This has been an unusual January with cold but not a lot of really bad snow storm days. A rare rain storm took the snow pack down by half. This break in the normal weather pattern did let the roof crew install the new steel metal roofing on the garage and the deep north and south valleys. Later snow proved that the snow will slide off those areas and may finally have solved the ice dam problem. Solved is always a relative word when doing any kind of house maintenance.



Since we don't play in the snow any longer, we've had lots of time for hobbies - reading, model trains, planning this years truck camper trips, knitting and trying new recipes. Joe's leg hasn't relapsed so we've got fingers crossed for camping this spring.

Canyonville is progressing nicely. I'm two rows away from the second pattern repeat on the body and then will switch back to work on the sleeves until that second pattern repeat is done. Perhaps this will be a way to get sleeves done - use the body as incentive and not work exclusively on that. Will be interesting to see if I can be happy with both body and sleeve length for when the raglan starts as the pattern has to be on the same row. Stay tuned!



To switch needle sizes and yarn thickness and hopefully keep my hands going, I'm also working still on Oversize Panel Cardigan. Pink is not one of my favorite colors and the photo makes this sweater look very pink. It's not that pink to the human eye but maybe that is the reason it isn't being worked on very much? I need to get at least half way through the second pattern repeat to see if this is doing what I want. Lots of knitting to rip out if so ......

Canyonville is underway! After all the swatching, I've decided on the Galway Highland Heather in color number #748, a sage green. Ribbing is done and about half of one chart repeat. It will be knit in the round bottom up with raglan shaping.



Still working on the Oversize Panel cardigan, a few rows each night. So much yarn, so little time!

Received a pair of beautiful yellow socks today from friend Shirley. What a great way to cheer up a cold time of year - lunch and socks! She does such precise work and the socks fit perfectly.



Perhaps I can break out of the "what to make next" doldrums by making some socks? I've been stuck on swatching lately but at least one of the swatches made it into a hat. This is the basic pattern for Starmore's "Inishmaan" sweater but with two of the smaller cables substituted. I used Annie Maloney's "Cable Knitter's Handbook" cables No. 3 and No. 9 and mirrored them around the center Inishmaan big braid. The hat is drying on a balloon so it kept the shape and dried faster. It's from Cottage Crafts 2 ply in Yellow Birch color.




The swatches below for "Canyonville" aren't going to be made into anything. A knit friend said she wished all her swatches were the same size so that she could sew them into a blanket. Good idea! All of the yarn colors are Cascade 220 except for the light green which is Galway Highland Heather. Not sure if I'll proceed to sweater stage but have enjoyed swatching the travelling stitches. The depth effect created by the stitches moving over the fabric is fascinating.

Starting off the new year with swatching and finishing off Sarah's Lopi. The Lopi was a gift from her mom's trip to England. Sure feels odd to go back and forth from Lopi weight to 2 ply jumper weight but it's a good rest on the hands. It's also time to get back to the Oversize Panel sweater which is a KnitALong on BlueDragon's Yahoo group. This picture shows my "helper" Miss Boots choosing the yarns.



This swatch is from Annie Maloney's "Knitter's Guide to Stitch Design", Cable #112. I'm nesting three of the cables off set with her wrapped stitch where the cable edes meet. The bottom wheat color is Cottage Craft in stone color. The top is MacAusland's worsted weight in a green/teal. The stone color doesn't show the cables well; the green shows the cables but is quite heavy. Not sure I want to knit another heavy sweater right now.



I was able to get Alice Starmore's "American Portraits" (way out of print) from interlibrary loan. There is a beautiful sweater called "Canyonville" in the book. It is all travelling stitches that curve and swirl and looked sculpted almost. One of the knitters on Ravelry made this sweater into a raglan instead of a dropped shoulder. I'm swatching with stash in the house to see what I can come up with.



The Lopi body is done and half of one sleeve. I changed the structure to make it a top down raglan but did preserve the color detail. Been working with thinner weights for so long now, I'd forgotten how quickly a fat yarn knits.