Quilt-wrestling and Other Things...

As some folks say, "It's been a hot minute".  April's been a month of mixed blessings, so I've not often felt willing or able to post.

The first part of the month was delightful!  I met up with my kids in Edmonton and we enjoyed dinner together at my daughter's home and then went to the Edmonton Symphony to see the orchestra with guests -- the Jim Witter Band -- who were performing the tunes of Simon and Garfunkel -- and a few others. Amazing! Wonderful! THREE (count 'em) -- THREE encores.  It was total bliss.

After that...I moved on to putting up my booth at the local Art Show & Sale -- in Lacombe, Alberta, held this year on April 11 and 12.  It was a well-attended show, but from my experience and that of others..well... the economic situation meant there was a great deal of appreciation but not much in the way of significant sales. 

I'm thankful I sold enough to cover the booth fees and a bit more...and that I got a chance to share my new work.  I sold a couple of small hooked pieces, and that was good -- plus an older 'matted mini' piece and one of the very last Scotland pieces, created in 2018.

There was also a lot of attention paid to the work from my Art in the Park (Parks Canada and the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre) that had been travelling in B.C. in 2023-2024.  My 'history' piece was particularly intriguing to folks, though not generally the type of piece one would hang in one's living room!

Entitled "Rails & Ruins", it was inspired by the ruins of what I believe was the first CP Rail hotel in the Canadian Rockies, by the paths where the railroad ran, the remaining old stone trestles -- and the music of Gordon Lightfoot -- specifically his Canadian Railroad Trilogy.

All that said, the show took a toll on my body.

I've been dealing with shoulder strain since January (though it is getting better) and after the show, and all the lifting-and-toting I also found myself with lower back pain that doesn't want to completely go away (though it too is getting there.)  And then there seems to be creeping in some repetitive stress that cuts short my knitting time.  I can still knit, especially with finer yarn, but my hands feel it if I try to do so for too long.

Sigh.

I'm seeing my doc on Tuesday (Apr 29) so will see what I thinks I need to do.  Meanwhile, heat packs, cold packs, linament, a glove for my right hand, and the occasional analgesic-with-muscle relaxant seem to fill the bill.

I have to pace myself, so have been doing so with yard work, as well as with other things.

Since I last posted, though, I've managed to cast on and finish the first of a pair of 6-ply socks, and start its partner:

Pattern: Wide Rib DK Weight Socks
Designer: Erica Saint
Yarn: main colour: ONline Supersocke
Arizona Color - Colour-way #1967
Contrast: elann Peruvian Pure Alpaca

I'm also working on a new sweater -- the Bustleton Tee -- which I'm making in an assortment of fingering yarns from stash.  I'm not striping it as indicated in the pattern; rather, I'm knitting "stripes" however I want, based on the yarn available.  It's an easy knit (now that I'm past the short rows at the back of the neck) so if it plays well with my hands, I'll have a lovely little top at the end of it, and I'll have used up stash!

And yes, I've been quilt wrestling.  A couple (or three) years ago, my daughter asked me to make a quilt for close friends of hers who'll be celebrating 20 years of marriage in September this year.  We found a pattern, we (she) bought the fabric...and it sat for a bit.  I've been working on it here and there for a while.

Last fall I finished the blocks -- 4 in one combination and 5 in another.  Yes; it was intended to be a 9-block quilt, plus borders, to fit a queen-sized bed.  BUT while the friends who were to receive the quilt had been pondering a KING-sized bed for some time so (please Mum) could you make it King-sized?  That took it from 9 blocks (22" each -- finished in the quilt) to 16.  

Yes, "Please, Mum" could do that.  And the fabric vendor accommodated the request for extra fabric.

So... as of this afternoon, all 16 blocks are together, with sashing and the first (inner) borders: 

Ta-DA!

Like I said -- it's HUGE -- and there are 2 more borders to go! One narrow one at 1" finished, and the outermost, wider (7" finished).  Adding each border involves wrestling the top under my domestic machine.  I'm glad I have a piece that I can add to the sewing table to hold some of the weight.  And yes; I'm back-stitching the tops and bottoms of the seams as well as in between if needed.  The weight is something else!

Meanwhile, today I pick up the "Old Town" (Bonnie Hunter's 2024 Mystery design) quilt I pieced, from Quilting from the Heart in Camrose, where I took it for long-arm quilting.  I've shopped there often but this is the first time I've used their quilting service.  The price was right and the service was friendly and prompt, so I'll be "wrestling" with it soon, trimming and binding it in time for my son's early June birthday.

Given the care I have to take of my body, yard work is being done very gradually this year.  I'm fortunate that windy and sometimes rainy weather (more rain, please! We have a drought!) have kept my from being tempted to over-do it.  It's rather hard to rake leaves and pick up broken branches (willow) in that weather.

Thus the piecing of that quilt top, and a bit of knitting, and quite a bit of cross-stitch.  

These days, I want to stitch EVERYTHING!

Since my last post, I've made progress on the Flanders Field Biscornu from Heartstring Samplery.  As you can see below, the top is finished (left side of photo) and I'm moving right along on the 'flip side' (on the right):

Again, I'm using 36-count "Grey" from Weeks Dye Works and the called-for WDW flosses, one strand of floss over two fabric threads.

I also did up the pretty April bouquet that Thea Dueck (The Victoria Sampler) created for her 2025 'Block of the Month'.  This month? Sweet peas!

I'm doing this on a single piece of fabric -- 28-count pearl grey, 2 over 2 with stash threads, three across, so here's what it looks like so far:

January through April

And I've made more progress on my "Sunday Stitch" -- "Hope" from Jacob at Modern Folk Embroidery:

We could all use some extra hope these days, right?  

And some humour!  Given that the US President has imposed tariffs on the penguins living on the Heard and MacDonald Islands, there have been a variety of memes being posted poking fun at the absurdity of it.  These brought to my mind another of Jacob's designs -- "Ruskin's Penguins".  I couldn't resist!  I dug out some 40-count fabric (Roxy Floss Co) and thread (also Roxy Floss Co) from my stash and bought the pattern!

To date, I've made just a tiny start.  That border is really something!

So those are the four pieces I've been focusing on this past month.  As May approaches, others are calling to me -- "'S' is for Stitcher" (The Victoria Sampler), "Ann Perrin 1841" (Jeannette Douglas Designs), "My Day Complete" (Black Bird Designs)...and more.  Thea will have a May bouquet out, and Sheri of A Quilting Life will have one too (see my April block at right)...

And then there's rug-hooking, which I want to return to, as my Cheticamp frame arrived earlier this month.  It's set up, and I've cut a piece of burlap for it, but that's as far as I've gone.  I've got one of Deanne's courses waiting for me, so perhaps that will bring back my motivation to go forward!.

I'm very much about stitching as the mood strikes me, so time will tell which ones I work on between now and my next post.

And so, Gentle Readers, I'll leave you with a wish that you be safe, creative, and able to find both hope and humour in your days.  Maybe drop over to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday to see what she and other crafty friends have been up to.  Don't we all have ideas simply lying around, waiting to be brought to life...

Until next time, a bientot!

Only a Couple of Weeks?!

I don't know about you, Gentle Readers, but it feels like a lot longer than 18 days since I last posted.  "Time flies when you're having fun" is one way to look at it.  Another is my mother's maxim: "After you turn 21, time simply disappears!"

That said, I'm here, still trying to make sense of and make some beauty in every day.

Here on the rolling prairie of Alberta, somewhere northeast of Calgary and south of Edmonton, it's trying to be Spring, but Mother Nature is arguing with Ol' Man Winter, so we're getting it in fits and starts.  The trees outside my windows (front and back) are filled with robins, jays, nuthatches and sparrows at my feeders, while the newly-returned crows bully them all from the feeder out on the lilac at the end of my driveway.

Snow has fallen two days/nights running -- requiring shovelling each morning because I live facing a 'public sidewalk' that the County insists I keep clear.  I've done so, to the best of my ability, with a bit of help from a neighbour and his plough-front ATV as well as "Mr. Sun" -- and I'm grateful.

All that said, I am also grateful that I have the work of my hands to keep me going through nasty weather -- be it *real* weather or...well...international/political "weather".

In my last post I showed you a new hooked piece that I gave to the Lacombe Centre for the Performing Arts (LPAC) for their fundraiser.  I went to the opening reception and was delighted to meet one attendee who'd just placed a bid on it!  She was from the Atlantic provinces here in Canada and grew up with hooked mats, so was thrilled to see a hooked piece in the show.

