Spring? Ahead

phone doodle

Last Saturday night began Daylight Savings Time in the US (or most of it, anyway).  Of late, it seems to start about a month earlier in the year than it used to, making for colder, darker mornings and longer brighter days (at least when it's not raining or sometimes snowing).  But it's still cold around here.  Spring does eventually come and when it does, it's fairly quick.  But for now.... not so much.  Losing an hour's sleep on top of (in my case) having to take one of my adult kids to the airport before dawn when it was very very cold, made for an exhausting day at church the next day when the bells were scheduled to play at two of the morning services.  Frankly, I was surprised at how tired I was.  Normally, I just suck it up and go to bed early, but I was barely functioning.  This meant a pizza dinner for the family get-together - and no one complained:).

A nasty cough that developed afterward- just a cold, but one that knocked me down a bit physically - solved the mystery for me. The week was fairly quiet, but I got so little done.  Today, there was no court for me for some reason.  On the work front, I had a few phone conversations, answered emails, and worked on some other paperwork. For the most part, it's been a day to regain energy and get ready for next week. No knitting/blogging until the work day is done!
Like last Saturday, tomorrow will be unusual in that I have no client visits, but church-related activities - the choir is singing at a memorial service for a former member of the bell choir (she was much more than that, obviously, but I knew her through bells) and before that a meeting with the lectors and the passion reading practice.  I will be reading the part of "slave." The "Passion" comes from the Latin for suffering.  It recounts the arrest, trial and death by crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, the one who Xians believe is the Son of God - or for the Trinitarians like us, one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity - God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Please excuse this all-too-short-and-probably-way-too-glib-sounding mini-theology lesson.  I say these things by way of explanation, no attempt at proselytizing. This is a busy time in the Western Xian calendar.  Next Sunday - Palm Sunday - begins what is referred to as "Holy Week," culminating the following Sunday with Easter - the most serious "Big Deal" holiday for all Xian denominations. Celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox (who says we don't get our holidays from the pagans?), the Xian churches traditionally celebrate this feast of the resurrection of Jesus a s Spring, a time of new life and light, is arriving. Hopefully, by then it will feel more like Spring!

So Knitting!

This is a long-winded way of saying I've had some time for knitting, but I've been unusually monogamous with one project, the Bright Sweater.  The bottom gazillion rows of twisted stitch knitting is finally done.  I started the right sleeve following the directions to a "T," but found that it is just too tight, so I frogged it and reworked it with twenty additional stitches to give me some ease. To ensure enough ease on my upper arms, I am holding off on the decreases until starting the third pattern repeat of the shoulder/upper sleeve pattern, in other words until the 33rd round after beginning the sleeve. Am writing this here in case I forget when I get to the next sleeve, LOL! Interesting that this is worsted weight yarn knit on size 4 needles.  I am getting a really nice gauge. 

My monogamy does not necessarily mean I don't get distracted by other pretty things, LOL:) Browsing Ravelry, I fell into the Andrea Mowry "fade" rabbit hole and in the past few weeks have added her What the Fade shawl, the Weekender sweater, and today, Rose to my pattern library.  By virtue of having Laine magazine, Issue 2; and Making Magazine, Issue 4- Lines, I have Birds of a Feather and the Raina shawl, respectively.    All of her patterns are incredibly beautiful and also incredibly well-written and well tech-edited. The challenge for me is finding the yarn in stash to use for them.  The recommended yarn for Rose, for example, is incredibly lovely yarn from La Bien Aimee - lovely, but well beyond my price point at this time.  I am thinking of buying some speckled yarn from KnitPicks a bit at a time with the idea of building up enough to make the pattern work. In the meantime, I was thinking of these fingering weight yarns I purchased at the Merlin Sheep and Wool Festival last year:

They go well together, but there's little "blend" between them.  What do you think? Would love to hear from knitters familiar with the pattern what their opinion might be.

ADDITIONS TO THE KNITTING LIBRARY

Our postman has brought a lot of goodies to me lately:)! My subscriptions to Vogue Knitting, Knitscene, Piecework, and Interweave Knits, and Schoolhouse Press' Wool Gathering are still in force. In addition, I've gotten a new knitting book and sent off for the latest installment of Laine Magazine. And Oh. My. G-d.

First: Wool Gathering.  Every few months since about 2010,  I get this gem in the mail, though I have purchased many from the 90s.  This time, it was Meg and Cully Swansen's take on the Cowl. I would knit every last one of those five cowls/dickies/whatever the blank you call them, but I found Cully's pattern the most compelling. It's the red one in the upper right corner of the cover.

Second: Vogue Knitting- first because it always has an article from Meg Swansen - this month's article is about pure unadulterated Wool! - and second because Krysten Ritter is on the cover! Yay.  Krysten Ritter is a favorite actress of mine, ever since I saw her on the Starz cable network series Gravity.  Everything after that has been gravy:).  And she. is. a Knitter! There's a viral video going around of her trying to teach Stephen Colbert how to knit.  So cool.  There were a few patterns in there I found interesting - the texture and the color choices were interesting to me. 

Third: an older book, purchased at a discount book warehouse that is going out of business: French Girl Knits Accessories.  The book cost less than the pattern I am interested in knitting out of it would cost on Ravelry. The name of the pattern is Noemie and it appears to be a cute pair of lacy fingerless mitts with ruched sides.

Finally and most eagerly awaited: the fourth issue of Laine Magazine. Every issue of this magazine has been a visual and spiritual pleasure. I don't think there has been a pattern in any of the issues that I wouldn't knit. In this issue, the hat on the front page, and a couple other patterns really piqued my interest!

First was this simple, yet elegant cowl called Rift.

The other was the Kennings Yoke pullover. I love the use of gansey/aran style motifs used in a yoke along with textured knitting at the border. The rustic yarn adds to the charm. No accident that the Rift cowl is pictured with this beautiful sweater.

It just seems that there are so many quality patterns out there for us knitters. It is such a pleasure to see the beauty and artistry at play in the minds of designers.  

Well, it's time to go now.  Back to my knitting as it is well past five and my weekend has begun.  'Til next time, 

God be with you 'til we meet again+