Thank you Secret Pal!
Look at all this lovely stuff which just arrived! What you can't see is how incredibly soft the yarn is. I know it wants to be something like a scarf or a luxurious collar.... My self control shows in that I've had the things for ten whole minutes and haven't opened the chocolate yet. And I can't wait to listen to the music, maybe while reading the magazines. Next picture, me with the earrings that I create from the beads and findings.
We're going to have a cold, rainy (maybe even snowy) day today, but I'm going to enjoy.
As if I didn't have enough going on....
I'm going to try to participate in NaNoWriMo and write a novella in one month. Naturally, my protagonist knits. I'm just trying to decide if the hunky guy she ends up with does, too. Hmmmm....
My new hat
Yay! For the past hour I've been telling myself that if I can learn to do cables I can learn to down? up? sideways load a picture onto my blog. And I did it.
The multicolored body of the hat is the sari silk from my Secret Pal (thanks!), and the brim is a wool/silk blend. I think I have enough for a shortsleeved sweater to complete the ensemble.
Crocheting is faster than knitting, that's for sure. But except for hats and bags I prefer to knit. Twice as therapeutic to use both hands?
No time to knit
Relatives arrived from Utah to see the wonderful New England foliage, which we couldn't show them. Color is at least a week late this year, and on top of that we've had a lot of cold, clammy rain (11" in one day in Keene, the next town over). However, thanks to the efficiency and basic good drainage in Keene (and the fact that we live on a hill), we couldn't even show them flood disaster.
However, we went down to see the Norman Rockwell museum in MA and stopped on the way back to see my DIL and beautiful grandson (six teeth and counting).
I could have knitted on the way, I suppose, but neither of the other women is a knitter, so I felt awkward. Knitters know that you can follow a conversation and knit at the same time, but other people don't. I didn't, before I learned to knit, and always thought knitters were rather rude to ignore me that way!
The silk and wool hat is almost done. Pictures will be posted as soon as a) I finish the hat, b) I find the camera, and c) I remember what I did to post the last ones.
started the hat
I can't say the silk yarn is easy to work with, but it comes out beautiful! I decided on the crocheted hat, found a pattern online, but then, in the middle of my occasional mass cleanout, found exactly the pattern I wanted in a pile of things I'd cut out from magazines years ago. So I started it last evening. Then I decided I didn't like the pattern after all and have been designing as I go. It's fun.
Meanwhile, we continue to have unseasonably warm weather in New England, with the result that the foliage is a week or two late. Unfortunately, some of my Utah inlaws arrive on Monday to see the foliage (and us). I'm afraid they won't be impressed. Is this global warming, or just New England's cussed weather?
And if the stash is actually too small?
Dumb, dumb, dumb. I started the merino sweater, thinking I had ten balls of yarn. Went to get another, counted, total of six; two and a half needed for the back. So my choices are a) to leave off the sleeves and hope I can get the two front pieces out of what I have left, b) invent a very lowcut single front (both of which would give me yet another vest), or c) frog the whole thing and make something else.
Stay tuned.
