WIP Wednesday: Frosty

Brrrrrrrrrr


I thought it was cold last week, but little did I know*
Doubling up on leather gloves *and* wool mittens, fleece cowl *and* hand spun hooded scarf *and* wool hat, jeans *and* leg warmers and a comfy wool/cashmere coat, I kept unsurprisingly warm while cycling back and forth to work this past week. It's a good thing I don't have to commute by car, since that has been frozen shut (not even the locks, the doors themselves) for almost a week. Well, it's too cold to fill it up anyway...

So, inside I've been, drinking my coco, staying warm, knitting away...

I love yarn cakes. They look so pretty, don't they? Just before they collapse... And there are only two ways to make them look like that. Pull the yarn from the centre just to make it look pretty, but I prefer to pull it out and make something at the same time. Something, like a finished Damask shawl...

Seems more practical, doesn't it? It's even more gorgeous** in real life, which is a bit of a relief. I'm working on an outfit to match it, so I can show it off on Saturday Lunch With The Girls. Where else to better show off a really, really nice shawl, right?

After all that knitting, it was time for some spinning. I finished the first braid of Tardis BFL and transfered it to a bobbin I can't use on my one working spinning wheel. It looks prettier this way anyway, so that's a bonus!

Taking a break from that blue now, and had to do some serious thinking about what to do next. Such pretty spinning fibres came in the post this year. I just had to subscribe to another quarter!

Frostbite

Mixed bat

Borealis

BFL/silk

With all that, the current weather, still not sleeping enough, and oodles of knitting around, I find it very difficult to get up and dressed and out the door in the mornings. However, it does bring a little happy to the gloom of every day dragging on like nobody's business. We seem to be in the midst of another round of everyone feeling "very sorry about the situation" and needing constant explaining that nothing has changed in any direction for the last 3 years. I know I don't need to explain myself every single time someone asks, but every once in a while it does feel like I need to defend the choices we've made, so I do, vigorously. 

I do count myself lucky to be surrounded by friends and family who don't need explaining, who understand the reason for the decisions we've made, even though they don't always understand the decisions themselves. Friends who help keep me grounded and lead me back when I wander of into the deep dark forest of Maybes, pretty and treacherous as it is... So it's a great pleasure to do something back. Which leads me to the last and final (duh) picture of this post.

I'm playing with colours! Tomten the third, you're about to be cast on! In a few days, maybe... I have until April on this one, unless baby decides to arrive early, of course. 

Until next time, dear reader. Keep warm.

*More proof that I could be a weather women, just like the next person (kidding, but only if you're a meteorologist reading this)
**And I do say that myself

WIP Wednesday: Tour de Fleece

I'm not doing a lot other than spinning at the moment. I finished the Tomtom jacket and took it to Stijn's mom and dad for them to keep until he'll fit into it.*

I've done some knitting on the Cami which I still haven't really named. Other than that, I'm not sure of anything at all, as I don't quite sleep enough to keep my brain functioning acceptably.



1 week and 6 sleeps to go until the airport drive, and only 4 weeks and 5 sleeps before I get to take a holiday. I'm hanging on. I'm quite well trained at that ;)

*Tomtom turned out to be slightly larger than Stijn-sized.

WIP Wednesdays: it's all about the due dates

Oh I know, I do go on about the local baby boom, don't I just?

Don't be so fast to judge, there may be more to it... Remember this? Back then the blackbird nest was very much Under Construction, with very real Mind Your Head This Might Collapse warnings all around it.

 

Turns out our building team is quite good at construction, because it ended up looking like this!

Mother Blackbird is usually on the nest, so I grabbed the rare opportunity to take a snapshot from above to see if there was anything in it. Obviously, no Empty Nest Syndrome here!

 

At least 4 perfect little eggs of a strange blue green hue... I'll have to mind they don't poop out the side of the nest... I walk past there thrice every day!

 

Obviously, there was also some knitting. I finished, then frogged the bind off and refinished the Jeweled Cowl, which goes by the name of Silkie on Ravelry. Which reminds me, I should update that. Normally, finishing one project means I get to start a new one, but there's another Due Date looming. Someone else is about to drop a little bundle of joy in about 2 weeks, so I've gone back to Tomtom because it needs rapid finishing! Just 7 more 8-row repeats on this sleeve, and it's downhill from there. Just as well because there's another Due Date!

You might not care, but I'm signing up for the Tour de Fleece this year (not to be confused with the TDF, which I follow diligently on the radio and tv, but nowhere else...). I believe there will be a lot of spinning involved, so that should be good. I have this single to finish, park it and ply some linen for mom, and when that's finished Navaho-ply the singles before moving on to the package we got from the Landelijke Spindag last year. I may or may not be able to go this year, because of another Due Date!!!*

The Photographer (remember him?) arrives just after the TDF is finished and is staying for a whopping 3(!) months this time! Due to changes in circumstances, he's able to stay the maximum allowed, and will do so unless the job calls and tells him he's needed and they will actually pay for his effort. Now I just have to convince him to pick my camping trip idea for our camping trip and everything will be as close to perfect as this year could get. Almost.

For now, I'm due some sleep and a good ponder about my next project...


*Yes, another one