Distractions

I promised a look at the inside of the Badger toque and mittens, but both have been washed and blocked since their Saturday night outing.  (I know, you have all been breathlessly waiting for those photos, right?)  The reason I am holding off is they are still too wet which would make turning them inside out a mistake.  So instead I will distract you with other things.

Yesterday was a day of down-pouring rain.  We don´t have a rain gauge, mainly because we would be emptying it constantly, but when the rushing of the water through the downspouts can be heard inside the house for hours at a time above the noise of a football game, I know it is really raining hard.  Here´s a pic out my office yesterday when the rain took a quick break in our area and the skies lightened up.  Across the inlet, they were still getting wet.

Those wispy clouds, like pulled cotton balls, always capture my attention.  Too many years on the Prairie where this type of cloud did not exist, I guess.

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There are a pair of hummingbirds (or at least that´s how I characterize them) investigating our  empty feeder recently.  Since the flower population is really low this time of year I felt sorry for them and mixed up some sugar water and added a wee bit of colour to attract their attention.  The hummers come by at least twice a day and I´ve tried to capture them photographically.  (Perhaps I am enabling them to stay a bit too long here before flying south to Mexico, but I like to think I am fortifying them for the trip.)  This is my hero shot at sunset.

I really captured the copper colour of the feeder here as well as a paused hummingbird.

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I found or more appropriately had a toque pattern to use in knitting the Lopi and hand-dyed, hand spun Stormy Night yarn.  It is one you´ve seen before, the Classic Elite Yarns DIY Fair Isle Hat.

If you click on the link above you will note the sample toque used a main colour in tan and the contrast colour is generally a variegated pink.  This is classic Fair Isle using dramatically different colours so the colour work shows.  However, I am very satisfied with the charcoal colour  of my Lopi with the Stormy Night colour of my handspun.  Sure, the colour work is subtle because the tones of the colours are very close on the colour wheel and the design element is not so obviously, but I am just fine with that.  Additionally the fuzziness of the Lopi yarn pairs well with my fuzzy Stormy Night.  Here´s a look at what I have so far.   And BTW, my spinning inconsistency gets lost in the knitting as you can see below.

One side  of the toque with the hand dyed, hand spun yarn in the corner

And the other side with the Lopi peeking up from the right

I measured and had 32 grams of my Stormy Night at the start and then further determined I am using about 1 gram per round of knitting.  There are 31 rows of colour work so that should leave me with one gram in reserve, which is much too close for comfort.  I cannot wait to see how it all works out.

And there I hope you feel appropriately distracted until those wet items dry!  Perhaps tomorrow I can showcase them.  Or maybe it will be Wednesday.  Either way you will be seeing them when they are ready to show off their inner workings.