Finding Ursula and Spring in the Blizzard 2016

Although Blizzard 2016 didn't break the record set in 1996; with 33" of snow, it was a spectacular event!

Forced to hunker down Saturday and listen to the winds batter the side of the barn, I made the most of it by casting on the Ursula Cardigan from The Colours of Shetland collection. Of the five major patterns in this collection, I've already knit the Stevenson Sweater, using a combination of Shetland wool from Uradale Farm and J&S, and I have the yarn for the Puffin Sweater and the Scatness Tunic. So when Clare, from NH Knits, suggested an Ursula KAL, I jumped!

I absolutely love working with Shetland yarn. It has an earthy smell with "just off the sheep" under tones. While the yarn looks ethereal in the ball, a few rows on the needles reveals its robustness. This is strong yarn meant to protect strong folks from the strong North Sea weather.

Kate Davies's Ursula Cardigan is named after naturalist and author, Ursula Venables. She and her husband became crofters at Loch Spiggie and wrote, what I can only assume is, the definitive book on the birds and mammals of Shetland. As I knit my cardi, I'm reading her 1956 book, Life in Shetland: a world apart

"Up here in the north isles, we live like hibernating animals. We work at fill stretch through the brief months of summer and then retire for a while on our winnings. Shetland is little more than a battered ship riding out in the Atlantic....In October or thereabouts, when the year somersaults into winter, life disappears below into the entrails and cabins, and for days on end you would think the ship deserted. Salt scours the decks, draining off the warm, full-blooded colors of summer till only their neutral ghosts remain." (Venables 133) 

I find inspiration for my Ursula in Venables's description of Shetland. Today, in the midst of this nor'easter, my corner of Pennsylvania feels a great deal like the north isles Venables describes. When I take Mazzy out for a walk, she is swallowed by the snow already on the ground. While she decides how to proceed, I am struck by the stillness- the complete absences of normal animal and human sounds. Instead of the psithurism that usually accompanies Mazzy and I on our daily walks, all I can hear is the pugnacious howl of the wind rising and falling in the our backyard and all I can see is the plump snow flakes falling from the thick clouds blocking out the sun.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Palm_Warbler.jpg

While I haven't chosen "full-blooded colors of summer", my colors suggest spring is just around the corner. I knew right away that I wanted my MC to be J&S 121mix. This yellow looks like the spring adult palm warbler. Easy to spot in the New England woods where I grew up, the chestnut crown of these birds streaks and blends into the yellow throat and belly giving it a marled appearance.

It was also easy to choose CC1 and CC2. While J&S doesn't typically name their colors, there is at least one yarn supplier out there who does. When I saw "rhubarb pie heather", I knew it would be one of my contrasting colors; the name immediately evoked memories of my grandmother's strawberry rhubarb pie- in my family, a sure sign that Spring has sprung! Predictably, a purple, reminiscent of my Japanese irises, is CC2.

Choosing the third color, however, was difficult. I swatched with Jamieson's sunrise. While this is another of my favorite colors, the brown undertones reminded me more of the mud synonymous with approach of spring rather than the stirring of life. Consequently, I pulled out my J&S color card and picked four blues that I hoped would work. Susan, from Raza Wool, shipped them immediately and a couple of days later I was agonizing over which to use. While I spent 45 minutes arranging the colors in value sequence, twisting each blue with the yellow, and taking photographs with the black and white filter to assess contrast; Bill sat down at the table and took approximately 5 seconds to select the blue he thought would work: shade 29mix. According to the little color theory I know, Bill's blue should not have worked, and of course, I promptly informed my husband, who earns his living choosing just the right color for very picky clients, of his mistake. To my inexperienced eye, shade 29mix did not appear to be sufficiently different from 121mix; in fact, when twisted, they blended together leading me to believe that they would not work as pattern and background. I realized my mistake a few rows in with the blue I stubbornly chose. With the third color, shade 29mix, finally chosen, I learned a lesson that I often teach in my psychology class- theory, any theory, is just an idea that should work most of the time but doesn't work all of the time.

ETA: I originally typed this post on my iPad using the blogger app; unfortunately, the app crashed and my work was lost. I have tried to reconstruct the original essence of my post; helped along the air of authenticity Monday's terrible storm provided. The only benefit to my technological kerfunkle is that I am almost finished with my second repeat, and, therefore, able to post a photograph of Ursula further along her journey. I also appreciate getting to show how 29mix behaves. In the photo of the four blues, 29mix is second from the top. It functions well with the yellow, pink, and purple, affirming the arrival of spring!

Goodbye; Hello, Hello

My community radio station starts every morning with the Beatles, and this morning, as Hello, Goodbye played, I was reminded that I haven't stopped to think about where I am with my knitting as 2015 gives way to 2016. So here it is...Overall, I was more productive in 2015 than ever before, completing 17 projects: 9 sweaters, 3 shawls, 2 blankets, 2 socks, and 1 hat.

Two sweaters that I completed in this summer top my list of favorite projects. Isabel Kramer's Daylen is my go to sweater. It's a warm, comfy, slightly oversized sweater knit up in Swan's Island All American Collection, worsted. The colorway is Newport, reminiscent of the dark-blue-black waters of some of my favorite New England beaches. Unfortunately, the key design element, the garter stitch back which flows to the front on congruent angles, doesn't pop with the dark color. I wear this sweater so much, Bill has declared it part of my "uniform". The other sweater topping my list of favorite projects is Mirry-Dancers. This pattern, by Cheryl Burke, can be found in Mary Jane Mucklestone's Fair Isle Style book. It's a yoked pullover, knit up in Jamieson's DK. I stuck to the original colors because it's the gradient against the wine MC that I fell in love with. The sweater fits perfectly, no modifications.

Glad tidings about my progress are, however, undermined by the reality that I also brought home A LOT of new yarn. My stash has grown so much that this year there was more than one trip to Target to buy storage bins and Peace Valley Lavender Farm to buy Moth Away Sachets. I would love to store my yarn in more breathable, better looking bins where texture and color can be enjoyed with all our senses, but I'm so worried about all the little critters attracted to our barn that I'd much rather have moth free yarn than a work of art.

There are as many reasons to stash yarn as there are knitters in the world- I was (notice past tense) stashing yarn primarily for two reasons: to get over a bad day and to prepare for the inevitably lean times that come with big medical bills. I had been embarrassed by my growing stash; however, now that we are one month post transplant and those lean times have arrived, I'm thankful that I have loads and loads of yarn to squish, smell, and shape into beautiful knitwear!

As a result of equal parts choice and circumstance, 2016 will be the year of the STASH! When I first contemplated setting this goal for the new year, I believed it was just another resolution whose life would be cut short almost immediately. Nevertheless, I got it into my head and decided to throw it out into the universe to see if it is possible.

Turns out it just might be! I'm back from Slater Mill's Knitting Weekend having purchased only one skien from Dirty Water Dyeworks: Bertha Sport in the Vermont colorway. Enabled by my new friend, Lynn, who recommended the hat pattern Clamber, I got up from lunch and wandered through the market place looking for the perfect yarn to make this Irish hiking hat. With over 300 yds, there is enough to make matching hats for Bill and I. They will be great for our hiking trip this summer. Perhaps we'll even choose some part of VT's Long Trail...