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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| arugula |
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| French Breakfast Radishes |
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| 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
Well done on your Strokkur! And you get bonus points for the sleeve rescue you did. I think it was a brilliant idea to add the design at the sleeves and the bottom. I'm tempted to copy you if I knit another one. I'm so jealous of both your snowshoeing and your garden bales with stuff popping out of them.
ReplyDeleteHanks Kristie, your strókkur looks great too. Good old duplicate stitch hides a variety of knitting sins :). It's warming up so fast here the weather window is closing quickly for snowshoeing. Who knew bales could be so productive?!?!
DeleteLook at all that green! I just did a bit of a walkabout in the garden yesterday and noticed some spinach peeking out from underneath the straw I placed on one of the beds - I'm quite excited to see what will happen once the weather warms up. Looks like we both may be in for some treats - it would be amazing to get an extra, extra early harvest, wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteGorgeous sweater and what a great save! I can't wait until I'm confident enough to tackle a sweater...won't be for a while yet, I think. I keep having visions of knitting one like on the cover of "When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters". At the moment, I'm still finding my way trying to make a pair of socks that actually fit ;)
Sometimes I think spring is the most exciting time of year, it seems a miracle things are growing again. Some fresh spinach would sure taste delicious. Sweaters can be a bit of a gamble but the truck is finding a good well written pattern! I love knitting socks!
DeleteChris, your sweater is amazing, I love the fun colors and the great pattern. I understand you needing to fix the sleeve, I would not have been able to sleep with it different, you did a great job with the duplicate stitch, brilliant idea. How fun to see your plants popping up already.
ReplyDeleteHugs to you my friend,
Meredith
Haha, I kniw, this kind of boo boos can jus drive ya bugs!! I'm good at fixing mistakes because I make so many!! Now I want to knit another one using some funky colours!
DeleteLove the sweater, especially the colors! What a great fix on the sleeve, I need to remember that one. Just starting to layer parts of my garden with cardboard, then mulch, compost etc. Looks like spring is coming early.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lynne! Lasagna gardening, I think we have a few places I would like to try that. Beats digging!! Spring is coming eRly, let's hope it doesn't get too hot too fast.
DeleteYour sweater is fantastic!!! It looks as though you had a great time snowshoeing with your friend, so now you are all set to go again and have another great time! The garden looks as though it is doing well! Hope that you are much better now. xx
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Amy, we had a great time and the snow was perfect! It's warming up quickly here and bulbs are coming up! I woke up with a cold today, so I'm madder than a wet hen! Good thing I have a book and some knitting! Have a great week!
DeleteBeautiful sweaters! I love that your bales hid away your happy little plants all winter. :o)
ReplyDeleteThanks Tammy! Those kooky bales are so interesting and full of surprises- you'd live the compost they are producing, I'll have to take some pics. Hope you aren't in that new artic outbreak!?!
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