A Wooly Catch Up

Well hello dear reader!  How are we already into February? It's shocking how time flies lately!  Is it too far into the year to wish you all a Happy New Year?  I hope your 2024 has started out well.

Anyways, I thought I'd pop on here to share a project I fully intended to share as soon as it was finished.  An honest to goodness knitting project!  If you follow on Instagram, you'll already have seen it a few times, but for those of you who don't, may I present my Lately Pullover!  It was a new pattern release last summer from the talented Shannon of Very Shannon Knits.  

As soon as she released it, I was OBSESSED.  I was also completely obsessed with knitting it in my cranberry coloured Estelle Eco Shetland Worsted yarn that I'd purchased a year earlier at Wolseley Wool during a sale. Unfortunately I didn't have enough yarn.  I knew I would be at least a skein, possibly even more, short.  I checked Wolseley Wool, but of course they no longer had any in stock.  So I started scouring the Internet for the more yarn, because I just couldn't let go of the obsession of using that particular yarn for that particular pattern.  I found some at Purlin' J's Yarn Emporium in Ontario and decided to order another two skeins, busily trying to plan the best way to combine what would obviously be two different dye lots.

Imagine my surprise when my yarn arrived and it was the exact same dye lot!  What are the chances of that happening?!?  Two different stores, from two different provinces, bought a year apart.  I couldn't believe my luck!  Obviously my Lately Pullover was meant to be.

I started knitting it mid-July, crazily thinking that maybe I could get it done so I could wear it during our Newfoundland trip in August, but alas, of course I didn't get it done.  I knit quite a bit of it through football practices, but it's hard to knit a wool sweater outside in the blazing heat of summer.  So I changed my deadline and decided that having it done before the freezing cold of winter would be good timing.

I did it!  My pullover was finished in November.  It took me about a month to actually block and unfortunately it's not got as much wear as I thought it would.  Not because I don't love it.  I do.  I absolutely do.  It's because this winter has been mostly a non-winter. El Nino has definitely put a damper on wearing warm wool sweaters.  I mean, it was +5C in Manitoba in January last weekend.  That's absolutely crazy - not to mention not just a bit disconcerting environmentally wise!!!!

But my pullover is at the ready for when the temps dip and I do want a cozy, warm layer.  (At least there's been a few times I could wear it and not be at risk of sweating to death, but certainly not as much as I had envisioned!)

It did kick off a renewed love of knitting again and I've got several projects on the go currently and finished quite a few as well.  More on that another day... Right now I've got to get myself off the computer and down to the sewing room.  I have a few things on the go there too that I really want to get working on!  I'm taking part in the #FinishItQal over on Instagram hosted by Village Bound Quilts this month and I'm not going to get anything finished if I don't get at it!

What Can I Say? I've Been Busy...

Well.  Here we are.  I went to look something up here on the blog the other day and realized it's been more than five months since I was last here.  How the heck did that happen?  I knew it had been a little while, but let me tell you, I was a bit shocked to see my last post was about a late summer sewing project.  Time flies I guess!

I've been keeping myself quite busy in all aspects of life - work is often feeling crazy and overwhelming, the boys are busy, my husband has been working all sorts of extra shifts because no one in his section seems to be able to consistently show up for work, we've had the run of the mill illness and a bout of Covid, a new cat adopted us and I've been doing oodles of crafty type things.  I guess I just put this old blog on the back burner and forgot about it.

But I'm back for today anyways - not going to make any promises of when I'll return because every time I seem to figure I'm going to get back to blogging I don't... I would like to start writing again though, so we'll see.  Even if it's just for the purpose me keeping a journal of sorts. It's nice to look back on things every now and again.

So I won't try to catch you up on all my projects I did since my last posting.  That would take us from here to next Christmas!  (You can click this link to an Instagram reel I did of almost all my sewing projects from 2022 if you're interested)

Today I will just jump in with a fresh start.

