Dudes.
The greyness? The un-brightness? The lack of sunlight?
Getting to me.
I don’t mind the cold (not much, anyway), and the snow is nice because it makes things quieter in the city (while it’s fresh, at least), but the dim, cloudy days? There’s really no plus side.

It’s days like this that even the thought of a nice cozy chunky baby alpaca sweater doesn’t lift my spirits but only reminds me that there are several more months (including the two coldest) yet to come before we’re back into serious daylight.

Sigh.

Anyhoo. I did finish the simple shawl: and gave it to its intended recipient.
And that was finally the last of the holiday knitting. Now the knitting is mine, ALL MINE! Mwa ha ha ha ha… Well, except for the Toasty Alpaca socks for the OH (which are practically done except for grafting the toe on the second one – pictures will come later). But then it’s on to the sweaters, socks for myself, and scattered throughout some socks and other small things for various birthdays and such.

In other news… I sent off three of the Year of the Ox prints to PROOF Studio Gallery; one of them will go in the show for sale, and I believe the other two will be traded with other printmakers. The opening is January 25th – which will likely be the coldest day of the year. I think I’ll wear a dress, just to be contrary.

Maybe I should knit some tights…

Happy New Year!
Yes, that’s today.
No, I didn’t forget (entirely), I just got distracted by yarn. Worse than shiny things, I swear.

2008. Let’s see. Well, it kinda sucked, actually. The first six months were incredibly stressful in all the significant ways that stress occurs; physically, emotionally, financially. Then during the three months spent trying to recover from the first six, there was a death in the family, a cat surgery, and two trips by air. And this was all before everyone noticed the economy taking a nosedive.

But since late October things have definitely been improving on a personal level, plus of course the promise of a decent political scene down south (we’ll just reserve judgment on the situation here in Canada for a few more weeks…) has helped. However, I’m not one to assume the future will turn out the way I think.

So, New Year’s Resolutions? Not exactly.
How about some New Year’s Goals, will Goals do? I think Goals will do.

1- Keep up with the running and yoga. I’ve been doing pretty well for the last few months, and feeling pretty good for it, so I think this won’t be too hard. Now, I’m not talking every single day, but 3-5 seems reasonable. I’ve got all the equipment I need, and I figure that if I can drag my sorry behind out of bed at 7am in mid-December (that’s about 1/2 hour before sunrise) that I can surely do it the rest of the year. 2- Learn more book arts, whether printmaking, letterpress, bookbinding or paper-making, and practice what I already know. 3- Maintain my recently regained enthusiasm and energy for my “day job”, Under The Weather. Lift the business from the last year of doldrums by spiffing up the product line, rejuvenating the website, and being more creative with marketing. 4- Knit more socks. The more I wear hand knit socks, the more I prefer them. And let’s face it; to get a yarn fix and finished object with one skein and one week (or less)? Sweet. 5- Enter into a major new creative project by Thanksgiving. I’ve got a couple of rough ideas, but I think time will show the right direction.

I’ll probably think of some other things, but five seems like a good number to go with on the official list.

Here’s wishing everyone peace, health and happiness in 2009.

So here I was, knitting merrily away on the Alpha sweater, but thinking perhaps (just maybe) the bottom was looking a little bit on the generous side, width-wise. Now, given that this pattern is of my own design, it would not be surprising for it to be a little off. But I waited until a few inches in to measure the bottom edge, thinking maybe I couldn’t really judge it visually all squished onto the circular needle.

Dudes; it was a little big. Like, 10″ too big around the hips. So, a-frogging we go!

Yeah, I know. Major malfunction. And since my tension was right in line with the swatch, that means I messed up the calculations. Seriously. So embarrassing. To be so far off on either the math or the actual design of the pattern? Not cool. Not cool at all. So it’s back to the sketchbook.

Mind you, this does give me the opportunity to revisit a couple of design decisions that, in retrospect, were not well thought through. For instance, I was running a purl stitch in the contrast yarn up the sides as a sort of false seam and though it did look nifty, man, what a nuisance. So that’s out. And then there’s the 30% too big element…

So next on the needles? Some socks, in this Atacama hand dyed alpaca.
It’s kind of hard to see when it’s balled up, but the colours make it look kind of like it’s been singed. And alpaca socks… I’m thinking toastiness.

There’s a WIP: A very simple shawl in (wait for it) Misti Baby Alpaca lace weight.

And for your viewing pleasure, the Misti Baby Alpaca Handpaint Chunky:

One thing though; while I do dearly love the baby alpaca for its incredible softness and warmth, I wish I would stop seeing mental images of naked little baby alpacas shivering in the Peruvian highlands…

Have I mentioned lately what a lucky girl I am?

You see, while The Other Half may be easily distracted, and not prone to bringing flowers quite as often as the romantic in me might like, he is indeed very thoughtful and whenever I get a gift I can tell he’s been Listening. (And honestly, the romantic in me is the sort that is as pleased by a clean kitchen as a bouquet of flowers. Well, more or less…)

So while my Christmas gift may have been delivered a little on the post side of the actual day, it was wrapped and labeled with love, and cleverly placed beneath the Holiday Yucca in secret, to be discovered only when the cat started sniffing at it.

