How terrible a time is the beginning of March. In a month there will be daffodils and the sudden blossoming of orchards, but you wouldn't know it now. You have to take spring on blind faith. ―Beatriz Williams
Here we are in March. I am having mixed feelings about it: glad to be nearly officially in spring, but very conscious that this is the month when a lot of things happened last year. What is it about anniversaries that have such power over us? What is it that makes you say, "This time last year..." It is so hard to tear my eyes away from the events in the past and to look forward to the future, and yet that is exactly what I have to do as a living, breathing human being.
We're having that kind of weather on Vancouver Island when it looks lovely and warm and sunny outside until you actually head out the door and immediately regret that you did not bring along a scarf and a hat and a raincoat... or you immediately regret leaving your nice, warm seat on the couch at all. If you don't get caught in a rain shower, you'll at least warm up as you hustle along trying to get through your walk. And each time I come back to the yard I see the dead leaves and the mushed-up plants all looking sad and forlorn. I feel the pull to go out and start cleaning stuff up but I saw something online somewhere that said that you could wait a little longer because a lot of the moths and butterflies are over-wintering under the leaves and you shouldn't disturb them before the weather warms up enough for them. That's the best excuse I've ever heard for not cleaning up the garden. I'm quite prepared to follow that advice:
I've been quite productive on the knitting front this week. I always forget how much instant gratification you can get from knitting hats and mittens. I managed to finish my friend's slouchy hat and one of the mitts this week, and I think I might be finished the second mitt this evening if I park myself in front of a good movie this evening. There's something instantly 70's about these colours, isn't there? Put orange and brown and yellow together and my brain instantly puts on an episode of Columbo in my brain:
The hat is a variation of the
Morel Hat by Heidi Marie Robinson. It's a clever pattern of alternating k1/p1 rows. I love the texture it creates in the fabric. It creates the illusion of doing a super-complicated stitch pattern when in reality it's the kind of stitch you can easily do while watching tv. I changed it up slightly by knitting four rows instead of three before switching to the alternating repeat. I also added an additional eight stitches to the circumference to create an extra-slouchy hat:
I wasn't really in the mood for putting it on my head to model, but this is the kind of hat that really needs to be modeled in order to be appreciated. I dug out my medicine ball and put it on the table to take photos of it and it just made me laugh. Nobody's got a head THAT small:
In the end, I stuck it on my head for a quick selfie in it. I've never worn a slouchy hat before, and I can see the appeal of it. I think the band might be a bit loose, but having never worn this style before I can't say for sure. As it's made of Scheepjes Softfun, a cotton/acrylic blend, I am quite sure it will tighten up after a wash and tumble dry, just like a pair of jeans would. It's kind of nice to knit with a machine washable fibre for a change. I have a stash of cotton sitting in the house that I will definitely be playing with in the near future:
The thing is, I keep adding other stuff to the stash. I've been giving into comfort shopping when it comes to yarn because 1) Covid is making me crazy and 2) it's better than eating all those chips (not that I've necessarily stayed away from them either). I wandered into the
Chemainus Public Market recently and discovered a tiny little yarn shop in there that carried a lot of yarn from Ancient Arts Yarns (a new favourite Canadian company). I got chatting with the owner about how I've been trying not to buy just one skein of variegated yarn but to buy a few skeins that will compliment each other, and she pulled these three for me to fawn over. Of course, they came home with me. No, I don't know what they will become, but I'm looking forward to playing with them:
I've also finally decided to make more use of my Instagram account, which means I've been actively looking for folks to follow and to learn more about, and I came across
Wabi Sabi Yarn, an LYS based out of Ontario. And they rather conveniently were having a sale, and I thought it would be a good idea to support a small shop... so these arrived earlier this week and I could not be more pleased. Another couple of skeins from Ancient Arts Yarns, this time in a silk/linen blend called Indulgence. As soon as they came out of the box, my eyes hungrily devoured them. I so love their buttery yellow colour. They are pulling me into daydreams of summer breezes and the whispering wind through the leaves outside:
I also got a couple of spools of laceweight weaving yarn, which I am very proud of having the foresight to purchase. I think they are going to come in very handy over the next few months on my loom:
It's not just yarn that's been coming home with me. I finally stopped into another yarn shop that I kept passing on the way home from the supermarket that I've been longing to explore. I'm impressed that I actually walked out with ONLY the needles I was looking for and nothing more, but I'm so happy with these needles that I don't feel any FOMO about not buying any yarn. Aren't they pretty? And very reasonably priced as well, especially for Knitters' Pride Needles. I look forward to trying them out:
I'm feeling better today after a very concentrated effort to get more sleep last night. I still feel like I have to do my very best to ensure I sleep enough each night because it seems like it would not take much to knock me off-kilter again. I am also very grateful to those of you who took the time to leave comments or to reach out via other methods last week. It's very nice to know there are folks out there trudging along with me.
I'm going to join Mr. Seymour to practice some napping. Note how he is lying directly on my yarn project bag. I guess he knows that's one way he can get me to pay attention to him. Have a good week!
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