theknittyvritti

the party's over

This week, my streets are littered with pine trees ands wreaths, the detritus of the season. Yes, the party's over.

In the past, I've thought of this time of year as the great slog, the longest, hardest time. Lately, I have nothing but good feelings toward any time, as I understand more and more the meaning of the word transitory. I'm looking forward to the rest of January. Even February, which I used to call the longest month. And March, that month here in the Northeast when we can be battered by major snowstorms and enjoy balmy days in rapid and disorienting succession.

An appreciation of the time I've been given, any time, changes everything. It allows me to see the beauty in even the darkest days of winter.

Settle in, snuggle up, but don't forget to look around you. Don't just survive this winter.

 

red hot winter

The extra day off feels like a second New Years Day, and here's the cake I brought over to a celebratory dinner yesterday. It was as good inside as out...if you're in Brooklyn, check out Betty Bakery where it was just hanging out on December 31 looking for a good time. My kitchen is out of commission, as it's being rehabbed, so I've been doing quite a bit of food crawling when I might otherwise be unadvisedly trying this at home myself.

Not cooking has also meant more knitting. I waited until yesterday to put the finishing touches on this Wintry Mix sweater, made out of Cascade 220. That way, I got a good head start on IntSweMoDo 2012, which I am currently determined to complete. In no way should that statement be taken as a resolution.  I don't make them anymore, they seem to go against the essential grain of life.

The sweater is cozy, comfy, was super-easy to knit, and it's perfect for a skirt I bought without a plan for what to top it off.

Turns out to be perfect. Operations Man thought it was all a bit preppy, not my look at all, and he's probably right, but once in a while it's nice to go out in camouflage. I have a feeling it may unsettle people at work too, everyone jokes in the summer that I'm no longer wearing black, and this much color will be unexpected in December.

I don't know, I'm feeling very excited for the coming year, and kind of in the mood for a red hot winter.

 

 

 

tying up loose ends

It's been a busy year, too busy by far for the blog, or my knitting for that matter, to flourish.

I did have a burst of knitting energy over the last week. I have given myself permission to delay work on professional projects until next year. That has enabled me to focus on a few other things, reading, knitting, house projects. And most, happily, I have finally finished my pair of Soft Mit gloves.

When I made the last glove, the dog was still with me. That means it was over two years ago. I apologize, I know this is a bit sad, but around here time is measured in dog years as well as calendar years.

Now there is a new dog, with an impressive snout of her own.

Sorry, it took two of us to get even this picture.  I know it doesn't really show much of the  glove, but Op Man and the dog have limited patience for the camera. And even tho' I'm showing the same hand, there really are now two gloves. They are identical and conveniently interchangeable. And identically adorable and sensational-feeling on the hand.

Maybe 2012 will be the year that this style takes off.....it's brilliant, an elegant, mitten that provides some needed dexterity in the cold. I've never understood why so few people have been moved to make them.

 A short re-cap of the year:

IntSweMoDo 2011 was a total flop. I finished four sweaters and plan to frog two of them. I'm not sure how that happened, but I suspect it had something to do with also finishing two very impressive and time-consuming shawls, and more hats and gloves than usual.

I have signed up for IntSweMoDo 2012.

This last partly because of another failure, my really quite resounding failure to reduce my stash this year. Since I tend to buy in sweater quantities, IntSweMoDo may be a saving grace.

I will never make any resolutions about stash reduction again. In fact, I may never make a resolution again.

That being said, I hope that your 2012 is filled with promise and possibilities.....

 

rockin' the casbah

If I ever need to go incognito, I have just the thing. Here's the finished Warm all Winter, the Cat Bordhi design that Operations Man and I have both fallen for. This was a fast, fun knit, which is good, because OM is insisting on having one of his own, and I see no reason to eprive him. I do however, refuse to wear mine while he is wearing his (and we are together, that is.). I grew up in Ohio, the land of the matching couple. Couples in matching outfits was one if the things that drove me out of my home.....

One technical note: I did not do the stretchy bind off recommended by Cat. Somehow, I finished off my opening a little differently than the pattern advised, knitting a row of knit stitiches at the top of the bind off, and I didn't have a knit purl top row to the opening. You might understand what I mean if you knit this.

And please do knit this, especially if you live in New York. I want to see you wearing it on the streets of my fair city.

bea on top

Here's Bea.

To be honest, I'm not thrilled with this one. To my eye, it's a bit dumpy looking. It took about twenty pictures to get one that I could bear to post. That probably means the sweater is not going to look great just walking around in the real world.

The truth is, I'm having trouble keeping up with the seemingly unstoppable advancing matronliness of my physique. I am not crazy, I realize that I'm holding some kind of line, but there's no getting around the fact that everything is just a bit different. I am appreciative of the many years I could put on just about anything and pull it off. And still trying to figure out what works best on this new body. And I'm not complaining...as bodies go, mine has been and continues to be more than serviceable, and if the results of my recent physical are any indication, I may have it for a while.