Knitting on my Sous-Sous Vest
in Berroco Pirouette Yarn in Driftwood 

In December I decided to pick up my knitting needles and knit each of the kids their Christmas ornaments.  And this time knitting felt good!  So I kept at it.  I knit ten simple stars for the ornaments, then moved on to making fingerless gloves for four of my co-workers as Christmas gifts, then a pair of mittens for myself.  Then I finished a pair of socks I started last year and finished a vest (also started last year!).  Then I cast on another pair of socks which is where I'm at now.

Corkscrew Mitts by Jill DeMarco knit in Lion Brand Wool-Ease

Swirl E. Socks by Susie of Prairie Girl Designs
knit in the Sunset colourway of Estelle's Sock Twins Yarn

I love enjoying knitting again. I did miss it but it just never felt quite right when I'd try to knit, always feeling forced and cumbersome, so it's good to be back at it.

A work in progress -
my First Night Socks by Dana Rae Makes

Don't worry!  I've not abandoned my sewing.  I didn't actually do much in January.  In fact I only sewed one thing - it was the top I'm wearing in the first photo (a Forget Me Knot Vera Top - you can read the details over on the Minerva site if you'd like! But happily I have done a bit of sewing this month already and I have a few more things planned yet for February.  I made a few base layer shirts out of fleece lined athletic knit for my husband using the Helen's Closet Jackson Tee pattern and I've just finished a pattern test for Itch to Stitch* as well that hopefully I'll be able to show you later on this month.  I just cut out a Tilly and the Buttons Agnes Top tonight and I'd like to take a crack at sewing up the Paper Cut Patterns Nova Coat that I cut out a few months back.  Who knows if I'll actually get them done, but that's my unofficial goal in the back of my mind.  We'll see...

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!

Picking Up the Needles

Knitting content has been few and far between over the last few years.  I still do pick up the needles every now and again, but not like I used to when I'd spend hours sitting in a comfy spot working on my latest project.  Now it's a bit hit or miss although  I am enjoying knitting much more than I did the previous couple of years when I didn't pick it up at all and had no desire to do so because every time I did it felt forced and like a chore.  Who needs a hobby that feels like a chore?  Certainly not me!

I'm a lot slower at knitting now then I used to be - I'm so out of practice, it doesn't seem as intuitive as it once did - but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.  Unless, let's say, you decide on a whim that you should knit something for your kids for Christmas and then you find out that whereas you used to be able to knit a hat in an evening or two it now takes you the better part of a week (or longer) and you run out of time to knit one kid something and you take until January to finally get it delivered to said kid and feel like a terrible mom...

Sorry.  I digress.

I won't show you all those projects.  I didn't take great photos of them.  Although I did a photo of the gnome ornaments I knit for each of them. 

Gnomes are magical and I can still knit those pretty quickly!  I even knit the "ADVENTure Gnome KAL" from Imagined Landscapes during December (Huh.  Maybe the gnomes were what was slowing my progress on hats and mitts... )

What I really want to show off is two projects I did for myself!  I'm so completely in love with both of them!

The first is the Midwestern Afternoon Shawl by Paper Daisy Creations.  I started knitting this way back in the summer - working on it through the boys' swimming lessons, then draping it across my lap (hello warmth! LOL) and working on it in the stands while they were on the ice during two weeks of hockey camp in August, then sporadically throughout the fall until it was done.  

It's knit from Indigo Dragonfly Fibres Filament o' Squid that I won in a knitalong years ago and a Little House in the Big Woods themed mini skein set, also from several years ago from Bluebird Yarns on Etsy.  I wear this shawl at least once a week!  It's my current favourite of all my shawls.  It's the perfect size and weight!

My other new selfish (uggh.  No.  Not selfish! *more on that in a moment*) selfcare knit is a brand new Myra hat from Knox Mountain Knitting Co. I knit their Laurel shawl for my mama for Christmas this year (unfortunately no great photos of that one either.) as well as other patterns in the past and have really enjoyed their pattern writing.   Part of what sold me on Myra is how darn good it looks with a big fluffy fur pompom.  

