are you keeping warm?

baby, it’s cold outside. and from what i hear, it’s the same everywhere else (except florida, according to vanessa). even kim is chilly in san diego this week, brrr.

it’s hard to keep the house warm when it gets this cold, mainly because it’s also extremely windy. hot rye toast, courtesy of anne marie’s trip to west side market, along with hot italian coffee helps.

i wear my cashmere mitts and the scarf david knit for me while i work at my desk—it’s just big enough to use as a shoulder shawl that covers my lap, keeping things as cozy as they can be (the tradeoff for having a desk in the window corner of the room is that it gets pretty chilly in winter).

and i knit.

the matterhorn mitts, hat, and scarf set is complete and the pattern is all set to go—look for it later today in the pattern shop. i did run out of yarn about halfway through the second mitt and i was wracking my brain trying to think of a solution that did not include cannibalizing the finished red scarf (seriously, i would never).

i had almost resigned myself to the idea of not having a pair of mitts when i remembered that i love swatching—i love swatching SO much that i often make several large-ish swatches for each project. i scurried upstairs to survey the mountainous results of this passion which have piled up on my studio “desk” over the last two years

ok, go ahead—laugh. i’ll wait it out. it’s embarrassing, i know. some people have too many cats—i have too many swatches.
(but i am getting rid of the grocery bag full of yarn labels i found the other day—i think i once intended to use them for an assemblage or collage of some kind).

i really should catalog this stuff somehow instead of throwing it on the pile (or we could make a movie). there’s just so much of it. the last time i cleaned up, i threw the then existing pile into a plastic bin for future sorting, so there’s actually about twice or three times that many swatches to go over. i’m going to have to do something about it soon though; everything needs to be moved out of that room in the next week to begin the renovation in there.
also, i promised chris i’d write a long blog essay about the benefits of swatching and i’ll need to research that (i’d rather write a book about swatching, but i’m not sure about its universal appeal).

oh, i’m digressing . . . let’s get back to what we were talking about.

i had to dig a bit (really??), but i found what i was looking for—three nice-sized swatches in the very red i wanted from december 2007, when i was designing david’s christmas sweater for that year.

i happily used the largest one and the smallest one to finish up the mitts, thus leaving myself one for the collection (which happens to be the actual gauge swatch for the sweater project).

i gotta tell, you these are some warm items; i was very cozy wearing them for the photo shoot, even when we took it outdoors into the elements yesterday. that fold-back hat brim is just the thing in the wind. and the corriedale yarn from briar rose is amazingly toasty.

i’m so glad i have them for the winter ahead; if this week’s temperatures are any indication of what’s coming, we are going to need them.

i worked all last evening on the new lace neckwarmer and by the time we retired upstairs to watch TV, it was finished.

i soaked it this morning and now it’s laid out in front of the heat register to dry (which shouldn’t take long; the furnace is running almost constantly).

i decided to name it cité, because it reminds me of the expanse of rooftops and busy, winding streets that you’d see from any big city apartment window. when i lived in the city, one of my favorite things was to sit near the window at dusk, exploring the rooftops with my eyes and watching the lights come up.

you can do that in any city on the planet and feel the same rush of emotions; it’s wonderful.

the green-gray of this gorgeous classy sox yarn from dye dreams, in colorway smoke plays out in floaty, random bands across the fabric to accentuate the feeling of a skyline, breaking up the vertical direction of the lace only in a soft, translucent way. the yarn is lovely to work with—it’s bouncy and easy to knit and has that touch of cashmere for softness at the neck. truly not just a sock yarn; it works wonderfully for other accessories, too.

speaking of neckwarmers, i was thrilled that clara parkes included ivy vines in a list of her favorite, quick-to-knit gift items in knitter’s review this week. and look at the company it is keeping there—jared flood, ysolda teague, stephanie pearl-mcphee, pam allen, and clara herself—such an honor.

i promise though, it’s not going to my head—i’m still the person with that crazy pile swatches on my desk (and proud of it, to everyone else’s mortification).

a public service announcement, while i’m at it: great northern yarns now has most colors of the mink/cashmere yarn back in stock (including radiant purple that i used to knit le ghirlande), if anyone is looking for some to knit up for the holidays (or for anx AFTER christmas treat).

so, one thing i did not finish (yet) is my third red scarf

but i’m very very close and as soon as i’m done writing this (i’m almost there!) and after i release the new pattern, i’m hitting my knitting chair for the finish. then i’ll pack it all up so the mail carrier can pick it up in the morning.

that’s another two or three things to cross off my WIP list, BTW. which means i have just the henley and david’s sweater, and two socks on the needles. which means i might start my little cashmere/silk shawl this weekend. i have to start the sock for the dye dreams sock club, which i’m really looking forward to (same yarn as the neckwarmer above, yay).
and i have a few secret projects i need to work on.

so i better get moving—let’s toast to a very knitty weekend.