Since then, I've finished 2 new small hooked pieces and mounted them on canvas to take to the Encore! Lacombe Art Show and Sale, which is now only 2 weeks away. 😬

I've just finished 2 more small hooked art pieces, and today I mounted them on their respective painted stretched canvases:

Dandelions On Forever! 
10" W x 8" L
Wool yarn hooked into linen

Blue Pot Reprise
10" W x 10" L
Wool yarn, silk strips hooked 
into linen

Some of you who've followed this blog for a while might recognize the 'Blue Pot' because...well...I created it from this photo:

into an art quilt for a fund-raiser for the Alberta Society of Artists back in the day...

One of my very favourites.  And yes, I still plant geraniums and lobelia in that big blue pot...

But 'creating beauty every day' is not just about hooked rugs/mats/art.  It's simply about making -- as you, Gentle Readers, well know -- making life and light in the midst of everything.

On the quilting front, there's not been a lot since my last post, but I have, at last, finished my version of Bonnie Hunter's 2024 Mystery, "Old Town" -- now a pay-for pattern.  Low on fabrics, I decided not to insert sashing -- pieced or otherwise -- and let the blocks come together to form their own secondary patterns which (because she is such a talented designer) they did!  Then I added a narrow solid border, an outer piece border (from left-overs) and a wide outer border.  It measures about 70" x 72 ". 

As my local long-arm quilter has retired 😞 I've had to find an alternative.  At her suggestion, I'll be taking this up the highway about 45 minutes' drive north to Quilting from the Heart in Camrose, Alberta.  I've been a fabric and notions customer there for decades and had them service my Pfaff last spring so...now I'm taking them this top for an all-over quilting design. The price is right and I trust their service so stay tuned for the finish!

Lest I've forgotten to mention it...this quilt is for my son's 40th birthday in early June.  I don't know how he's managed to turn 40, as he was  born just last week... 😉

As for knitting, I actually managed to start and finish a pair of socks this month!  They're very pretty -- all credit to the designer...

"Wandering Rose" socks

I confess, a much better photo was posted in my last blog.  It was of the first sock of the pair.  Trust me; they match! 😆 Either way, on the foot they're both lovely!

All that said, I got the pair finished in time for the two Sock-alongs I'm in the "Socks from Stash" March Challenge" and the "Sox-along 2025" (hosted by Soxy Nana Alice and Diane of My Pink Bathtub on YouTube).

I'm now taking a bit of time out from socks and focusing on a hat from left-over sock yarn (for charity) and a sweater (for me)...more later on those.

And lest I forget, I'm making daily progress on the Lenten MKAL from Quail's Knitting Nest, but because it's a mystery....shhhh. No spoiler photos! You'll just have to check out her Ravelry project page! 😉

And once the Art Show is over, I'll be returning to the Celtic Knot quilt project in order to get the second set of blocks pieced and the top assembled so that my daughter and I can take the top to a long-armer in early-to-mid-July.  It needs to be quilted and bound for delivery to the recipients in early September.  So...more on that later.

But what about cross-stitch?!

Well yes...there is some -- pretty much every evening.  

I've picked up Thea Dueck's monthly floral bouquets (see her FB Group for details) and have finished January, February and March:

Done with assorted unlabelled stash
flosses, mostly 2 over 2 on 28 count
pearl grey fabric

I've set aside Thea's other pattern, "'S' is for Stitcher", for the moment, as well as Jeannette's "Ann Perrin 1841", to focus on the "Flanders Fields Biscornu" I'm doing for a friend.  I'm on the last of the four poppies on the top section now, and really enjoying this stitch!  This photo was taken March 26.  Since then I've completely finished the poppy on the lower left and have outlined the last one -- where the needle-minder is in the photo -- on the lower right.

I'm using 36-count "Grey" from Weeks
Dye Works, and the called-for WDW flosses

As well, I've been continuing to work on the "Hope" sampler from Modern Folk Embroidery, which I consider my "Sunday Stitch".  I'm working it on a piece of 32-count Thornfield from Needle & Flax, using 1 strand of #8 perle cotton from the Sue Spargo line of threads:

Isn't it pretty?! 🩷

And so it goes, Gentle Readers...so it goes.  Finally posting this on a Sunday, I'll be having a second cup of coffee and taking out that 'Hope' stitch very soon, so I'll leave you with a link to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" and the hope that you, too, will find some life, light, peace and (yes) hope in your making.  Until we meet again...a bientot!