I fell down a rabbit hole of faux fur pompoms earlier in the fall, when I discovered Canadian Peony Lane Poms.  As a result I now have a healthy stash of poms at my disposal.  (Clearly I have no restraint.)  But, let's circle back to my Myra hat.  I do have a point to this meandering, I promise.  A few years ago I bought a skein of Malabrigo Rios in the Arco Iris colourway and tucked it away in my stash.  When I discovered Peony Lane Poms, I chose a pom in the peacock colourway and the rosehip colourway specifically to go with  my Arco Iris Rios.  Of course then I needed to find a pattern that would go with my pom purchases and as I said Myra looked amazing with a furry pom in the pattern photos, so that was that.

I couldn't actually decide which pom I liked best with Myra at first, but then decided that since the Peony Lane Poms attach with a snap, I could sew the snap on and interchange my pompoms whenever I wanted.  Some days felt like a peacock pom kind of day and others felt like a rosehip pom day.  Lately though I'm pretty much solidly in favour of the peacock pom.   Who knew pompoms could be a whole "thing" LOL!

I've worn my Myra hat so much since finishing it.  It's warm and just the right length that I can wear it slouchy on warmer days and on the freezing cold days I folded the brim up so that it gave me a little more warmth on my ears. (something that was definitely necessary walking in -40C windchills!!) 

Currently I'm working away slowly on my Garden Variety - it's another pattern from Paper Daisy Creations that I initially started during the KAL that Lisa was hosting for it back in the fall.  I fell behind pretty quickly and then put it aside to do my Christmas knitting and Adventure Gnome KAL.  Since picking it up again after finishing my Myra hat, I've finished Clue Two and have started Clue Three and I'm starting to feel excited about finishing it up!  It may take me a bit though given last night it took me an entire two hours to do one single row.  I kept knitting it, tinking it back, knitting it, tinking it back over and over.  I couldn't get past the center stitch because something kept not working out.  Eventually it dawned on me that I might not be knitting this particular row wrong, perhaps my stitch count was off.  Spoiler alert:  my stitch count was off.  Sigh...

It may be a little while before I'm showing off this particular project!  Along with knitting my Garden Variety, I've also been busily sewing - a few projects just for fun, a few for Minerva and most recently a test for Itch to Stitch*  I've also been bit by the "embroidery bug" and have been thoroughly enjoying that as a new crafty venture!  Needless to say, there's not enough hours in my day!

So all that being said, I'm off to go sit in front of the TV and watch a bit of Netflix and try valiantly to knit at least one more row on my Garden Variety!  I hope you are all staying healthy and happy and finding ways to get through these crazy days we're living in.

*PS: I just remembered I was going to revisit the selfish/selfcare thing.  I used to have no problem with the term "selfish" when talking about knitting and/or sewing for myself.  In fact, I took part in several knitalongs and sewalongs over the years called selfish{whatever} without batting an eyelash.  However, recently I started thinking about the term selfish and the connotations it evokes and I realized I didn't really like it being attached to my crafting. The idea that what I was doing as a means of a meditative and often healing process and other times just for the shear sake of the joy of doing it could be perceived as being selfish (and all that entails) could easily become a slippery slope leading to feelings akin to guilt that I was doing only for myself and not for others and therefore should be considered wrong or at the very least frowned upon.  By using the term selfish it devalued what was and continues to be, in reality, a very valuable process in taking care of myself.  In a time that I am trying to be mindful of being kinder and gentler to myself, clearly this was not going to work anymore. By using the term selfcare instead of selfish I'm choosing to reframe, if no where else that my own mind, what this process of crafting means for me.

Gnomes are Magical

I have a new obsession.  Well, not exactly new.  I've always been overly fond of the common garden gnome. The new part of it is the fact that I have started knitting gnomes.  I'm calling them my Indoor Garden Gnomes and I've got a healthy little collection started.