And upon opening said package, what to my wondrous eyes should appear but 4 skeins of oh-so-nommable Misti Baby Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky in Mauvelous
and one in a rich, chocolatey brown (SFN33 for those who must have numbers).

Oh.

My.

So very, VERY soft and squishy.
Such sensual delight really ought to be reserved for private moments, but I just have to share.
Because I just feel so very lucky right now.

I think I may make this. I’ll shorten the arms, partly because I won’t have enough for the full length, but mostly because I do so much with my hands that I’m constantly pushing up my sleeves and have acquired a taste for shorter ones. (Plus it’s a good excuse to knit more fingerless gloves when full coverage is required. See, I’m merely thinking ahead!)

I do already have a 3/4 sleeve cardigan on needles, that I’m pretty keen on, but I’m not sure I’m physically (or psychologically) capable of having fewer than three WIPs at any one time. And socks hardly count. So I just might have to make a foray out for the correct needles (being sadly bereft of needles in the larger, chunky-loving sizes) and dive in.

Sounds like a good New Year’s Eve activity.

Party on.

The Setting

A Snow-covered Countryside:

The Cast

A Dog, black with bicolour eyes, played by Mollie the Lab mix:

A Cat, ginger, played by Rufus (pictured with Mollie’s new toy):

A Cat, tabby/white, played by Pussy-Toes with Extra Thumbs:

Supporting Characters

A Large Stick, played by itself
A Human, gamely played by TOH (both pictured with Mollie):

The Plot

Fun and Games (no eyeballs lost);
The Loss and Finding of Various Toys;
The Claiming of Assorted Comfortable Domains;
Peace, Well-being and Contentedness for All.

Happy Holidays.

And the snow continues…

Kind of a bummer feature of working from home is that, beyond household emergencies and dire illness, there are really no (good) excuses to be had for not going to work. There could be seven feet of snow, covered with ice, hail the size of tennis balls filling the air, and I could still make my way to the workshop.

Essentially, if I can get out of bed I can get to work.

Generally this is fine because, frankly, I’ve got it pretty good. I start and stop working when it suits me; my total commute from breakfast table to sewing machine is about 17 seconds and free; my attire is limited only by its functionality; I always have a home-cooked meal for lunch (well, OK, sometimes it’s just a can of soup, but I still get to eat it out of my favourite bowl); and if I get tired of listening to the CBC, or need an energy boost I can play music like the Joel Plaskett Emergency‘s rockin’ (and so apropos today) “Snowed In/Cruisin‘”.

But one thing I can’t do is fake a sick call to go play in the snow.
——-
Of course, I can just go.

There’s this juniper bush in our front yard. (NB: the term “front yard” is to be interpreted very loosely, indeed. While it meets the “front” criterion without question, the “yard” element is clearly only a casual attribution. However, I digress.)

This plant is about 4′ in diameter, and about 10″ high. It is the sprawling, languishing type of juniper, rather than the alert, bustling sort. The middle 2′ or so is mostly just flat brown branches and scruffy bark, so essentially it looks like a dead squashed thing except for the outer portions of the branches.

Now, since I don’t have a tree this year, and am sorely missing the smell and look of fresh evergreen, I cut off several of the frondy branch ends and placed them about the living room. Very nice; fragrant and festive.

I’m tempted to apply a few tree decorations to increase the festivity quotient, but then I’d not only have to choose which ones from amongst the collection would have the privilege (too much to ask, surely), but they’d also have to be put away again afterward. And since not having to put the decorations away is the only real consolation to be had for not having them on a tree in the first place, it’s not happening.

So I have some naked, simple greenery about the room, lending its pleasant evergreen scent and a subtle sense of occasion to the atmosphere.

This is the small bit on my desk, with the cat resenting the fact that I won’t let her tip it over to get at the water.

So I whipped this up over the weekend:

And before you even think it; no, it’s not a dickey. Banish the thought. I haven’t owned a dickey since I was about 7 (at which age one can really not be held responsible for one’s sartorial decisions), and didn’t even like the idea then.

However.

I do have neck issues. It seems that the cervical vertebrae only put up with a certain amount of sewing, computing, printmaking, knitting and other seated-eyes-forward-and-down activities without some degradation. Plus it apparently runs in my family. So to the arsenal of regular chiropractic and massage treatments and yoga practice (all of which keep me mostly pain-free), I have added a nice cosy neck-warmer.

You see, our apartment could not fairly be described as balmy. It’s not cold, exactly, but sitting still for more than 30 minutes sure makes it feel that way. And since I’ve yet to acquire a bicycle-powered computer, or learn to knit while jogging, my extremities get chilly. I made fingerless gloves first, which keep my wrists feeling good. But I only recently realized that there was a good way to keep my neck warm without wearing too many cumbersome layers. And voila, neck-warmer.

Seriously though, it does kinda look like I’m wearing a wooly turtleneck if the bottom is hidden.

But it’s not a dickey.

This is the kind of day it was today.

It rained all day. It rained on all the cyclists, all the dogs (I missed taking a picture of the little dog with a rain jacket on – my loss), all the kids and people going about their lives.
Yesterday morning it was -20 (C) with the wind, this afternoon it was +6. This is why I own five different winter jackets.

…describe the 90 seconds immediately before and after the moment your doorbell rang.

A: