Coming Up for Air

Goodness me, three weeks into the New Year and I haven't written a word until now.

How are you?

Gratuitous Photo of a Very Cold Sunset

I've been keeping my head down, designing like crazy, hoping to generate some magazine work for the coming year. (As I said to my niece recently: at times like this, I can design, or I can blog - but I can't do both. "You should write a post about that," she said.)

In the intervals of crochet, I'm knitting a variation of the Minecraft Inspired Hat for a soon-to-be-teenager's birthday gift. Though it's years since I've done any stranded colourwork, the tension seems to be about right (whew):

I'd forgotten how much fun it is to see a colourwork pattern coming out row by row. It makes it very hard to put the needles down. Who needs dinner? One more round and my Creepers will be finished!

Or perhaps not. When I looked up the pattern link just now, I found I'd messed up an entire round - three rounds back. This is what comes of drawing my own chart from a photo. Why didn't I just get the free Ravelry download? A-frogging we will go....

"Lifeline first! Lifeline first!" whispers my knitting angel, glad to be back in action after much tedious thumb-twiddling during the furious bouts of crochet.

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In other news, the Aged P turned 88 last week, and this week we celebrate the first anniversary of his move to Wisconsin. Driving him home from a doctor visit this morning, I asked if he was glad he'd made the move. He thought for a moment, then said, "I have no regrets." "I'm glad to hear it," I said. It's a big thing for a man his age to have moved 2000 miles from home - I hope I'll be as plucky as he is if I live that long.

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On the weather front this month, we have been cold, then Very Cold, then a bit warmer - and now icy. A pretty typical January.

Very Cold weather - by which I mean below zero with wind chills in the -20 to -30 (F) range - is perfect for sitting safely at home while sipping lots of hot tea and playing with yarn. In fact it's a positive virtue to stay indoors when frostbite is only minutes away.

But when wind and weather moderate, even the most hardened crocheter realises it's time to lay down the hook and sally forth into the cold white world for a bit of mind-and-body restoration.

Here is what this crocheter saw the Sunday before last:

A favourite tree with the sun just beginning to yawn in the background:

Samaras scattered over the snow:

A contrail that looked like a shooting star:

Crossed a few minutes later by another:

Goldenrod leaves with their feet in the snow:

More goldenrod leaves, curled into ringlets by the cold:

I like the dried flowers behind this fencepost:

(If I put on amber glasses, and ignore the snow, and pretend it's 60 degrees warmer, it could almost be summer....)

Sparrow-sized tracks crossing my trail:

A winter composition in blues and greys...

...is transformed minutes later into this miracle of pale rose and violet:

 

And that's all she wrote.

How is 2015 treating you so far?

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