It all began back in February when, after months, maybe years, of seeing my friend knitting gnomes, I decided to take the plunge and do the Imagined Landscapes Mystery Gnome Knitalong.  I told you about that one in a previous post; how it actually brought a real joy of knitting back into my life.  I was actually excited to pick up the needles and it came naturally instead of feeling forced.

So Gnome Is Where You Hang Your Hat was my first gnome.  I love him and his sweet little pullover.  But once I finished I found that I'd enjoyed knitting him so much that I was a little sad it was over.   What's the best way to combat that?  Why, knit another gnome of course!  You just can't ignore the call of the gnome after all...

So I set to work on Here We Gnome Again, which I think is the cutest little cable-y gnome ever!  He knit up pretty quickly even with the cabled pattern.  He's a lovely little fella with a fancy beard and a bobble nose and I adore him!  Once finished he and his companion sat happily guarding my house plants.

But then every thing hit the fan in the world, and I was having trouble focusing on anything.  Impending school closures had been announced the Friday before, so work was absolute chaos on the Monday, then on Tuesday, both boys woke up in the morning sick with sore throats and colds. We had just had T at his ortho specialist appointment at the big hospital in the city two weeks earlier, so although I knew rationally that it was most likely just a run of the mill cold, I was incredibly stressed out.  It wasn't my finest moment of calm, rational thought, I can tell you that much!  I was in the end reassured by the fact that T spend countless times on the treadmill downstairs running for half an hour at a time as fast as he could because he set himself a goal that he "would become the fastest kid around" and within a day D's mild cold was gone and within three days there was no trace of sniffles, sore throat or cough from T either.

But on that Tuesday evening when I was slowly coming unglued over worry about the boys, stress about work that I wasn't at because I was home with the boys, but was trying to do as much from home as possible still and feeling guilty that I'd basically abandoned ship when things were so insane at the school, along with general anxiety about the pandemic, my husband had told me, "Go knit a gnome.  It'll help.  Gnomes fix all."

So I took his advice and cast on another.  While a gnome can't really fix all, they do offer a sense of order and calm to the mind and soul with their simple little patterns that can be done easily in small chunks of time.  This time I cast on Oh Gnome, You Didn't.

He's a fun little gnome that normally has a jester hat and a scarf, but the boys and I decided he need a beard instead of scarf.  And when I found the fiery yellow and orange ball of fun fur deep in my stash from sometime around 2003, I knew it was the perfect beard yarn for my St. Patrick's Day green gnome.  He might actually be my favourite... (Shhh.  Don't tell the others!) But would you look at how he has his little hands in his little pockets?  Love it.

My gnome collection was a good size, but I felt I still needed to knit another. Gnomes are also a bit like potato chips.  Once you start, you just don't want to stop,  once a Gnomemaker, always a Gnomemaker perhaps. So I cast on a fourth gnome in the span of a little over a month.  This time the chosen gnome was Gnome de Plume.

Funny thing with this one, is that I just assumed she would be the same size roughly as the others.  So as I was knitting her hat, I kept thinking it was one epically large hat for a little gnome.  Finally, I checked the finished measurements and realized she was not a little gnome at all.  She was so much bigger than I was anticipating.  So much so, that when I was in between stuffing and finishing her I had to find my tallest mug to rest her in because she was just a little too unwieldy to just set down in my lap.

Even though she's not a little gnome like the rest of the collection, she is perfect in my opinion with her leafy hat and leaf shaped beard. (Do all lady gnomes have beards?  I wasn't sure but her's is a delicate leaf shaped one, so I thought that it would be as feminine a beard as one could ask for...) I have decided she is to be crowned queen of the gnomes and she has joined her much smaller loyal subjects in guarding the plants!

I'm taking a break from gnomes for the moment and working on a different project right now, but the important thing is, thanks to these magical little gnomes, I have found the love of knitting again, and it has come at a time I need it the most.

