the very birds are mute

How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness every where!
...
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.

Sonnet 97, W. Shakespeare

It's almost time for me to move westward where Spring is just opening the door and my whole heart will exhale. Here in the North, the turning of January to February is not an opening of Spring's doorway, but actually the middle of winter. We've had a cold dry winter with little snow accumulation but lots of ice. An lots of ice means....

...lots of skating!



This old city park, seeded in memory and part of the historical downtown area, has a large pond that is home to duck families in Spring, Summer and Fall. But as soon as the edges start to crystallize, children gather on the bank anxious for the old faded sign to go up... the one that reads SKATING TODAY. Even dogs are eager to test the ice with their chilled owners in tow.



and skating weather is also Knitted Hat Weather! I don't know why I'm constantly losing hats, but that means that I'm constantly making hats. A friend recently gifted me this lovely new hat pattern: Ami by funfairiegirl on Ravelry, and I'm loving the making of it!



The stitch pattern is a wonder: lush and stretchy with a textured spiral to it that winds like ribbons around the crown. I'm using MadelineTosh DK in the colourway Silver Fox with a size 6 needle and the effect is gorgeous. The stitch shows off the variegation of the yarn in a very subtle way and when it is finished, I'll wear it like a snow drift on my head (but so much warmer)!



I also discovered a new online shop this week, just when I needed (so much!) the cheer of new yarns and projects: Wool & Honey, in Michigan. I love to peruse local yarns and handmade accessories for my favorite art form and Wool & Honey is such a beautiful store:



They have their own line of patterns:



and most beautiful local llama fibers:



You know how I love to collect these skeins from small farms that show the face and name of the of the gentle creature whose coat was sheered or combed to spin to yarn! This is from - top, then bottom, and then the middle skeins - Pipsqeak and Riyal, they yielded a natural pinkish brown...M.S. Hallelujah!, whose coat resulted in a decidedly masculine rich grey-brown... and the most marvelous Prophet, whose yarn is as soft as cashmere and, though he looks white in his photo, is a light oh-so-creamy tan.

What I'll do with these fibers, I don't know yet. Perhaps vintage style gloves would be the perfect match.



It's obvious that winter has me down, and I'm sorry and I'm sad, but soon I will be slipping westward and, like Persephone, winter will fade in my memory. Not soon enough for me, but then, I need another week or two to finish up my hats!

The making of vests

I love knitted vests on men. There is something so appealing, so winsome, and - frankly - so sexy about a man in a well-fitting nicely knitted vest. A case in point:



(this is Colin Firth in Another Country, 1984)

While not every man is a Colin Firth, I think they all come closer to that ideal with a nice knitted vest on.



This is my last Camp Loopy 2011 project, which was to be a project that uses at least 800 yards of yarn. Since I knit this in Madeline Tosh DK (in the Twig colourway) I used 1012 yards, or 4.5 skeins. I'm so happy with the fit and the style and how it came out.

It was not a difficult knit. (You may notice that every project I've knit since the Camp Loopy July/August Project 2 has had cables!) I'm highly tempted to make another - this time with more cables and in blue or green, maybe a tweedy yarn. I love Rowan Felted Tweed but one of the things that made this vest project fun was that it knit up so quickly - a fingering weight might take the fun out of a large project.



I highly recommend the making of vests. Besides - there are no pesky sleeves to hold up the finishing!

and now.... back to our regularly scheduled programming...

I suppose it is natural after a huge effort and event like the wedding to feel a bit of a let down when it's all over. Jule and her new husband are now on their honeymoon and I am back home on the other side of the country... I've been trying to pick up the projects and plans that I put aside to make the wedding dress but it's been hard.

Here is a bit of eye candy:



This is a skein of Rhubarb in MadelineTosh fingering merino that just arrived at my door. I had planned to pair it with another skein of the same in Oak (a kind of pond scum green) to make a fake isle shawl collar sweater. That will happen, just not for awhile. The Rhubarb skein is much more fluorescent orange that the one that was displayed when I ordered, but this is the way with hand-dyed yarns. I think it will still look fine with what I have in mind.

I'm in the middle of a lily-of-the-valley shawl made with Kraemer white lace-weight with sterling silver yarn. This was to be the wedding shawl, but of course couldn't be finished until the dress was finished and I was still altering the dress up until the morning of the wedding! Now that I am near the point of the shawl (it's a modified triangle - the points are rounded) it's going much faster!

While I was in Portland, I got a small skein of jade green silk for wrist-gloves and the new Piecework magazine - the "Travel Issue" - has the perfect pattern for them. I want to start these soon, but I'm afraid if I double-book (cast on for a second project before I finish the first) I won't go back to the shawl. A complicated lace shawl - with nupps! - is a serious commitment. And I'm not a serious girl. So it takes a lot of push for me to take these longer projects to the very end.

I know I'll get my knitting mojo back shortly - all it takes is a pretty yarn to get me inspired and a nice dose of Ravelry - but for right now... I guess it's just time to breathe.