Enough on the inexorable advances of time. Back to the sweater...the sweater back, that is...

It's very well-styled, and it was a fun knit.

And it does sit nicely on top of a pencil skirt. So while it won't be my go-to sweater, it should get out for a few days in the office this year.

And in the meantime, I am still working on my pencil-topper collection. There's another on the needles and one more in my head. While Mad Men is in hiatus, stay tuned.....

hatty anniversary

Operations Man and I decided to check out for a few days before Thanksgiving, mostly because a long list of household projects lie on the other side of Thursday. The kinds of things that threaten peace at home. Anticipating a couple of months of affectionate bickering, we thought we should recognize our anniversary in a less adversarial context.

Four days in the sun equals two hats.

For Operations Man, a simple watchcap, free pattern on Rav.

And for me, that's Cat Bordhi's Warm all Winter, again, pattern available on Rav. I've just got to figure out how to get the face opening done. I'm going to have some kind of big adventure with that later this week. And I will have to do it again, soon. Operations Man fell in love with this hat, and wants one of his own to walk the dog on frigid winter nights. I just happen to have a manly gray alpaca that will be just the thing for my man.

Do not look for us walking together in matching hats....it will not be happening.

And, noted in passing, I realized that these pages had their fourth anniversary this month as well...so love all around.

i lied (to myself, without knowing it)

If I had followed through on my intention, this yarn would have been the only yarn I bought this year. I should say that not all of it is mine, some belongs to Hightest.

Yes, the truth is, that this summer, while I couldn't post pictures, I completely backtracked on my intention to buy no yarn until Rhinebeck.

I bought more yarn than I knit this year. And I'm not sorry. Rather, I'm finding that I now have a stash big enough that I can go stash shopping when I want to make something. In fact, the next four projects, already on the needles, have been stash shopped. Much to my surprise, and quite alarmingly, I am enjoying the fact that my four tubs of yarn have grown to five this year.

In spite of the fact that it would now make more sense than ever to lay off buying yarn, I am not going to attempt any kind of unusual restraint next year. That doesn't mean I'm going to have no restraint. I almost always delete yarn sale notices from my in-box, and I force myself to wait if I think I might want to buy to make sure that I really mean it. I often try to have an idea of what I am going to make out of any yarn I buy.

But I suspect that by the end of next year, I will have six tubs of yarn. I seem to add about a tub a year. I have a basement. There will be room for a tub a year for a good many years to come. This is a little scary. I'm not sure it needs to be....

What, after all, is the worst that can happen. Forty years from now, they (whoever they might be) will come into my house to deal with what I've left behind, and there will be forty five containers of high quality, beautiful yarn.

Actually, that might be some people's idea of heaven on earth.

mouse in the house

Everywhere I look, there are these little clumps of fur, mice defeated by the masterful Lucca Brasi, our new assassin/cat.

Piles of the fallen, huddled together, collect on shelves and in corners.

The ruthless cat does not realize that their forces are endless.

 

mad (wo)men

Yes, of course, I've known my share of madwomen...you remember my line of work?

But I'm thinking here of another kind of Mad Woman, the kind that we see on Mad Men. Women in pencil skirts.

I'm thinking about them this fall because I bought a bunch of pencil skirts, thinking that they're a classic look that will work for work into my 60's.....

....and then realized that I lacked the sweater wardrobe to accompany them.

A situation I am working to rectify as quickly as possible.

Bea, the first line of a series of pencil-toppers, is ready for assembly. Made of a lovely dk weight Colourmart merino cashmere. If I were a Mad Woman, I'd write a commercial singing it's praises, it's that soft.

 

not rahm

I finally got a chance to sit Operations Man down and figure out why the computer was not letting me post pictures and how to get around it.

So much time has passed, and while the computer was not cooperating wih me, I stopped taking pictures. We missed Rhinebeck (I went, but didn't take any pics), the finished dog scarf, and one sweater that went straight into the frog pond anyway. And in spite of my best intentions, quite a bit more new yarn than I planned to buy for this year.

The one thing I did managed to take a lot of pictures of was that guy up there, who is not Rahm. I'm not sure why my first name for him was Rahm Emmanuel. Maybe because he is light on his feet? Anyway, he's now named after a famous assassin, and while he has not had a chance to kill a mouse yet, I'm hoping he will grow into his name if we need him to.

Sadly, after sixteen years, the Yarn Eater has gone the way of all pets. He will never be forgotten.

More later. Glad to be back just in time for the cozy, knitterly days of winter. If you are still out there reading, altho' I'm usually not one for soliciting comments, this time I wouldn't mind a quick hello.