Full of Holiday Spirit

The self-imposed restriction has worked. Both pairs of the boot cuffs and the fingerless mittens are done. I packaged the cuffs up so quickly I forgot to photograph them, but here is an outside picture of the mittens. I like them a lot and they are just the perfect weight for our weather. (The pattern is by Stephanie Sun and called Commuter Fingerless Mittens on Ravelry. And the yarn is Remixed by Berroco.)

The interesting side with the cable and button, all decked out on a Xmas placemate

And the other side, BTW this was a sunny part of the day!

Someone asked about the button. They were taken off of something I must have owned years ago. (A habit I developed when clothing was going to someone who made rag rugs from my discards.) I love the way the gold of the button picks up the gold tones in the yarn (even if my photo doesn´t) and the X on the button seemed appropriate for these hand made mittens.

It has been rainy here in the Pacific Northwest, but the rain has been more than usual so when it was nice out yesterday Paul and I ran some errands and stopped a moment for a picture as well.

Look at that I didn´t need a jacket either.

Even the birds were busy. I recently put out a block of suet and a small flock of birds has gone wild about it. (I thought these were titmouse, but I think I am wrong about that. If you can identify them from this picture, let me know.) Several times I have tried to capture a photo of them when about a dozen or more are working on the suet, but the minute I raise my arms someone in the flock gets spooked and they all take off. This one photo, with a few of them will have to suffice, for now.

The photo I want to take is with the entire cage covered, but it is harder to do than I thought.

As for other knitting, with the ¨O¨ scarf, I ran into a snag. In early October it became clear I did not have enough of one of the colours for the scarf. I stopped at the LYS to see if they had any more, but they were out. However, they placed an order on October 19 for my colour. It seems this yarn is still on back order, thus the scarf will not be finished until that yarn arrives. (So for now I feel as if I am off the hook on this project.)

We have decorated some for the season. The choir (a ma, pa, son and daughter) put together by my Mom and Uncle from wood decades ago was set out as were the wooden mittens they also created. Mom´s quilted tree has been put up and so has a wreath on the door. A few garlands were strung here and there and we are good for the 2015 Holiday Season. Oh, and I baked some orange/ginger sugar cookies, some candied ginger shortbread cookies and made buckeye candy. Add some gingerbread tea and the house even smells like Christmas.

One of the best things about being retired is the Holidays don´t seem to add to the to-do list. It seems this year I can relax, help others, and enjoy the entire process. There was even time to start to knit a gift for me, a scarf. More about it later.

All is going so well for this Holiday Season, I hope I haven´t peaked too soon!

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing. I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away. Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close. Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening. As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend. Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration. I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms. (BTW

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while. But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf . I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you? It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank. (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo. Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left. Easy to find, right! Sure but what about the remaining 4

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