Tuesday, February 10, 2015

A February Survival Guide

With even walking outdoors unpleasant, no prospect of warm weather in sight for weeks, possibly months, and no trip to southern climes in the offing, I've made a list for myself of things to do (or not) to make it through to the end of the month. After all, once March arrives, so does hope.
1. DO knit in colour. See previous two posts. The Fibonacci is done!



This was a great weekend project, at a time when the wind was howling and the snow was blowing like frozen grit. How fortuitous that the bind-off worked out to be in the pink grapefruit, to echo the beginning.


Trust Isabel to point out how the colour stripes are in an inverse relationship to the textural stripes. In other words, the colour stripes start out wide and become narrower and narrower while the garter stitch stripes do the opposite. Quite pleasing! I'll be wearing this out today when I go for groceries.

2. DO knit accessories. These are the fast food of the knitting world. Or perhaps not, now that I think of it. Fast food is generally of appalling quality. So, perhaps I should say that accessories are the appetizers of the knitting world--little mouthfuls of deliciousness that offer quick gratification. I'm working on these at the moment.


The stitch pattern is Filey Steps, a simple but striking combination of ridges and cables.



Isabel would like these to be "almost gloves", that is, gloves with half fingers. I had originally envisioned them as completely fingerless gloves (so much quicker than having to fiddle with all those bits of fingers and yarn ends), but I'm willing to give it a try to see what happens. Worse case scenario? I'll do a bit of ripping back and finish them quickly without the fiddly bits.
A second decision point is whether to add these adorable little knot buttons on the cuff or the back of the hand. That decision can wait until after blocking.


3. DON'T give in to the temptation to fill up on sweet baked treats. I know, I know, it's cold out there and we all feel like treating ourselves, but it's simply not a good idea.

4. DO fill up on warming lower calorie, nutritious and delicious options, like Rataouille. I love the recipe from here.

5. DON'T read or listen to Dick Francis's "Slay Ride", in which the hero spends the opening scene trying to swim to shore after capsizing in a Norwegian fjord in October. If you weren't cold before, you will be after. This is a novel of dark cold days, and darker deeds. I've just listened to it, and although I adore Dick Francis' books, my timing on this one was off.

6. DO watch Anno 1790 as a Nordic antidote to the above with lots of good-looking Swedish people engaged in escapades in snowy 18th-century Stockholm and environs. It's dark (Sherlock meets Les Miserables), but romantic. BTW, if you live in Kingston, it's available at Classic Video.


Perfect, with Valentine's Day coming up.