Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Lilypad days and really, really good yarn

Sometimes I feel like my day to day life is in a blender - so many odd things thrown together, all zipping around so fast you can't make out their individual qualities any more - but on the upside, I haven't had to go through anything terrible in a while.  Unlike a lot of other people, I might add, though I don't like to comment on current events here at Hugs because Hello, Escapism?


Still, I try to give myself at least one day in the week that isn't quite so demanding.  Sometimes it's Saturday, sometimes it's Tuesday, and if I'm very lucky it's both and I have a little resting place before I do another big push in the next one.  Honestly those quiet days are just as full of work as the others.  The only difference is that I either don't have to leave home at all, or only have to do it once, and not at a carved-in-stone time either.  I don't know about you but just clawing back the time it takes to prep and dress for outside, and then be outside, and then get all that stuff off again and oneself settled back in with tea and comfy clothes is enough to keep your train of thought, or maybe even cover a nap.  And naps are so restorative, if you're a person who can take them.

The newest of the new here is that my very dear aunt is in the hospital - she's so smart, she knew that jaw pain is a sign of heart attack and got herself into an ambulance before very much damage was done, and might I recommend that you make a note of that too?

Swirling around in the background of her situation is the everyday stuff, which is mostly reaching the point of maximum capacity.  Also the renovation is currently demanding almost as much of my time again as it did during the design stage (plus Andy called yesterday which tells me the kitchen design is going to require a lot more decisions very soon.)  And it's mid November, so I am heeding the siren call of Christmas Makes, which as you will have experience yourself offers powerful comfort for all the other things.

Yesterday the Makes involved me being lured over to Queen and Spadina, the threshold of Toronto's famous fabric neighbourhood, to pick up materials for a big make that is basically a home-made version of these cowls I spotted on the Churchmouse site.  If they work, I will show you, and if they are a disaster, I will be very sad and maybe rethink Christmas Makes another year, sigh.

Of course I'm working on sock presents too because it seems I always gotta have a sock in my hands.  I made a start on Wayson's socks because that's the least logical thing - they take longer because they involve more stitches to work through and colour changes with ends to deal with, and they have ribbing, which takes my knitting speed down by a lot as well.  And apparently I have no sense of proportion and will keep adding to the pile of stuff I have to do until I collapse entirely.

But they turned out to be the best thing, because I forgot the incredible properties of Viola yarn.


I'm calling these my Mindful Socks, because I have to watch to keep the ribbing straight - it changes at the beginnings and ends of each needle, to keep the balance even on the leg - and the subtleties of colour are so moving that I don't want to miss them.  Also the fabric I'm getting here is incredible and feels great in my hand.  Thank you Emily for your incredible taste in all things.


My smartphone hardly ever leaves my immediate proximity now, but amazingly I still keep finding new ways to make my life easier with it.  The latest:  using the Notes function to type up the decisions I make for sock 1 so I can match them when I start sock 2.  No more scraps of paper drifting around and getting lost!

Anyway: totally in love with Viola yarns all over again.  And speaking of Viola, if you don't follow Emily's blog or shop at her Etsy page or read her Ravelry group, you may not know that she launched a perk-filled Kickstarter project yesterday to help fund renovations for a proper dye studio.  She's been working all this magic all these years from her parents' basement, and I can't even imagine what she could do in a real space, so I wanted to help her out.  Maybe you'd like to, too.


Hope you're having a good day even if it isn't a lilypad one, and I'll see you again as soon as I can wrangle some other things into submission. Whew! 


No comments: