreciates a wonderful handknit gift like a knitter!

    You have a lot happening on the needles! All looking great (naturally).

    We have sunshine today suddenly, so hopefully it’ll make its way east to you….

  4. I love those gloves. It is great when we finally decided that it’s OK to knit something for ourselves. I’ve been knitting either shop models or now show models for the past 5 years.

    I feel guilty when I decided to knit something for myself.

    Merry Christmas.

  5. Oh those are gorgeous gloves…I want to make a pair, but unfortunately my hands are an unusually small size…as in my wedding set, is a size 4. And are still loose…

  6. I have found you blog throw Knitty and I spent 3 days reading it all over, mostly admiring your wonderful lace delights. (What a bit of luck that it is holiday!) 🙂
    Merry Christmas!
    Hugs from Hungary

  7. Merry Christmas to you. You will be coming to the end of your day. I hope you enjoyed your pizza and had a lovely quiet day. Yey for Nan they are beautiufl gloves. I also adore the colour of your mohair, I can’t wait for the “reveal”. Thanks for sharing.

  8. Merry Christmas Anne! Your patterns were a big part of my Christmas Knitting and everyone loved them. Thank you!!

  9. merry christmas anne. you deserve all the luxurious gifts – you have gifted all of us so much.
    since this isn’t my holiday, i stayed in my pj’s all day today reveling in my morning glory shawl. one more repeat and then comes grafting!
    happy new year to you and david.

  10. Iowa is very gray, too — it bothered me last winter, after all my years in Texas, but I’m working harder this year to remember that Spring *will* come.

    Merry Christmas!

  11. I understand gray since I live in SW PA. It’s like we are in a constant state of dusk. I guess it just makes the Christmas lights look even more festive. David’s sweater is great. I really like the way it hangs like a shirt (if that makes sense.) Merry Christmas, Anne.

  12. Yeah, what Tuulia said about the Pacific Northwest skies is absolutely the truth. Being a native, it just looks normal to me, but eventually the grey will oppress my poor desert-raised husbands soul.

    Those gloves, they are to die for!

  13. I HAVE to make those gloves! They’re beautiful!

    I know all about those gray skies. We’ve had nothing but gray here for the past 2 weeks.

  14. ah, but i seem to recall very pretty blue skies yesterday afternoon! i guess our 1 in 30 was well-timed. it is very very grey today, though, so i grabbed my whispering pines just for the color splash…

    very pretty gloves and how fortunate about the fit!

    by the way, i finished mom’s moth in plenty of time and she loves it! she was also very surprised and couldn’t believe i found the time…but how do i match that next year…?

  15. Merry Christmas Anne! David’s sweater turned out beautifully, even without pockets. And the gloves you were gifted are lovely. I wondered if you’ve considered adding a section for a wishlist to your shop. You have so many gorgeous designs and darn you, you keep adding more 🙂 Happy New Year!

  16. Can’t wait to see what you do with the HA. I’ve got some in the stash that has been there for 6 years and could do with using! 😉

  17. Happy Christmas! Those grey Ohio skies nearly did me in, during the 5 years I lived there. I need the sun!

    Those gloves are amazing! And the Tesserae socks looks amazing…no wonder he was smitten!

  18. After seeing you knitting so many gifts, it’s nice to see you on the receiving side… especially when you are receiving such wonderful handknit gifts!

  19. Those gloves are exquisite! As soon as I saw them I was thinking about how many measurements you needed 😉
    I am curious about your mystery project, glad to also hear your still keeping a bathrobe in mind 😉 Mmm Mohair.

  20. I’m laughing about the Ohio skies. We arrived in Columbus on the 22nd to exactly that grey. My husband even pointed it out to our daughter as “traditional winter sky color” for Ohio.

    Minnesota is cold, but much more often than Ohio, also blue!

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