Moving On

 It was Spring for a few days and now we're back to colder temps. So perhaps my late finished knitted items might get a wear or two? Probably not, it's not that frigid, but here are a couple of knitted stragglers. 

First up - a practice mitt. I don't have enough yarn to make another, but I wanted to try out this pattern for fit and ease of knitting. It's Honey's Mittens from Schoolhouse Press and it's a lovely, well-written pattern. I needed to reduce the height to fit my hand, which is regrettable because the full pattern is even nicer. 

There're additional instructions to add a 'cover' to the palm in case of wear, but that will be left off when I get back to make the mittens again. 

I saw a new-to-me type of yarn (blow yarn) while reading a blog and decided that I really needed to try it.  Instead of being spun the yarn is blown into a tube - interesting, yes? This particular blogger had used Drops Air for her sweater, so I ordered a wee bit of that to make something small. There are probably other yarns made in a similar way, but I went with what I saw. I used a free pattern from the Garn Studio site for a balaclava. The pattern was mostly knitted in seed stitch (moss stitch to non-US knitters), but after knitting the lower border I decided to continue on with plain stockinette - much faster!

As mentioned, the yarn is Drops Air - 65% alpaca, 28% polyamide (the tubing I suspect) and 7% wool (breed not specified).

I thought the yarn was quite nice - very soft - and I'll probably knit up a hat with the leftovers. I doubt that I will use this type of yarn for a sweater though. It seems to have more of a 'matted' look than the soft halo effect you get from a spun yarn of alpaca. Just my opinion of course. 

And so ends the winter knitting. I have started on a few sewn items for Spring, but that's a post for another day. Stay well everyone!

Still wallowing…

 …in a puddle of angst — not quite the Slough of Despond, but debilitating enough I suppose. The world situation is worrying, the crazies are doing their damndest to take over the asylum here in the US, and Mother Nature is throwing around whacky weather all over the place. Yesterday was a sunny, pleasant 64F. (about 17C.) here — today it is 32F (0C.) and snowing. Arghh!

My refuge from all this has always been in creating — whether sewing, knitting, beading or anything else. Like everyone else I’ve had to deal with the passage of time and its effects  on physical abilities. Not always pleasant, but we deal with it. Now though, I’m faced with something not so easy for me to deal with — wet macular degeneration. Many of us will face the ‘dry’ version of age-related macular degeneration but around 20% will have that develop into ‘wet’ (so called because of fluid leakage from eye blood vessels) which can lead to a loss of vision. Not a total loss — peripheral vision remains — but enough to make me fearful of the day I may not be able to do the things I find comforting and joyful. Right now my treatment is medication injected into the eye itself to stop the progression — there is no current cure, although there is always hope. I can still do the work I love with added lighting and magnification, but as those modifications become less effective I find myself giving in to bouts of useless self-pity. This entry is one of them, I guess. It’s also my way of reaching out to anyone else ‘out there’ who may be dealing with this. 

Next post will be more upbeat I hope. I have a few things I’ve made and a few things I’m planning. The work goes slower, and I’ve had to let go of any hope of ‘perfection’ (does that even exist anyway?) but things are still chugging along in the workroom.