A Bit of Everything

When I was a kid, my mother told me that one of her father's favourite expressions (he died when she was in her early teens) was "Six of a dozen assorted".  That's sort of what I have to share this go 'round.

The Madman to the South continues his threats on my country's very existence, so I continue to make, make, make in order to bring a modicum of order to the chaos swirling around us.

Blessedly, I have enough materials and ideas to keep that process going!

On Wednesday, I attende the Opening Reception for the "Piece by Piece" fund-raising exhibit at the Lacombe Performing Arts Centre (fondly referred to as LPAC).  My piece was one of two distinctly textile-genre pieces; there was also a piece that was mixed media (including found objects) and a variety of paintings, both in oil and in acrylic -- landscapes, portraiture and so forth.  Twenty-two artists in all.  

This is a silent auction and runs through May 2nd, so I hope my local friends will get over to the LPAC to see it -- and maybe place a bid!

"Prairie Gold" 12" x12" on canvas

I recently got word that I've been accepted for a booth at the 2025 Encore! Lacombe Art Show and Sale.  I was Featured Artist in 2023, but took the year off last year and will be returning this year with both quilted and hooked pieces.  Four of the quilted pieces will be the ones that have just come "home" from B.C. -- the ones I made for the 2022-2024 "Art in the Park" residency and touring exhibit.  Here's a shot of them hanging in the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre gallery:

I'm very excited to present them to a new audience in Lacombe!

With them, there will be several new hooked pieces, including smalls that can be taken home for very little expense.  

But besides that, I continue to work on the usual...knitting...quilting (piecing) and cross-stitch.

Last going first, the cross-stitch.  I've been a bit all over the place but still focusing (a bit) on what is (mostly) Canadian.

I've made more progress on "Anne Perrin 1841", a reproduction sampler from Jeannette Douglas Designs, and made my way over to the "berry bowl" in the centre:

I've also made some progress on "'S' is for Stitcher" from Thea Dueck at The Victoria Sampler:

I also started Thea's 2025 BOM -- a floral 'Block of the Month' in stitches.  I've done the first two months and, having the pattern for March, will do that one soon:

And I've made my way to what is essentially the centre of the piece, but there it sits for now -- along with the "Quilters' Dream" from Modern Folk Embroidery, because, of course, there are other things...

Such as the "HOPE" sampler -- a section from a stitch-along created some years ago by Modern Folk Embroidery.  I mean, after all, we could all use a bit of hope these days, right?  For this one, I'm using a single strand of a WonderFil #8 Perle cotton in Sue Spargo's line, colour #EZM89 on 32-count Thornfield linen from Needle & Flax, from my stash since 2023.

And for now, another project that I want to give to a friend is a biscornu.  Some months (maybe over a year) ago, that friend gave me a pattern and flosses for this pattern.  Her birthday is coming up and I've decided I want to finish it for her:

Pattern: Flanders Fields Biscornu
Designer: Heartstring Samplery
Fabric: 36-ct Grey (Weeks)
Floss: Weeks Dye Works

My quilting has been focused on the Old Town Mystery from Bonnie Hunter.  I've finished all 25 blocks and, lacking fabric for the called-for pieced sashing, decided to put the blocks together as a top:

Then I added a narrow inner border (blue-green to match the centres of each block) and pieced outer borders.  The latter consist of 4-patches that I made from what I had for the four corners of each block and for what might end up in a border; and from a series of hour-glass blocks made out of 'bonus triangles' from the flying geese in this project.

Pieced borders: 4-patches on two sides,
and hour-glass units on the other two.

There will now be a wider (3" finished, I think) cream-coloured outer border all around, taken from the wide backing bought for this piece (the only fabric I've bought for this quilt).  Then...off to the long-armer to be quilted and eventually given to my son for his up-coming 40th birthday.

As for the "Easy Breezy" throw, that top is finished but not quilted yet.  That will come.

Finally, some knitting.  I'm trying to finish 2 pair of socks -- one cast on at the beginning of this month, and another from the formerly-ignored WIPs.

