It's February, and it's cold -- minus 13C (8F) with a minus 20C (minus 4F) wind chill. And that's at almost 2 p.m. with the sun shining, the warmest point in the day. It could be a lot worse, but still, I've no desire to venture outside apart from taking out the garbage. It's indoor exercise for me. Thank goodness so many great online exercise classes have sprouted up during the pandemic.
Yesterday I received an order of natural grey Topsy Farm worsted (the stuff on the left in the pic below).
Topsy is close enough that in normal times, I'd just hop in the car and take the short ferry ride over to Amherst Island. Instead, I had to resort to mail order, but how nice that they also sent this postcard to thank me for my purchase.
Incidentally, Topsey's latest project is ReWild! and involves the rewilding of their fence lines with hedgerows planted with native species. You can sponsor a metre for $100. Also, did you know that Topsy is involved in Prince Charles' global Campaign for Wool?
After a lot of easy knitting, I'm in the mood for something less boring more intricate. Like an aran cardigan. I have some favourites, including Hallett's Ledge and the good old Patons' Must Have Cardigan. When I was teaching at KnitEast 2019, the Yarn Harlot was working on the latter during her off hours.
This is a swatch of some cables I'm auditioning, knitted in a remnant of Topsy's dark grey "worsted". In fact, it is not "worsted spun", but woollen spun and more aran weight than "worsted weight", but gorgeous stuff nonetheless and reasonably priced to boot. The big cable on the right pleases me with its slight wonkiness. See how the outer ropes loop farther out than where you would expect? I also like the slip-stitched gull stitch cable on the left. The honeycomb in the middle has to go though. It's too much like the main cable. I might sub a small zigzag in its place, or better, move the gull stitch over and place the zigzag on the far left. Too bad that Topsy was sold out of the dark grey, but at least the cables will pop more in the lighter colour.
More swatching. This is Sandnes Garn's beautiful merino fingering weight "Sunday" and features the "Eddystone" gansey stitch. Not sure if this is going anywhere, but you never lose with swatching.
You may like to know that Isabel made it back to Kingston after her rather epic journey from San Francisco via Vancouver and Toronto, and completed her quarantine at midnight yesterday. We are actually going to see each other this weekend for the first time in more than a year. Leaving groceries outside her apartment door and picking up her garbage bags doesn't count. COVID numbers are extremely low here in Kingston, but I share the view expressed in today's Globe and Mail that Canada may well be sleep walking into a third wave. At least all our family is in the same place.
Our world has shrunk to views of our winter garden
and glimpses of the lake at the bottom of our street (still open last week when I took this, but frozen over now).
Stay warm, and make something yummy and chocolatey for Valentine's Day.
