Ready for Spring

Welcome March, the month of windy mercurial weather, winter one day and spring the next. Today looks more like winter with the latest skiff of snow on the ground. The color block sweater is finished. I will enjoy wearing the sweater into the early Spring. Except for the cuffs, I used yarn leftover from two projects so my stash is a tad bit lighter. You know you are a knitter when you order yarn for a project that was supposed to be knit from leftover yarn.

After we photographed the sweater, I looked down at my feet. You know you are a knitter when you wear out one of a pair of hand knit socks but save the other to wear with another sock missing its mate. The lavender sock has been in my drawer since last winter waiting for a mismatched mate.

While the sweater dried, I knit on this shawl from another skein of yarn buried in the stash. It feels good to knit with yarn and patterns on hand. I picked the color to remind me of the spring flowers that will soon push up from the ground.

I am listening to Personal History by Katherine Graham. Graham became the publisher of The Washington Post after her husband's death. She experiences many privileges from being born to a wealthy parents. However she also experienced some anti-Semitism due to her Jewish heritage through her father. My Dad was a Circulation Manager of a newspaper and my brothers continue to work in the field so I am interested in the autobiography from the standpoint of newspaper history as well as the education and professional life of this strong woman. 

I am reading The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, a light hearted, feel good literary romp set in a small town in Iowa. It is good company for recovery from cataract surgery late last week. This is my second eye to be repaired and the procedure went well. I plan to have new glasses in time for Spring travel. 

Joining Kat and the Unravelers. What are you knitting and reading this week?

Knit, Read, and Learn

Every time I knit a sweater, I learn something new. This time I set out to knit a color block sweater from leftover yarns. Guess what? Yarn on the coffee table looks differently when knit into a sweater. The values of the blue and gray colors are quite similar. More contrast between the two might have been better. And, what was I thinking when I decided to make the cuff off white? That color will show all the dust and dirt in a sweater I plan to wear as a sweatshirt. The neck would have been a better place for that color but one skein wouldn't have gone far on the neck and shoulders of a top-down raglan.

The sweater fits fairly well. I carried the ribbing in the raglan line down the sides of the body and sleeves to create faux seams and to make the knitting a little more interesting. The pattern doesn't include shaping but the ribbing pulls in the body slightly. Don't you love the stitch marker jewelry down the sleeves?

I have some decisions to make. I could knit the rest of the sleeve in light gray but that seems boring. I ordered a little more yarn in a slightly darker blue to finish the sleeves. So much for my idea of knitting with leftovers. I plan to finish the second sleeve in the new color and see how it looks before unraveling the cream cuff. I also plan to reknit the bottom ribbing because it looks sloppy. I forgot to change to a smaller needle. Knit and learn. So today as I join Kat and the Unravelers, I will be unraveling.

I finished listening to Hidden Figures by Margot Shetterly. The narrator is excellent and the story is fascinating. I loved the grit of the women who contributed so much to space and aeronautics research. As a retired educator, I enjoyed the story of how the women completed their educations in the context of school desegregation. Don't miss the epilogue at the end where the author includes additional information and answers the question, "Why hasn't this story been told previously?"

The late winter sunsets are glorious. One evening I made a cup of tea and took time to watch the sun go down. The colors are consolation for the remaining weeks of winter.

Knit, unravel, reknit, read, and learn. It is a great way to look forward to Spring. March weather is fickle. Even so the cranes will be passing through central Nebraska.