Friday's knitting

Elder DD's gansey sweater.  The patterns are authentic; I have them in a couple of my Scottish knitting patterns books.  But the yarn is not.  It is a cushy, woolly undyed yarn, theoretically of DK weight.  Nope.  It really is a worsted weight.  I checked it out against Galway worsted, and they are the same.  I'm using size 5 needles with a gauge over stockinette of 4.75 sts/inch.  So that makes it worsted in my book.  It's a perfect gauge, not flimsy, and not board-like.

I have about 9.25" done on the body with about 7" to go.  16" for the body + 8.5 for the armhole.  That should make it long enough for her.

Here's a closeup of the pattern.  It's so mindlessly fun to do.  I love it when I no longer need a chart to know where I am.  Then I can motor on without constantly counting stitches.  You'll notice the stitch markers.  I use those to set off the patterns.   The safety pin that you can see over on the right of the top picture - I like to keep track of how far I've knit each day.

What's What on Wednesday

Lots of knitting stuff, plus a little bit of crochet.  Sewing?  I'm so busy knitting that I haven't had the urge to sew.  But it will come back, especially if it ever gets to spring.

Knitting

A somewhat fake gansey for elder DD.  This is undyed DK yarn, although in my head it knits up to a worsted weight.  About 3.5 " done.  Size 5 needles, gauge is 4.75 sts/inch.  The patterns are authentic Scottish fisherman patterns, but the yarn is not gansey yarn.  I'll work along with this until about an inch or so below the armhole, then do a cross pattern, and then work entirely different patterns on the bodice.  Those may or not be authentic, just whatever I like to do.  Sleeves?  Whatever strikes my fancy.  No underarm gusset nor shoulder strap.  This is not the real thing, but I did underarm gussets and shoulder straps about 20 years ago and got them out of my system.

Also in process, a pair of socks for me.  This is in a high twist singles yarn, so that's why you'll see the details of the stitches so well.  No nylon in this yarn, but I've already made 2 pairs of socks in it, and it seems to wear well.  And yes, it will stretch beautifully to fit my leg and foot.

An actual finished lace scarf!  Lili Lace yarn, which you can find in my Etsy shop.  The color reminds me of chicken tikka masala, a lovely paprika with a dose of cream in it.  The truest color is the top picture, just imagine it a bit darker.  It is delicious!  I have no idea what I'm wearing it with.  I'll have to do a sweater that lives with this.

Crochet

A cute little watercolor scarf in progress.  Pattern?  Something I found in one of my Japanese pattern books.  Mindlessly easy and pretty.  Rachel sock yarn.

I call these things "watercolor" since they are of variegated colorways, and the colors appear as little splotches here and there. 

And that's enough of that.

Book on nightstand is Red seas under red skies.  This is the second book in the Locke Lamorra series, and it's as delightful as the first.  Alternate world with a couple of charming thieves.  Good fun.

And that's it for today.  Oh, I forgot to add the obligatory weather picture.  Yep, it's snowing again.  Sigh.

Finshed sweater

Here she is, the latest and greatest.  A pretty heather cranberry basket-weave pattern in my usual round neck.

I can't get the pictures right.  It's hard for me to take selfies.  I look ridiculous from that selfie angle, but you can get the idea.

The real color is somewhere the top pic and the bottom one, leaning more toward the bottom pic.  36" in circumference, knitted bottom up, 3-needle shoulder join, pick-up-and-knit sleeves downward.  The surprise of this sweater is that it is essentially a rib pattern, so when I finished it, I had this very narrow sweater with skinny-minny sleeves.  A good blocking helped, and of course, the minute you put it on, those ribs mold themselves to your body.  I'm very happy with it.   The same gorgeous yarn as the previous sweater, only worked with a size 4 needle because I wanted a sweater with some substance.

Rating:  A - A+, I'm that happy with it.  Cozy and comfy  and perfect for a drab, misty chilly winter day.

2014 seems to be the year of the sweater.  The last time I did this was 22 years ago!  Younger DD wanted to go to college with 17 sweaters, and so I obliged her.  That just about did me in, and I haven't done much sweater knitting since, only a few here and there.  But now I have that mojo, so lots more in the planning stage.

A woman of a certain age

That's me.  Yesterday was a BIG birthday.  I can no longer pretend I'm middle aged.  Nope, moved upward and onward.

The Hubz had all sorts of celebrations scheduled, and the snow messed it all up.  But, it all turned out to be a wonderful birthday!

Flowers, gift certificates, apron, cards, phone calls.  It was glorious!

And the pièce de résistance?  Only my favorite potato chips in the whole wide world!  I might not share any of it, either.

I'm so blessed!  Thank you all for making my 70th such a delight!  And for those of you who think that I'm now over the hill, um, nope.  It gets better the older you are.  The body isn't what the body was, but then whenever was the body the way it was?  But the brain, the emotional maturity.  Wow!

You think we have a bit of snow?

The first picture shows my front porch.  The snow was at least 8" higher than the landing.  There was nowhere to shovel it, so it was loaded over on the left, and now we have a mess there, too.

To give you some idea of just how much of the white stuff we have, here's a pic of our mailbox.  It's to the right of the word.  Kind of blends into the snow. 

We're supposed to get another 1-2" tomorrow, but then next week we should get temps into the 40's.  So where is it all going to go when it melts?