A Very Chilly Saturday

The wind chill today was -22° Celsius (-7.60° Fahrenheit) but we were sheltered in the woods. It felt good to be out in the sunshine and crisp air, after being housebound yesterday because of a snowstorm in which the brutally cold wind was more of an issue than the actual snowfall. The trail surfaces this afternoon were uneven with soft new snow over hard, crusty snow so the walking provided a good work out. Lucy was so happy to be able to run and explore.

I was in a thrifty mood during yesterday's storm and decided to get out a ball of yarn that has been stored away for a few years - it was, in fact, one of the first purchases I made when I decided to take up knitting again after a 25 year hiatus. It really didn't work for the project I had in mind at the time so I feel quite virtuous to be making good use of it now. One sock is already completed and the second one is on the needles. I've knit so many socks that my fingers are simply on automatic pilot!


Pattern: Simple K2P2 ribbing and K7P1 sock
Yarn: Opal Crazy
Color: 1906
Needles: 2.25 mm

How The Week Is Shaping Up

We paid a hospital visit to my much older brother this afternoon. Although he now has one less kidney, he looks at least 15 years younger than his actual age with hardly a wrinkle on his face. He gardens, makes pickles, treks into the woods with his sons during deer hunting season, and does the repairs and maintenance on both his home and summer property. Like his father before him, the work ethic is deeply ingrained in his psyche and his response to any kind of problem over the years has been to roll up his sleeves and tackle it with a vengeance. He'll come out of this okay. He raised six children and this is the stage in his life when the chickens (so to speak) come home to roost - though, in fact, they have never been far from the roost. His grown children and grandchildren constantly drift in and out of the house so he has a large and loving support system already in place. He will face this with the same determination he has demonstrated all his life.


The Trekking socks are finished and look a little rumpled because they haven't been blocked yet. The color is great for winter weekends and since Trekking is one of the work horses of sock yarns, they will certainly last for more than one winter.
A knitting sage once said that the best thing about finishing a project is the freedom to cast on another one so I have been mulling over which of these delicious yarns will wind their way around the needles next.


Yarn: Enchanted Knoll Farm EKF Fingering Sock Yarn (435 yards)
Color: Cornucopia - This would make either a great pair of socks or a very pretty scarf.


Yarn: Enchanted Knoll Farm EKF Fingering
Color: Araucana


Yarn: Dream in Color Classy
Color: Absolute Magenta
There are actually three skeins of this worsted weight in total and I think I see a scarf and pair of mittens.

January Socks For Jeans

Pattern: Plain stocking stitch with K2P2 ribbing
Yarn: Trekking XXL
Company: Zitron
Color: 52
Needles: 2.25 mm.

Customer Support:
I don't think you can beat the KnitPicks Company for great knitting needles at a very reasonable price, and exceptional customer service. I have their nickel plated fixed circulars, double pointed, interchangeable tips and cables, and the wooden Harmony needles in a variety of styles. And they are all very well used. I have only had problems twice. Once, an interchangeable needle tip wouldn't stay screwed into the cable and this past weekend, one of my fixed circular sock needles snapped apart after producing many, many pairs of socks.


On both occasions, I simply emailed the company describing the problem and, on both occasions, they responded promptly by saying that a free replacement was in in the mail. No hassle.

Another Storm, Another Pair of Mittens

We really have not had a bad winter so far. There's been just enough fresh snow to keep the landscape brightly white. So I am not going to complain about another January storm when there's a knitting project to finish and home from the library (appropriately), Arnaldur Indridason's latest mystery, Hypothermia - set, of course, in Iceland.

Little Boy Blue

Projects are usually design driven but the Baby Cashmerino yarn by Debbie Bliss is so soft and luxurious to the touch that I couldn't resist the soft, pretty blue on display at the yarn store. At home, I chose a very simple pattern to highlight the yarn. The back, fronts, and sleeves are knit separately to the armhole, then combined on one needle and the yoke is then knit in one piece up to the neckline cast off.


Pattern: Classic Cardigan
Designer: Debbie Bliss
Yarn: Baby Cashmerino by Debbie Bliss
Color: Blue 202
Size: Newborn to three months
Needles: 3.25 mm and 3.50 mm.

