a simple yarn

Like a lovely box of chocolates, a sampler of vintage paper hearts.

And one of my favourites…

Simple hearts from a child’s imagination…

Quite touching for a boy who doesn’t particularly like to draw or colour
…and ‘Cheryl’ is a hard name to spell…

Lovely chain-o-hearts from Kate

And such has been my ‘point of view’ for the last few days…

Sharing is a good thing.
Daughter-Kate thinks so.
And so she has shared her flu germs with me.
This has been the view from my bed for the last 3 days.
Meds to lower fevers, calm coughs, clear congestion.
Whistle to summon little helpers to do my sick bed bidding.
Artwork to cheer the soul.

The smell of warm spices…now that’s a recipe for recovery.

My Eldest-Kiddie-Daughter has been ill this week. Fever. Cough. Blah. Cough. Congestion. Cough.

So today I took advantage of the winterlike weather with the falling-snow-that-would-love-to-stick-but-it-never-gets-that-cold-here type of day. Even with a perpetually chilly kitchen, a warm oven and the smell of baking cookies brought faint smiles to the feverish face. Today’s work…gingerbread.

Not in men or women form, but to celebrate February…hearts.

Dotty hearts, stripey hearts, snappy hearts and ziggy hearts.

That and a steamy cup of Barry’s Gold Blend tea….I think she’ll be on the mend.

Not a reference to Proctor & Gambles’ in-your-face-fragranced-soap, but rather making the point to ‘what a difference a day makes’ on this island.

Sunday’s spring-time ramble in the mountains…

Wednesday’s winter-time walk to school…

The most natural response to knitting one big project is to swing the pendulum to the other side and do two little ones. That’s a fair exchange don’t you think?

Hands
Felt a bit of guilt over gifting Daughter-Kate with miniature Fetchings handwarmers, leg warmers and a cardigan while Son-Alex was in a handknit deficit. Not that he minded all that much, but a mother’s heart strives for equity, I think. So by request from this seven-year-old-boy…

Knucks from knitty.com adapted with intarsia skull and crossbones
from helloyarn.com made with stash yarn. Colour combo chosen by Alex.I must say the skull-and-crossbones motif is appropriate as it’s a small, but lethal project. First time doing this kind of pattern. Digit-holders done first and working toward wrist. Adding the intarsia element means I can no longer work totally in the round. Alas, another seam to sew. Also sporting the magic loop method when the pattern calls specifically for certain stitches to be on certain dpns. Arg. Yep, it’s rocket science or as close as….

Successfully complete one! Yippy-skippy! ‘Try this on,’ I say. And excited Alex complies. Or at least he tries to comply. Can’t….fit…..child….size…..on…..his…..meaty……paw. He struggles. He gets it on. His fingers begin to turn various shades of burgundy. Sigh. Guess it’ll be the next-size-up-pair-and-a-spare.

Feet
I’ve hopped on the sock bandwagon. Bought this sock yarn in September at the Birmingham Knitting and Stitching Show. Since then it has traveled with me to the Dublin Knitting and Stitching Show, a chateau in the Burgundy region of France, the midwest of America, the southern part of Portugal…all without being cast on into socks…or anything for that matter. But now-

Lana Grossa sock yarn on 2.25mm Addi TurbosDoing a hybrid pattern. Bought the yarn from getknitted.com using their standard free-with-any-purchase pattern. But one of the weird-things-about-me-that-I-forgot-to-put-on-the-meme is that I must wear knee socks. None of this just barely making it the calf stuff. Thankfully I bought 2 skeins and I’ve now justified the previous purchase of a Nancy Bush sock book to blend two patterns into one.

The sock yarn is not the only thing that has traveled all over the globe…the socks-in-progress are getting some mileage as well.

Monday morning motorway standstill. See the speedometer at 0? Yes, it’s possible to knit and drive at this rate. Right, standard disclaimer, ‘Please do not attempt…’

Milestone: An action or event marking significant change or stage in development.

This is my 200th post to this blog.

‘Event’? Yes.
‘Significant’? Yes…to me.
‘Developing’? I sure hope so.

What shall I do to celebrate? Give away? Contest? Cake? Candles?

On pondering that, I realised this truth…

Until just recently, this bit of internet space has been a great scrap of electronic paper to doodle simple thoughts, spin simple tales and share simple pictures. Of late, however, I began noticing a shift in power, which was…

Warning: Transparency ahead, bordering on too much information.

…the servant was becoming the master. Rather than living my life and then chronicling it on my little bit of blog space, I began living my life with respect to how it would look on my little bit of blog space. I unconsciously…or perhaps subconsciously or semi-consciously…allowed myself to be drawn into altering what I do and how I do it for the sake of how it would look in a blog post. Ick.

Creative writing became cliché and the desire for meaningful photos was replaced by quick uploadable snaps. Double Ick.

So, I guess no giveaways, no contests, no cakes or candles, but rather, I’m coming clean on this the milestone marker of personal blog development and hoping there will be many more significant milestones to come.

Say what you will about perpetual winter darkness…and perpetual rain…and perpetual wind in Ireland. On days like today, you gotta love this country!

Today is the 2nd of February and I mowed our grass-green grass that is-inhaling its lovely fragrance. No coat, no hat, no scarf, no mittens, no galoshes, no shovel.

I think it has to do with the power of suggestion. Since yesterday was officially the first day of spring here, the weather today just had to be springlike.

And so, for the rest of the world under winter’s blanket of snow….’picture postcards’ from our garden.

I learned at knitting group tonight that today is a special day in the Irish calendar…

February 1-Imbolc…Feast of St Brigid, Secondary Patron of Ireland…Lá Feabhra, the first day of Spring

Warning: Cultural Lesson Ahead
Imbolc is one of the four principal festivals of the Irish calendar, celebrated either at the beginning of February or at the first local signs of Spring. Originally dedicated to the goddess Brigid, in the Christian period it was adopted as St Brigid’s Day. Imbolc is traditionally a time of weather prognostication, and the old tradition of watching to see if serpents or badgers came from their winter dens is perhaps a precursor to Groundhog Day (or so says Wikipedia).

Thig an nathair as an toll
La donn Bride,
Ged robh tri traighean dhá an t-sneachd
Air leachd an lair.“The serpent will come from the hole
On the brown Day of Bride,
Though there should be three feet of snow
On the flat surface of the ground.”

‘A picture shows me at a glance what it takes dozens of pages of a book to expound.’

-Ivan Turgenev from Fathers and Sons, 1862