If you're looking for something that doesn't take much yarn, doesn't take a whole lot of focus and doesn't take much time I suggest taking a look at Imagined Landscapes collection of patterns.  There's several gnomes to choose from (although there's not just gnomes!  There's plenty of other beautiful items to knit if gnomes aren't your thing of course).  The patterns I've done have all been very well written, and lovely to knit! If you're not up to knitting right now, you could always check out their podcast!  I've really enjoyed listening to the two sisters chatting. (plus they are fellow Manitobans and I'm always excited to support someone local to me!)

Until next time, I wish you all good health and a hope that you are still finding joy and happiness in the small, simple pleasures in life.

Victory Will be Mine!

I told you a few posts back that I wanted to come back soon to show off my latest knitting FO.  It's been ages since I've had a proper yarny finished object, which always seems just a bit funny given that way back in 2006 my blog started out as a place specifically to share my knitting projects.

Anyway, I'm really quite excited to be sharing this with you as if feels like the ultimate in knitting projects.  Not only did I knit the project, but I spun the yarn too, which is where the ultimate part comes in.  The only thing I suppose that would make it even better is if it was from sheep I raised and sheared myself.  However, realistically speaking, I have no hot clue how to properly raise sheep nor am I anywhere physically strong enough to learn how to shear a sheep.  That is serious business my friends.  I'm always amazed at how a sheep shearer can make it look so simple!

So I do the next best thing! I spin yarn from fibre that other people have sheared from flocks raised by those that know what they're doing.  The closest I'll get to being shepherdess in my lifetime is picking T's little stuffed "Lamby" up off the floor and putting it back on his bed.

Both of the fibres I used were purchased at the Manitoba Fibre Festival in 2018 from two of my favourite Manitoba fibre artists.  The grey-ish brown is Shetland from my "down the road" neighbour, Barb of Prairie's Edge Wool Farm.  If you are local to Manitoba you need to get your hands on fibre from Barb.  It's beautiful, so lovely to spin especially for a beginner like me.  I always make sure to get a good sized batt from her booth at the Fibre Festival.

The pink/yellow/brown is from another favourite Manjusha Fibre Arts.  I always make Tammy's booth a stop on my tour of the market at the Fibre Festival too.  (I should mention that the boys always love to pick up a souvenir yarn from the festival to give to Grandma.  I give them free reign to choose whatever they would like and they always, always browse for a bit and then make a bee line straight back for the Manjusha booth.  So it's kid approved as well! LOL)

I spun this yarn before Christmas of 2018 and I made a hat for my husband out of the Shetland, but didn't know what I wanted to do with the rest of it and I had no idea what to make with the other yarn - I always worry I'll "waste" my handspun by doing a poor pattern selection.  While I had a good amount of the Shetland I didn't have that much of the pink, so that was a concern too.  I'd been eyeing up the Victory Wrap on Ravelry for quite some time and kept thinking it might be the perfect project for my precious handspun, but since my desire to knit had all but vanished and I wasn't even sure if it was THE pattern I put it off for an entire year.  Finally I decided enough was enough and just before New Years I decided it was high time to cast on something fun that might keep my needles going.

It took me almost a month. I still obviously didn't have my knitting mojo back and it was still a bit of a struggle to pick up my needles, sometimes feeling forced instead of intuitive even though I was wanting to knit it and was loving the wool.  In the end I used up almost every bit of the pink yarn.  I had mere inches left to go when I cast off the last stitch.  (Yarn Chicken score one for Sarah!)

It took me just about another month to get around to blocking it, which was silly.  I finally dug out my blocking pins a few weekends ago and set my wrap in the sink for a bath.

Exactly one month after I cast off my wrap, it had been blocked and was finally dry. I took the pins out and proudly put it on and wore it to work that morning.  It's snuggly and soft, and squishy and cozy and best of all what started out as fluffy bits of fibre became a wrap all by my own hands.

