Garden Variety

Hello and Happy New Year! I can't believe we're almost to the end of January already!  Things have been a little bit bananas lately including the weather!  We seem to be on a bit of a yo-yo string with Mother Nature these days - bitterly cold then a drastic upswing to just below freezing then plummeting once again into a deep freeze.  The boys have had a total of five weather related school closures already this month (I've had four).  And we have another storm expected to roll through early this week, so that ought to be interesting!

Despite the weather, I'm still getting out and going for my daily walks that I started doing January 1st, 2021.  I'm pretty impressed with myself that I haven't missed a single day in over a year as of yet!  On those bitterly cold days though I need to make sure I'm dressed properly, which for me is wearing ALL the wool!  I'm pretty excited to have a new source of wooly warmth to show you today!

I started the Garden Variety Wrap during a mystery knit along with Paper Daisy Creations back in the fall of 2020.  I thought it would be an easy one to finish given there was only to be four clues to knit.  I was so certain about my ability to get it done I even bought brand new wool for the project instead of digging through my stash.  

I was really eager to start when clue one came out in September of 2020.  I had a bit of a false start and had to rip out my beginning,  but not to be deterred I cast on again and forged on finishing clue one a week into October.  Then I worked through clue two and started into clue three.  Then I lost all will to knit, put it aside and didn't pick it up again until after Christmas this year, when I decided I really did feel like knitting again, but couldn't really decide on what to start.  Not to mention I was starting to feel a little bit guilty about having bought all the wool and then just let it go to the wayside.

When I picked it up on December 29th I was about a third of the way through clue three.  It took me a bit to figure out where I was exactly and what I was doing but by New Years Eve I was finishing up the last rows and started out the next day with the fourth and final clue! I finished all the knitting by January 25th and was ready to weave in the few ends I hadn't woven in as I went and then block it.

I'm so happy that I picked it up again and finished it!  I absolutely love how it turned out - I had some misgivings as I was knitting that I might not like that the design wasn't symmetrical - sometimes I can be a bit funny about that sort of thing - but in the end it doesn't bother me at all.  I actually am quite fond of it!

My wrap is huge and snuggly warm!  It's perfect as a scarf for keeping the wind off my face when I'm going for my walk, which is how I normally wear it, but it is also big enough to throw over my shoulders if I'm a bit chilly and need a little bit of an extra layer.

This is my second wrap/shawl pattern from Paper Daisy Creations and I have to say I'm really impressed with the way she writes her patterns.  Both this one and the Midwestern Afternoon shawl were easy to follow and fun to knit! They're both certainly easy to wear too!  I've been using my Garden Variety constantly since it finished drying and up until wearing this one, I've been wearing my Midwestern Afternoon on endless repeat this winter!

I'm tempted to knit another Paper Daisy Creations wrap - I've had Flickering Light queued for a few years now - but seeing how pleased I was to finish one work in progress, I decided before starting something new I'd pull out another wip and finish it first.  

Now I'm plugging away at Polarity by Elena Nodel.  I started this one way, way back in February of 2017 using some black alpaca fingering weight that N and A had brought back for me from their trip to Peru and a skein of brightly coloured Colinette Jitterbug in the Red Parrot colourway that a friend had gifted me a few years earlier.  I don't even have much left to do on my Polarity.  A few more "teeth" and it'll be done and I'll have a fiesta of a scarf ready to be an antidote to any grey and gloomy weather!  

After that I have two sweaters also in my WIP basket - both are Untangling Knots patterns in various states of done-ness.  My Mary Mead from the December of 2018 needs the a couple more inches on the body and the sleeves and my Populuxe from earlier in the fall of 2018 only needs sleeves.  I'm not sure if I'll finish them up first or start something totally new once I'm done with Polarity though.  We'll see... I'm just so happy to be enjoying knitting again after such a long hiatus of not doing anything but the occasional gnome.  

Until next time, I hope you're staying safe and well throughout these crazy times and finding lots of things to bring you joy and happiness!