Teeth. Just one more thing that needs maintenance in my life. If you are a certain age, you will have spent a good chunk of time in dentist offices, with fillings, cleanings, and probably a few crowns, implants, and maybe even braces. If you’re younger, you may have escaped much of this with thanks to more advanced dental care and fluoridated water. Today Bruce and I raced to Springfield, MA (about 1 hour away) for him to have a root canal. It hurts just to think about it (I’ve had a few in my day). And it’s just the beginning. It will be followed by a crown — or possibly after all that, it will be pulled, and then…well you get the picture. It’s exhausting!
The advantage to our heading west this morning was the opportunity to drive through some of the countryside that has beauty at every season. Right now these views are enhanced by the remnants of the latest snowfall that left an additional 4-6 inches in our yard, and coated the trees in glittering white. I don’t mind getting out to clean off the car (usually) even when it’s icy cold, as long as it isn’t precipitating…my favorite thing is making the snow squeak as I walk through it.
The drive to and fro also gave me the opportunity to think about my next knitting project(s). I’ve just finished the Värmland wool hat…it didn’t turn out to look anything like my initial plan…and it’s also much smaller than I had expected. So, it’s a not-entirely-attractive child-sized hat that is unlikely to be worn since it’s way too scratchy. Sigh. Fortunately I’m not caught up by the idea that everything I knit should be a masterpiece.
The top of the hat is finished using Jared Flood’s double-decrease method from Turn a Square. I particularly like this for hats I want to sit firmly against the head for extra warmth. I think that one of the mistakes with this design is that I mixed two different design ideas together — the floral element and the stripes/blocks. Should have done one or the other, and when I realized that the flowers were too indistinct, I should just have ripped back and done stripes the entire way. Live and learn!
On a side note, my spinning friends will appreciate a visit to Josefin Waltin’s site for her discussion of Värmland wool. There is much to talk about since the sheep have such variety within the fleece.
The big contenders for my time are finishing Bruce’s sweater and swatching with more of the Swedish wool. Those have priority marks next to them on the list and I need to keep reminding myself that they do have time sensitivity. But then there are the dozen or so ideas that are percolating through my head. Since I finished the red sweater, I’ve been thinking about other sweaters with that general design — pullovers that are light-weight and fill my need for “just a little extra” warmth. Caroline Henkelius’ Nutiden yarn is calling to me at the moment. I see on her site that it is currently completely sold out. and while that makes me incredibly excited for her and her husband Knut, I hope you will be able to find more of it soon for your own projects.
This little blue beauty (above) is Pip’s Eggs, and I swatched it with just one single. I was thinking about doubling it, and pairing it with one of the other colors to make a boxy pullover (again with short sleeves) to go over a t-shirt. I thought a fun feature would be to do a cable up the front in two colors, similar to the “intarsia” cable vest designed by Arenda Holliday. I love the tailored look of this with the cables springing from the ribbing. While that’s a great feature, I need to give it a more casual finish that might include a rolled hem and neckline with the start of the cable coming from inside the roll. That’s worth swatching just to see how it looks with the two colors coming together, and with a little of the inside showing at the edge of the roll. Now if I could only get the gnomes to work on this while I’m asleep!