Since I still had a nice sized ball of the Shetland yarn left I decided last week that I should knit a pair of fingerless gloves for spring.  I queued up the Lambing Mitts pattern from Tolt Yarn and Wool in Ravelry last year I think.  Maybe longer ago than that even? I've no idea. Anyway, I thought they'd be a nice quick knit and handy to have as we head into spring.  They definitely are quick.  I knit the first mitt in about three hours, which felt like a victory in it's own right!  I haven't had the chance to finish the other glove yet though because I've been busy with another project.

I've just finished my other little project on the needles now and I think I can safely say my will to knit is BACK!!!!  I just finished up the Mystery Gnome KAL from Imagined Landscapes and it's become really exciting to be picking up my needles and not wanting to put them down!  Here's the little guy who's made me really want to knit again.  Isn't he cute?  He even has his very own little sweater! (also note he is standing in front of my apparently confused about the seasons Christmas Cactus that, after having only bloomed once about two and a half years ago when I bought it, is now in full glorious bloom right now in March! A gnome, the return of my knitting mojo and flowers. So many things to be happy about all in one photo!)

Gnomes are apparently magical for mojo.  You might see some more consistent knitting content here on Prairie Girl Knits yet!

Knitting!!!!!

Wait, what?!?!  Knitting content on a blog named "Prairie Girl Knits"?   What is this sorcery???

It's been so long since I've been able to show off a finished knitting project here on the blog and today I have two!

The first I want to show off is The Golden Hours Shawl from Andrea Mowry of Drea Renee Knits.  I started this shawl back in the deep dark days of January.  Of course I was thinking a worsted weight shawl would fly off the needles and I'd be cozy warm in no time for the rest of winter.  I was excited to start and chugged along at a good pace at the start, but then, as seems to be par for the course lately, I found it to be a struggle to keep going. I wanted the shawl but the knitting took significantly longer than anticipated.  Once thing I did do was to weave in the ends as I went so it wouldn't be such a daunting task upon completion of the knitting and boy was I glad when I finished the cast off to only have a few ends left to go.

I actually finished this shawl mid-April on the drive into the city for the little boys skills camp morning put on by the Blue Bombers.  The boys had to be on the field at 8:30am, there was still snow on the edges of the field and a crisp breeze was making the 0 C temps feel even colder.  I was ever so glad to be able to throw my shawl on as an extra layer of warmth while I watched from the stands.

... and then it took me more than a month to actually block it.

Despite my struggles, The Golden Hours is a straight forward, easy to knit pattern.  I chose to use stash yarns for mine and I love how it came together. The teal blue came from my Mom actually, left over from a sweater she knit a few years ago (that also came home with me!).  The purple was a random skein I'd picked up at the LYS at some point and the light blue/green was very old stash from about ten or more years ago.

My other newly finished project is the Dubois hat by Andi Satterlund of Untangling Knots.

This one I started in February as soon as the pattern was released.  Being a hat I honestly assumed it would take me no more than a week to knit.  I wildly underestimated how long it would take, and had to completely rip it out and start again a month ago because between my lagging knitting mojo, my inability to focus and a pattern that had a few different cables going on left me thoroughly lost where I was and a with a whole lot of mistakes.

I felt pretty discouraged that I had to rip it out, but once I got going again it went much easier.  Still slow going, but at least with no confusion and the cables seemed a lot more intuitive the second time. I cast this one off on Saturday evening and set it to blocking first thing on Sunday morning! (having, of course, learned my lesson with the shawl blocking procrastination! LOL) I'm going to really love the warmth of my Dubois and it'll be so nice to have a fresh new hat to make life more bearable when the temperatures plummet again next winter!

I'm going to continue to try and knit regularly.  My favourite "along"  the Untangling Knots Outfit Along, has been announced recently and will start June 1st.  Instead of having an "official" set of patterns - although we were always welcome to choose our own anyway - this year's OAL theme is Works in Progress.  I don't have any sewing WIPs, but I have my Populuxe Cardigan that just needs sleeves and my Mary Mead Cardigan that is part way through the body.  Both cardigans were started during previous Untangling Knots knit alongs over the past year so I'm hoping to finish both during the OAL.  I'm not sure what the sewing component will be yet, but likely a dress of some sort.

