Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Hello February


Light snow welcomes winter back into February. This past weekend the sun was out and warm temperatures felt like Spring. It's too early for 60 degrees in Nebraska. I bought a pink cyclamen to add a little color to the kitchen/dining room. I love snow, somehow it refreshes the day. This feels like a good week for some refreshment.  

Thank you all for your kind words about my goofy back. With some help from a physical therapist, it is on the mend and not completely unraveling. Navigating on my laptop is not the most comfortable. I am keeping up with blogs as I am able. Some days that means more reading than commenting.   

Two weeks ago, I tossed my stash and goodness what a lot of lovely yarn I found in those bins. Just for fun I created one of yarns and scraps that I might like to use in 2020. I wanted the yarn easily accessible. Mind you, I don't promise to knit any or all of it as I usually let knitting take me where it will. No list goes with the yarns. I wrote too many goals and mission statements when I was working to impose that approach on my knitting. 


Before this back business, I finished this cowl. I couldn't find any yarn in my stash to add as an accent and had more than enough of the two colors to finish. This a great pattern for leftovers. The cowl goes with mitts I knit previously. 

Garter stitch is helping me ease back to knitting. I am knitting odds and ends of Koigu yarn into a scrappy hitchhiker. I'm not sure this scarf needs both eyelets and multiple colorways of variegated yarns but that is the way I began and it's fun to add the next color. This project began as a garter scarf knit on the edge and with an i-cord edge. 

I've also been working on the Rewilding Shawl - version 3 or 4 - I've lost track. The yarn is lovely and I especially like the rate of increases and the edges. The first pattern I tried with this yarn had an i-cord edge. Between the scarf that became a hitchhiker and this shawl, I learned that the slipped stitch or stitches in an i-cord edge don't stretch as much as a garter edge. Really, that shouldn't come as a surprise. Perhaps on a bigger needle the tension wouldn't be so noticeable or maybe the lack of stretchiness is a result of the way I tension the yarn while knitting. I wanted to try an i-cord edge on a shawl and so now I have. What I learned is that I will have to weigh the finished look against the decrease in stretchiness. There is always something to learn while knitting which is one of the reasons I like to knit. 


While resting and not knitting, I read The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. The plot was interesting and will make for good discussion when it comes up later this year in my book group. The novel certainly has the vibe of new contemporary fiction by a younger writer. I returned to Savage Beauty, the biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay and finished it. Sometimes returning to a book is worthwhile. Millay lived a very unconventional life and wrote remarkable sonnets. I'm still not certain how to think about her. The sections about her childhood and then later on as she found literary success were the most interesting to me. I currently am reading Erosion: Essays of Undoing by Terry Tempest Williams, one of my favorite nonfiction writers. Her beautiful writing about the natural world and thoughts on climate change makes this a book to savor.  

I am joining Kat and the Unravelers today. Take a look to see what others are knitting and reading. I hope you are all well today. Happy February.

By the way, is colorway/color way one word or two? I never can remember. What are you learning from your knitting/making today?



   

10 comments:

  1. Your cowl and the mitts look great. I've resisted buying the cowl pattern, but it is so nice I may have to give in. Looking forward to seeing your Hitchhiker at some point. I bet it is very pretty made with scraps. Glad your back is (slowly) improving - hope that continues for you. I need to check out a book by Terry Tempest Williams. "When Women Were Birds" looks very interesting to me.

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  2. Your cowl and mitts are lovely. At first I thought they looked like winter colors, but they also show hints of spring. And your scrappy hitchhiker is such a good idea! I hadn't considered making one with scraps, but will now, and look forward to tossing my stash in search of possibilities. I hope your back continues to improve, and I type colorway as one word (but I'm certainly no expert).
    P.S. I learned that knitting in the tavern I visited for lunch is certainly a conversation starter!

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  3. I love the scrappy Hitchhiker. I may borrow that idea.

    Hope your back continues to get better.

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  4. All the lavender and gray love for that cowl/mitts set. I've been meaning to make another 3-color cowl (I think with four colors ;-) ... it's such a fun pattern to knit and wear. Also, I didn't know that TTW had a new book out. When Women Were Birds is one of my favorite books! (and I'm not sure what I'm learning from my knitting these days ... patience maybe?)

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  5. I'm glad you're feeling some improvement in your back. Here's to continued (and speedy) healing for you. XO I love your soft and gentle color choices -- the cowl and mitts are lovely. And I love "scrappy" projects! I'll bet your hitchhiker will turn out fun and interesting -- with a nice batch of memories knit right in. (And I think it's colorway, but my computer always wants to separate the words. . . )

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  6. love your cowl and mitts, and I adore the two colors! I am glad your back is a bit better but baby it for at least three months. Backs have layers of muscles that are naughty.

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  7. Wow I love your cowl and your shawl. Really nice lace work. Im glad you mentioned the tension thing with the i cord. Good reminder! Im watching Westminster Dog show with two cats on my lap . :)

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  8. Hello - I am a new follower of your blog. I love Terry Tempest Williams. I live in Utah and she is also from Utah. I think she now lives in Southern Utah. I loved her book, Refuge. Have you read that one? That is one book that has stayed with me for years and years. I also lived in Salt Lake City at the same time that the story in the book takes place and so everything was very familiar to me. How coole that I have found, quite by accident, another Terry Tempest Williams fan! Makes me want to start reading one of her books right now! I will be back to visit your blog again soon, since I am now a follower. BTW - I noticed that you are from Nebraska and we lived in Omaha for a few years and my husband also lived in Western Nebraska - McCook - for a while. Small world in blogland. See you again soon!

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  9. I'm glad to hear that your back is on the mend. Take it slow and don't overdo it!

    I read the Immortalists at the very end of 2018 and loved it. I think it'd be a really good book for a discussion group.

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