yarniday

These days I'm lucky if I even get to see my yarn (sitting in the basket in the corner) let alone cast on enough stitches for a project . . . but these circumstances will soon be changing. In less than a week I'll be done with my first winter studio and starting my spring break.

Break only lasts a week, but that's enough time to satisfy my extreme knitting deprivation. Hope all of you are getting your stitches on.

mini break

I traveled up north Friday night to visit my sister and her family. I brought a take-and-bake pizza and some yarn, expecting to spend the next twenty four hours immersed in knitting and baby.

I wasn't disappointed. Little Hannah was up when I got there and woke promptly every two hours for feeding my entire stay. (I didn't have to deal with the after-bedtime feedings . . . or the before bedtime feedings either.) I just got to hold her when she was happily full and rock her in the rocking chair next to the fire.

During her short and sporadic nap times my sister and I tried to take part in our usual crafts. She embroidered one letter of Hannah's name on a scrapbook page and I almost knit the heel of one baby sock.

These mittens are made from some yarn I dyed and spun almost two years ago. I gifted the yarn to my sister and she started to knit a pair of E.Z. mitered mittens . . . again almost two years ago. She pulled them out yesterday when she saw that we were both getting almost nothing done on our current projects and suggested I help her complete them by finishing the thumbs and weaving in the loose ends.

We'd just opened a bottle of pinot noir so I eagerly agreed to take up the task. I can't believe I gifted this yarn to her, actually. It's so beautiful, the way the worsted single ply wraps one row of color around the mitts. I don't think I've dyed anything like this since, but I want to recreate this yarn again soon.

I have about a hundred yards left over and I plan on making a hat for Hannah. Something to match her mother's mittens.

paper hearts

I've spent this chilly Saturday afternoon baking bread and making valentines. At first I thought I'd have to go out and buy supplies, but I discovered more than enough scarps of pretty paper to make all my valentines this year.

A few stitches in silky pink embroidery floss frame my cards nicely. As I was making these cards I recalled learning how to cut out hearts in kindergarten.

Now there are tiny paper hearts all over my living room floor. I might just leave them there until Valentines Day.