The "Twizzler Socks" that I mentioned in my last post have been finished.  I'm keeping them for now...they'll be more suitable for wearing when the weather warms up a bit.

I've finally reached the foot on the first of a pair of "Cornflower Socks" I cast on a couple of years ago, and am approaching the toe:

At the beginning of this month I decided I also wanted to join the "Socks from Stash" Ravelry group's March Challenge -- and I needed a pattern that reminded me of nature.  So...I found the "Wandering Rose" pattern and a ball of Lana Grossa Meillenweit sock yarn in a stunning shade of red and cast on:

As of this morning, I've fully finished the first sock of the pair:

None of this has stopped me from being smitten by a renewed case of "startitis", though.  I signed up -- and even paid for a pattern (!) -- for a Lenten Mystery Knit Along (MKAL) from Joy Jannotti of "Quail's Knitting Nest" on YouTube.  The first clue dropped on Ash Wednesday and clues drop every Sunday thereafter.  It's for a shawlette in mosaic knitting, but that's all I can tell you.  You can find the pattern on Ravelry, and there's a community on both Joy's YouTube channel and on (I believe) Instagram (I'm not on IG).  Sorry -- no photos at present. No spoilers! 

I also stumbled on another shawl pattern -- another freebie -- can't recall where now -- and cast it on at the beginning of this week, using luxury stash yarn I bought a good 20 years or so ago: the Freesia from Annie Baker Designs on Ravelry.  I'm making it with Peruvian Baby Silk yarn from elann.com, in the Raspberry colour-way (#2010) -- but sorry, no progress photos yet. It's early days!

I've not paid much attention to the "Lake Reed" toque I mentioned in my last post, but I'm making steady progress on the "Missoni Accomplished" pullover.  I'm within 4 rounds of splitting for the sleeves, so stay tuned for more on that.

And so it goes.  I watch the news, I pray, I knit/quilt/stitch/hook/repeat.  I go for walks or shovel walks, as the weather dictates.  I rally online with my Canadian compatriots and hug my American friends and family across cyberspace, as we all try to figure out how to deal with what's going on.  Canada has been attacked and pushed into a non-violent war that is designed to weaken us so badly we'll capitulate and become part of the US...which is simply Not On.  And so it goes.  

For all of you, I leave you with a wish and a hope that you can find some time in the midst of this mess to create beauty.  That you are still able to be kind to strangers and known loved ones alike.  That you can get out into nature and do what you need to do to restore your soul.

I leave you with my usual link to dear, persistent, consistent Nina-Marie Sayre and her Off the Wall Friday sharing platform...and with this, written by a Canadian, for Canadians, but also, I hope, for those from outside Canada who seek to understand us better:

Until next time, a bientot!

Obsessed!

 

I come from sturdy English and Scots stock -- "stiff upper lip" and all that -- but I have to say, the last 3+ weeks have me hovering between weepy/wobbly and purple-in-the-face angry.  

My country's been threatened by a madman -- who has equally mad minions around him. What's a civilized, educated, sensible person of the female persuasion to do?!

Well...hmmm...

I've decided the best I can do is to keep making.  Creating beauty every day, as Deanne Fitzpatrick says.  Making items for those in need of warmth and comfort.  Making gifts for friends and family.  Selecting items I no longer need or want and giving them away.  Filling the 3 active winter bird-feeders in my trees.  Tending to my yard and garden in season.  Making jams in season and giving jars away to friends and neighbours for their enjoyment.  Donating books to the local libraries (yes; one here, one in Alix, AB -- but mostly here, as it's not part of the wider library system).  Donating to causes in which I believe -- or in memory of friends who have died.

My friend Dave died a couple of weeks ago.  He was a United Church of Canada minister, a handyman, a fisherman, an appreciator of art, and a beloved husband, father and friend.  In his 'handyman' role, he renovated my bathroom 16 years ago, and upgraded my kitchen counters about 8 years after that...and with a skinny accomplice, figured out the source of the frozen pipes under my kitchen floor -- and fixed it.  

His wife is a potter, and I have one of her mugs. We met years ago at a small-town 'Art Walk' in which people understood her work but couldn't fathom mine. I hope she knows (as I've tried to communicate) how much I appreciate her work.  