Here's hoping for more frequent wooly posts in the future months to come.  I'm really hoping that these two finished projects will really kick start my mojo back to where it once was.  Maybe I'll even start spinning again one of these days...

Knitting or The Lack There Of

I've been in a bit of a slump with my knitting.  I think I may have casually mentioned on and off over the last several months that I've lost my "mojo".  I don't know what or why it is. It's not that I don't want to be knitting.  I most definitely do! I see patterns and yarn and think, "Oooooooh!  I should knit that!" but somehow that thought never seems to make it much past the thinking/dreaming stage into the cast on, knit and finish stage.

I did finish a Bankhead hat (a Christmas gift for my husband - modelled here by not so little anymore Little Man) - that one was a bit more exciting because I had picked out the fibre from Prairie's Edge Wool Farm and spun the yarn especially for the hat for him.  Maybe that's the key... all things should be knit from hand spun.  But here's the kicker...  I've not spun anything in months either! Even my spinning wheel has sat idle in the corner with a bobbin only half full.

The only things I've finished other than the hat since completing my Waters Tee last summer was the mittens that I made for Christmas for the big kids.

Some would argue that six pairs of mitts and a hat equals plenty of knitting over the span of eight months.  And I would probably agree, except that normally I am always knitting.  For the last twenty years I've knit a lot and the last fifteen years have been constant.  If I was sitting down for any reason (except obviously driving a vehicle) my needles would always be clickety clacking away.  Is it ridiculous to feel that knitting is like a part of my identity? Part of who I am? But this past while I've found myself knitting a row or two and setting it aside. Or not picking it up at all.  And it's a weird feeling of both not knowing why or what to do with it and a feeling of almost guilt that I'm not doing what I should be doing. (which is more than a bit crazy I do realize!) I do know that I was under a huge amount of stress earlier in the fall and I've been tired a lot lately as a residual result of that stress combined with a busy home life and a great, but busy job and that probably plays into it too. It feels silly that my blog name is "Prairie Girl Knits" and I've not given knitting much more than a casual mention here in approximately forever.

I have cast on a few things... I have two cardigans on my needles - a Populuxe that actually I forced myself to work on to the point that it only needs sleeves and a Mary Mead that got an upper back and upper right front done only before I put it aside.  I also have a Dubois hat that I cast on in great excitement the day the pattern was released and then left by the wayside when the cables started getting challenging to keep track of where I was. (And before it's suggested that maybe it's the patterns, I can assure you that it's not.  I adore the patterns, and really want to be wearing them, so I know it's not that...)

Should I even mention the three quarters of the way through Polarity shawl? Maybe not... that one I started back when in February 2017 when the knitting mojo was smiling upon me and it languished only because I kept getting distracted by new patterns I wanted to work on.

There is a glimmer of hope though that maybe, just maybe, my desire to knit is finally coming back - it's been a slow process, but I think that a slight whisper of it is there.

Inspired by a shawl my mama knit this winter for herself, from yarn I had spun for her, I decided maybe I'd like a big squooshy, cozy shawl of my own too.  I chose a different pattern, and commercial yarn for mine, but it's the first thing in a long time that has seen actual slow but steady progress and might stand a chance of getting finished!   The Golden Hour shawl by Drea Renee Knits might be just the thing to get my knitting groove back!

As for the Dubois hat, the Polarity shawl and the Mary Mead and Populuxe cardis?  Well... we'll have to see what happens.  I think I'm just going to try to focus on The Golden Hour for the time being and see where that leads me.  Maybe once I get back in the swing of things, and it becomes to feel more of a natural process again, I will be able to finish up those languishing projects.

I do know that this is supposed to be a hobby; my method of relaxation.  There should be no guilt or anxiety over how much I'm knitting or not, so I think I'm also going to focus on letting go of that. Goodness knows there's legitimate stress and anxiety aplenty in life that I don't need to add to it with misplaced guilt over something that should simply be done out of sense of joy.