Lucy

This sweet, even tempered, eleven year old, white faced dog has a body that is just beginning to show some signs of aging but a disposition that is forever young. She is my constant companion, prefers the cold and snow to summer heat, and is incredibly clever:

If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then giving Fido only two of them. -- Phil Pastoret

Winter's Night

Although we take the Christmas candles out of the windows on the Epiphany, we leave the white miniature lights set up outside as long as there is snow cover. The house is elevated from the street on a low hillside and surrounded on three sides by Crown forest. It is very dark here at night. On the plus side, I read once that future generations of children who live in large urban centers will not see the stars on a regular basis because of light pollution. I think we are lucky to be able to watch the moon rise and observe a night sky full of stars. Our LED fairy lights consume very little energy and we like the idea, at the end of a cold winter's day, of softly illuminating, at ground level, our little corner of the world - both for ourselves and for passersby.

This evening, there was a fresh snowfall - only about 5 cm., but enough to make the front walkway seem like a bit of fairyland on this very crisp, clear, starry night. Alas, I cannot capture with the lens what I see with my mind's eye.

Indian Cuisine for a Cold Winter's Day

I love cooking in the 21st century with an electric spice grinder, a great Indian grocer in Halifax, and a laptop computer on the kitchen counter with the recipe on the screen!

Bhuna Kukda

A chicken dish from Rajasthan, India with green cardamon pods, whole dried chili peppers, turmeric, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, cinnamon, cloves, garlic, and yogurt .


Bhuna Kukda starting to simmer. Most of the liquid should evaporate by the end of the cooking period.


The accompanying vegetable dish is a yellow daal with turmeric, tomato, garam masala, ground coriander, ground cumin, chunks of garlic, fresh ginger, dried chili pepper ,and finely diced onion. The daal will simmer aggressively until the liquid is absorbed and the lentils are soft. Basmati rice will be served as well.


I used to find it tricky to find a wine to sip with an Indian meal. Riesling is often mentioned in wine advice columns but I find it a little too sweet.
I would recommend a Pinot Grigio or the Ovieto Classico. Both are crisp and refreshing and neither compete with the rich Indian flavors.

It Can Be Somewhat Addictive

Wrong Side:


Pattern: Mitten 18 - Mostly Mittens: Ethnic Knitting Designs From Russia
Designer: Charlene Schurch
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport
Colors: Pepper and Natural
Needles: 2.25 mm circulars for the cuff; 2.50 mm circulars for the mitten

Ann Feitelson, in her marvelous book The Art of Fair Isle Knitting, writes about her inability sometimes to set aside a stranded knitting project and go on to other activities as it is so rewarding to watch the pattern emerge from the needles. I heartily agree and though it is probably time to move on to other things, today I could not resist (after our usual Saturday outing to the Hydrostone neighbourhood in Halifax for lunch in one of our favourite restaurants, a pleasant chat in the yarn store, a browse in the little gallery, and a drive by of a house for sale that we covet a tad on Cabot Street), casting on.


Yesterday, this Norwegian knitting thimble arrived in the mail from the Yarn Barn of Kansas. It cost a grand total of $3.20 (American). I thought it was worth experimenting with the thimble for stranded knitting. It will take a great deal of practice as I am very much a right handed knitter and a wonky joint on my right forefinger makes it difficult for me to position it properly as an anchor for continental style knitting. It possibly could help with two handed knitting as one of my problems with continental is tensioning the yarn properly in the left hand. Although I am comfortable with my present method, I suspect I could be faster and more efficient if I held the yarn like "the big kids do".

January Musings

There is a great degree of comfort in bitterly cold January days in Nova Scotia that are passed in quiet solitude with lovely yarn, periodic fitness walks, travel books from the library, newly discovered Irish authors, new knitting books, BBC podcasts, and an ever present bottle of Italian Orvieto Classico chilling in nature outside the back door! This winter break from physical work provides a much needed rest before spring and the immense amount of toil that an acre of woodland garden requires in the growing season.

I have read a great deal recently about the Shetland Islands and traditional Shetland knitting - both lace knitting and the stranded work of Fair Isle. Lace wedding shawls usually measured six feet square. The cobweb lace yarn and needlework was so fine that a shawl could be passed through a wedding ring.Women knit continuously (even as they walked) as part of a cottage industry aimed at helping to feed their families and keeping bodies and souls together. Fishing and/or farming on the islands simply was not enough. To make matters even more difficult, the women were usually paid with tea and dried goods, not cash, and they had to further barter these goods for supplies they really needed for the family.