And so...watching my friends and family (by marriage) refusing to come home (some of them have Canadian citizenship -- born here, grew up here, and our government hasn't challenged their birthright) -- but somehow the fear of 4-6 months of snow keeps them south...

I don't understand.

What I DO understand is making and giving...so since my last post, here's what's on the table -- finished:

Hooked Art:

• A 12" square piece for the "Piece by Piece" fundraising auction to support the Lacombe (Alberta) Centre for the Performing Arts (LPAC).  I finished it -- fully -- yesterday and will deliver it to the Centre next week:

"Prairie Gold" - 12" x 12"
Hooked yarn; mounted on canvas

• A small piece for sale later this spring (I hope):

"January Moon-set" - 6" x 6" 
Hooked yarn on burlap
Mounted on canvas

I've another idea percolating -- a reprise of my "Blue Pot" done in fabric several years ago -- so stay tuned!

In all of these things, the attempts to create Order out of Chaos are evident.  In hooking mats, it's the hand-over-hand motion.  This is true, too, of cross stitch.  I've been working on 3 pieces this month, all with deep Canadian connections.

The first two feature Canadian designers -- Thea Dueck of The Victoria Sampler, and Jeannette Douglas of Jeannette Douglas Designs.

I love samplers, as many of you know, and so this month, I pulled out Jeannette's reproduction sampler, Ann Perrin 1841, and picked up where I left off during "Sampler September."  I love all the little motifs inside of that fabulous border:

Hankering for a new start, too, I dug out a pattern -- with accessory pack of threads and beads -- I'd bought in the fall of 2008 when I went to a retreat in Victoria, B.C., hosted by Thea Dueck and her Victoria Sampler staff: "'S' is for Stitcher".  I found just the right piece of fabric in my stash -- an unlabelled 28-count mystery linen that's a Zweigart base (it has the famous orange stripe in the selvedge), and have managed to do the first few bands of this sampler:

In the gap you see above the "S" is a cut-work feature I've chosen to leave out; I'll go back and put my initials and the year in there later.  I even have Thea's blessing to do that! 💜

February 11 this year was rather special for me.  Those of you who follow me on FB will note that I posted about it: the 50th anniversary of the day my DH and I announced our engagement!  I decided a special piece was needed to honour the day and his memory.  No; not something lovey-dovey.  Rather, something simple in construction but complex in over-all effect.  Something that makes order out of the chaos of married life marred by long-term illness and in the end, his death.

I've chosen "A Quilter's Dream", designed by Jacob de Graf of Modern Folk Embroidery -- using the paper pattern, fabric and floss I purchased from Evertote, the wonderful Canadian cross-stitch suppliers of select patterns, and Roxy Floss Co. fabric and floss.  I'm using Roxy Floss' 40-count 'Porcelain' linen, and Roxy Floss "Greater Porpoise" and "Pippy" hand-dyed flosses, 1 strand of floss over 2 fabric threads.

I began with the border, starting in the upper left corner, as is my habit:

By this morning I'd done some of the border across the top too, and decided to add a bit of the red:

It's a lovely, methodical, meditative stitch -- creating comfort, beauty and order out of chaos.

There's been progress on the quilting front too. On Friday,  I finished 168 "Easy Breezy" blocks -- 4 1/2" (unfinished) -- and have arranged them into 12 columns of 14 blocks each. Here's what a stack of those rows looked like, laid out on my ironing board!

Yesterday I finished the last two columns and began to sew the columns together in pairs, randomly sewing one column to another.  I've now got 6 pairs of them to sew together.  That should measure about 48" x 56" before borders -- and once borders are on it'll be a good throw-sized top.  "Easy Breezy" is one of Bonnie Hunter's "Leaders and Enders" projects, and this is the second one I've made. The last one I did was a QAYG (Quilt As You Go), finished in March of 2022:

 I love the scrappy look of these quilts!

I've made a total of eight blocks now in the "Old Town" pattern -- Bonnie Hunter's Mystery 2025.  It's now released as a pay-for pattern, if you missed getting it during the weeks the Mystery was being posted.  I need 25 before I can put them into a top, but I've enough of them now that I can tell they make an interesting pattern without worrying about the sashing.  That's a good thing, because I'm running very low on fabrics from my stash in the colour palette that I've chosen!

