About a month ago, my friend Pamela, suggested we go snow shoeing with her. It is something we have always said we would like to do, but never seemed to get around to it. I am so glad we went, we had a blast!!
I love being in the outdoors! The day was cool but not too cold and the fresh snow was beautiful. It is so nice to get out in the outdoors, breathe some fresh air and enjoy the peacefulness of nature. Maybe it wasn't too peaceful as Pamela and I have lots of discuss at any given time!! It was so much fun!
Pamela and I are both knitters and we decided we just had to have some Nordic type sweaters to wear on our future snowshoeing adventures. We were pumped! Then we are talking hats, socks, mitts... and of course what colours we'd use etc. We talk big around here! I remember I had a pattern called strokkur It is an Icelandic style sweater designed by Ysolda Teague.
I used Berocco Ultra Alpaca in Ultramarine, Winter White and Cascade 220 in Lagoon. This is a great pattern and fits perfectly. I love my Strokkur and I will knit it again. The most fun is picking colours.
Now the pattern does not have any colourwork along the bottom or on the sleeves but to me it just screamed to have some. I was knitting this when I had some crazy superbug flu virus earlier this month and it just seemed to be the right thing to do.
 |
| Ja-nice! This one is for you!! |
Now usually I don't get too concerned with minor imperfections, as we are all human, but this one really irritated me. Fortunately using a couple of rows of duplicate stitch I was able to disguise my big boo boo. Next time, don't get too creative and do some off road knitting when you are sick and secondly wear your glasses!!
Another friend of ours, Melissa, decided to knit a Strokkur too. Her sweater is beautiful and she too used Berocco Ultra Alpaca. I love her colour palette and it looks terrific on her'
I have been doing an epic clean out, dejunkifying, decrappifying all our stuff plus the remains of the elders estates.. and some of our kid's stuff too. Yuck! I did find a sweater I knit, gosh, probably in the early 1990's, anyways some time ago. And yes, I still have the pattern.
 |
| Lopipeysa |
Straw Bales and Garden Stuff
It seems a bit early to start talking about garden stuff and well it should be too early in this part of the world. We had another pretty mild winter but we did get some snow and more recently, some rain. Moisture in any form is most gratefully appreciated in our dry climate. As the snow had melted, I went outside to throw the ball for Archie and thought I could see some plant material poking out of the top of the melting snow on the bales.
 |
| arugula |
 |
| French Breakfast Radishes |
 |
| Palm Tree Kale |
There are lots of plants still alive in the bales and a few in our in ground beds. I think the milder winter, with an insulating layer of snow and root protection in the bales allowed some of the more hardier plants to survive. Crazy!
Some of my rhubarb is up!!
Arugula!! I sure hope I haven't triggered an Arctic outflow with all this garden talk.
Have a great week friends!
Keep smiling :)
Chris