And while this lacework does not meet any of the standards of my Scottish ancestors (and mine, in fact, were from Perth, on the mainland), the alpaca content of this scarf is well suited to the cold, damp maritime winters of New Scotland!

Pattern: Strangling Vines Scarf
Designer: Nicole Hindes
Yarn: Classic Elite Alpaca Sox
Needles: 4.5 mm Harmony wood circulars

Nancy Bush in Knitted Lace of Estonia reports that lace knitting there was usually done on wooden needles, hand carved from apple or lilac wood. My experience with lace knitting is still extremely limited but I do find, so far, that the work flows with greater ease on wooden needles.

The Alpaca Sox was a generous gift from Movita, who purchased it on a trip to Toronto last year.

If courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to carry on despite it, then my brother shows a lot of quiet courage and I admire him greatly for it.

Work In Progress - Komi Mittens

Pattern: Mostly Mittens: Ethnic Knitting Designs From Russia Mitten #16
Yarn: Brown Sheep Company Nature Spun Sport
Colors: Mallard, Natural, Brick, Sunburst Gold
Needles: Cuff - 2.25 mm. circulars; Mitten: 2.50 mm. circulars

January Socks

Pattern: Leg - Seeded Ribbing Check; Instep - Seeded Ribbing; Heel - Eye of Partridge
Designer: Charlene Schurch - More Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Opal Uni Solid
Color: 1415

Epiphany

Epiphany
A religious festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the visit of the Magi or Wise Men to the infant Christ. It is the Twelfth Day of Christmas.

Epiphany:
The day each year when all the beautiful ornaments are taken from the tree and carefully packed away.

Epiphany
A sudden insight into the reality of a situation.

Downy Woodpecker and Friends

To help our woodland friends celebrate the New Year, we filled the peanut feeder for the first time this winter on New Year's Day. We keep mixed seed and thistle (niger seed) feeders filled all year round but the peanuts only come out when the bears are well ensconced in their hibernation dens. It only took an hour or so for the chickadees to discover the peanuts. The downy woodpeckers arrived the following day and yesterday, for the first time this winter, a nuthatch was dining. Word will spread quickly now.

Thrift

Since wool = warmth, color, and texture, I find it difficult to throw away even the smallest bits leftover from knitting projects.

Scarf Pattern: K1P1 ribbing in two row stripes, slipping the first and last stitch on every second row. One of the two colors in a section was always carried into the next section.
Yarn: Leftover bits of Cascade 220 Wool
Needles: 4.5 mm Harmony wood circular

Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
- Robert Frost
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

French Christmas

Since today is the day the French branch of the family is celebrating Christmas this year, we decided to leave one gift box unopened until this morning and we would feel we were catching some of the spirit of their holiday. The weather here is cooperating in making it seem like Christmas all over again. This photo was taken around 8 a.m. this morning and there is another 25 cm. of snow in the forecast for today.

The gift box was from Ronce les Bains and filled with memories of a great visit there a few summers ago. Sophie and Jean Paul are so thoughtful.


There are shells from Spanish Point to add to our glass jar. This is just a sampling of them. Sophie and Jean Paul live across from the sea in an area famous for its oyster beds. We had walked to Spanish Point several times. It is a great area for morning treks along miles of sandy shoreline. We met only the occasional walker in the early morning and could watch the oyster fisherman in the distance manoeuvring their boats in to long lines of oyster racks.



When we were there, I discovered a small shop on one of the main streets just up from the sea with a wonderful collection of buttons - something I don't see anymore in stores in this area. Here, there are only the same nondescript buttons on cards that are sent out to chain stores all across the country. This is the second time now that Sophie has sent buttons from France and, as usual, they are exquisite little things with a pearlescent finsh. They will go in a glass button jar on a hallway table until I knit just the right little sweater for them.


And if that was not enough, there is Charente-Maritime tote bag that we can take on Saturday mornings to our own Farmers Market, a tin of buttery French biscuits, and a lovely apron for making biscuits in our own Canadian kitchen.