Just one of eight "Old Town" blocks finished

And as always, there's knitting.  It's what my hands love most when I'm trying to make sense of the world and my place in it.  

I finished the second "Mash It Up" hat, using two strands of assorted fingering-weight wool odd-balls.  And yes, I used exactly the same colours (or pretty close!) to the ones in the first Mash It Up I made, last November!

Pattern: Mash it Up
Designer: Babs Ausherman
Yarn: assorted fingering wool left-overs

I finished another pair of mittens -- these in an Adult Small size, using up some "Bravo" DK (100% acrylic) from stash:

Pattern: The World's Simplest Mittens
Designer: Tin Can Knits
Yarn: Schachenmayr "Bravo Originals" 
in colour #8355

I finished the "Guernsey" socks -- and discovered on wearing them that the fabric is rather thin.  I probably should have used a smaller needle size from the get-go.  Ah well...I'll wear them -- maybe they'll be okay for spring and early fall.

And I finished the first of the pair of "Twizzler Socks"; the second is now on the needles:

Pattern: Twizzler Socks
Designer: Tangled Bekah
Yarn: Lana Grossa Melleinweit
"Cotton Fondo" in "Greens" (Colour #6507)

These are a pleasure to knit -- easy pattern and I'm enjoying the yarn, which is a blend of cotton, wool and nylon.

Finally, I made progress on my "January Blanket" -- finishing a total of 12 of the 34 pattern repeats, and I've been plodding away at the increases on a sleeve for an over-sized tweedy pullover that I'm converting from an 'in pieces' pattern to an 'in-the-round' pattern.  Slow and steady...

But all those finishes called for a couple of new starts, and I was inspired by the knitting podcasters I watch.

First, I decided that I could use a new hand-knit hat.  I have only one, and it's pretty light-weight.  The regular 'Deep Freeze' weather we've been having this winter calls for something more substantial.

For Xmas 2023, I was given a gift card to Arcane Fibres, an indie dyer in B.C.  I bought two lucious skeins of a DK weight in the colour-way, "For All the Trees":

Once of them should do for a nice cabled hat, and the other, perhaps, for a cowl to match.  so I've cast on the hat and am about 1/2-way through the 4" brim, which is deep because it's meant to fold up for double thickness:

Pattern: Lake Reed
Designer: Asita Krebs
Yarn: Arcane Fibre Works Merino DK

Ribbing is lovely and mindless when one wants to be quieted, calmed, slowed down. It's an orderly stitch, too, which clearly fits the theme of "Order Out of Chaos"!

As if that weren't enough, one of the podcasters I watch -- I think it was Linda of the "For the FUN of Knit" podcast -- mentioned the 'Missoni Accomplished' pullover as a project she wanted to start.  It has optional colour-work which she plans to do.  Now, I've had that pattern for some time -- I got it when it first came out and was free (it's a pay-for pattern now)...so...why not?!

I'm not going to make it with its wide zig-zag stripes, though.  I'm built like a box and those would not be flattering!  Another stash dive -- and I found a sweater quantity of single-ply DK/light worsted weigh yarn I've had for a good 20 years. It's dyed in a mix of blues:

Yarn: Classic Elite "Waterspun"
'Felted' 100% Merino Wool
Colour-way: #2549 - "Periwinkle"

I wasn't sure how this would knit up, but I cast on yesterday and discovered it's got a lovely self-striping thing going on -- in stripes that are far more narrow and subtle than the colour-work in the pattern:

Pattern: "Missoni Accomplished"
Designer: Espace Tricot

It's knit top-down, so you can see I've finished the nect and am on the rows of increasing moving downward.  I'm making a size 4, which will give me a bit more than 10 inches of positive ease -- and that's intentional, per the pattern.  Again, it's simply knitting 'round and 'round -- mindless, soothing, rhythmic, hand-to-hand...Order out of chaos.

Perfect for this frigid, wintry weather.  Perfect for the still-short days.  Perfect for uncertain, shaky times.

So that's where I leave you today, my friends...with my usual link to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  This week she's seeking solace in creating too.  How about you?

Until next time, Gentle Readers, thanks for reading, for your support, and for sharing the ways you create beauty, peace and comfort -- every day.

A bientot!