We survived 2017. I wasn’t sure it was possible and there were times that I doubted we would. Things in the world have been shaken up topsy turvy and not all to my liking. But knitting is still knitting and that I can control…to a certain extent!!
On Instagram, several people have started sharing “Nine in 2017,” so here is what I posted! I am lv2knitmn on Instagram, and I would love it if you followed me!!
We hope you are able to enjoy this holiday with family and friends. Sally is heading to spend the next couple of days with her son, and Susan is hunkering down in the polar vortex with her immediate family. No big plans but so far a very nice Christmas!! 🙂
Yes, I’m still a Rainey Sister. I know it’s been ages since I’ve posted. Poor Susan has been left to do it all while I moved and then recovered (somewhat). A few of you have asked how the move went — what we did right, what we did wrong, what we learned. I’m not sure yet how I’d grade our decisions but I do have a few thoughts.
One thing we did right was to start going through our belongings months ahead of time. We got rid of a LOT of stuff’; we’d been in our house for 20 years and things were stashed everywhere. Sorting became our version of Swedish Death Cleaning, in which you rid yourself of possessions so your heirs don’t have to. Even so, we still had a lot of boxes to move. We could have gotten rid of more.
We chose to move to Boulder before we put our house in DC on the market. We did that so we wouldn’t have to be there while it was being shown. I didn’t want the stress of last minute showings (and constant cleaning), the invasion of privacy, or worrying about small items going missing during an open house. .
It was the right decision for us, but has a few downsides. We are renting, and therefore we know we’ll be moving again. It would have been more fun or exciting to go directly into a new “final” home. We have boxes and boxes of belongings that we don’t want to bother to unpack. I can’t find things when I want them. (I do know where my yarn is.) We don’t feel “settled.” ‘Cause we’re not. On the other hand, renting here gives us time to learn neighborhoods and understand the market here before we look for a new house.
The move itself was very hard. I sobbed when I left our house in DC for the last time. I loved that house. Still do. It was, however, too big for just the two of us. We were too far away from our kids. We could have stayed put and been perfectly happy, but it felt as if it was the right time to make a change. We wanted to move when it was our decision and when we could still enjoy the outdoor life offered by Boulder.
Now that we’ve been here for a few weeks, the upsides are very real. I see my daughter every few days instead of once or twice a year. I’m closer to my son — it will be a short flight to see him on Christmas instead of a full day’s trip. Within six months to a year, when we’ve found a house and gotten into a routine, we’ll be even happier that we’re here.
I just took a walk. Within 5 minutes, I was in the foothills. I even ran into a herd of mule deer.
In the meantime, I have been doing some knitting. I just finished a sweater – – Carol Sunday’s lovely Milkweed Pullover. Some of you may remember that I started her cardigan version of this design years ago. It is beautiful, but it wasn’t flattering on me. I loved the stitch pattern, but set it aside. I was thrilled when she re-worked the central design into a pullover. It’s a much better look on me.
I made very few changes. I reworked the start of the sleeves so that the ribbing flowed into the braided cable. I also put a decorative button at each side of the split hem. I have more of the buttons; I’m trying to decide whether to add a second one. Opinions welcome.
The yarn is Carol Sunday’s Angelic 5-ply, which is heavenly (pun intended). I knit it in the color Bone. The yarn has a lovely halo after blocking and it’s wonderfully soft.
Addendum 12-16:
The whole reason I fell down the “mini hat rabbit hole” was because tonight I am going out with three very old and dear friends. I have known them for over forty years!! I had pictured making them my friend’s delicious nut bread and attaching a hand-knit ornament. I started knitting some cute mini hats and thought, “Why am I knitting someone else’s mini hats?? Why don’t I create my own mini hats?” And so I did.
That started me down the path of repurposing my Snowfall Hat (which is why there were three snowflake versions) and adding some other designs (tree and candy cane, plus two ill fated attempts at tree and candy cane). Well, I still needed the hat ornaments for my friends!! But now I did not want to give them the originals because now they are the mini hat prototypes!! Aaarghh!! So yesterday I made 9 loaves of nut bread and three more mini hats. The last one is still damp — hope it dries by tonight!!
That makes ten mini hats in the past week, so I say no more mini hats for me…
December 13:
Okay. I designed two more mini hats for the Mini Hats Snowfall Series. But I am done now, I promise!!
The Christmas Tree and Candy Canes are the latest and last to be added. The Candy Canes may look familiar. I was inspired by our family Christmas stocking!
Anyway, I need to go lay down now…
I have been working furiously to get this little pattern out in time for the holidays! It is FREE to anyone who has purchased my Snowfall Hat pattern — ever: past, present, or future.
These take about 8 grams of yarn (26 yards) and a few of your leftover beads.
Thank you for your support, loyal readers!! 🙂
I had to knit another Snowfall Hat! I really am addicted to these hats and missed knitting on them. I also wanted to do a pink colorway, which I am calling Peppermint Stick. Sally and I wanted to do shades of purple/lavender, but the beads just weren’t there, but we did find these gorgeous pinks.
I knit this using WOOLFOLK TOV DK which is wonderful yarn. No halo, but just gorgeous to work with. It is called DK but the yardage is identical to Fresco so I tried it.
I used three shades of pink from Fire Mountain Gems:
Rainbow Ruby, #6, 40 gm, H20-5851SB
Transparent rainbow inside color hot pink, #6, 40 gm, H20-5632SB
Light Pink, #6, 40 gm, H20-5737SB
I did the bottom ribbing differently and deeper. I prestrung as follows:
1 row clear
2 rows light pink
3 rows Transparent Rainbow
4 rows Ruby Rainbow
This placed the darkest color at the cast on edge and made the ribbing 20 rows instead of 14. Because my ribbing was deeper, I deleted rows where I could at the beg of the hat and at the start of the dec rows. I ended up using more beads and more yarn.
The other side:
I hope I have enough beads to make a quick pair of Peppermint Mitts!!
PS to Sherri – a couple of people on Rav have made the hat for children and it looks adorable!
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