Spinning Snow

Good Wednesday to all. I am writing from the rocking chair instead of my desk. The sun warms my back. This week our community experienced power outages due to the prolonged extreme cold. Sometime yesterday morning the temperature was - 31 degrees and that doesn't account for any windchill. We turned down the thermostat and unplugged nonessential items. Our Texas kids are hauling water to flush toilets and dealing with rolling power outages. They are fine and relatively cheerful, if cold. Thank goodness warmer weather is on the way. Slowly the temperature is nudging upwards and currently we are at 12 degrees. Here is to the weekend forecast of 30 plus degrees above zero and an outdoor walk. 

As this is Wednesday, I am linking with Kat and the Unravelers to share my fiber work and reading. Thank you Kat for the link. 

Yesterday I made some very sweet yarn. I plied the Cormo singles, skeined up this bit of yarn, and washed it. Honestly the fiber is so soft, I felt like I was spinning snow. Instead I made yarn. I write this twice because spinning yarn is magic. While winding the plying ball, one single snapped. I cut out a length of very fine yarn and started again which resulted in two smaller skeins. These skeins match another I made last summer. Setting a spindle in motion is just the loveliest moment in a winter day. 

I've enjoyed knitting this sweater but am ready to be finished. I don't think I've ever knit a sweater without re-knitting some rows and this one in no exception. Forager calls for a Latvian Braid just above the ribbing on the body and the sleeves. Tension in my stranded knitting is never even and I don't want tightness around the ribbing so I omitted the braid and knit the ribbing in one size bigger needle than suggested. It was too loose. Turns out designers suggest needle sizes for a reason. ;-) Isabell Kraemer writes a great pattern. While knitting the first sleeve, I decided to try a purl row at the top of the ribbing to imitate the braid and used a smaller sized needle for the ribbing. I liked the look so I ripped out the ribbing on the body, added a purl row, and reknit the ribbing in the correct needle size. Hopefully this is the only re-knitting required. Perhaps I should knock on wood or at least click my needles together three times. 

In between, I finished the scrappy socks. They aren't beautiful but they are toasty because of the alpaca content in the yarn. 

I read The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamal. This is a bittersweet story of love misunderstood, lost, and found. Most of the main characters are Iranian, some immigrants to America and some not. The descriptions of Persian food are mouth-watering and the women characters are well written. Once again characters' lives are swept along by political events although this is not the focus of the story. The ending was a bit tidy but it was a sweet love story. I enjoyed it. 

Stay warm and safe. May your knitting and reading treat you well.  

Ravelry Links

Winter Forager

Theoretical Socks