It is a beautiful day today – bright, crisp, golden – the sort of Winter’s day I love.
While we were out for a walk, I took the opportunity to get some quick shots of my Muckle Mitts, which I realised I hadn’t shown you . . .
It is a very satisfying pattern – so quick! So nifty! Thankyou, Mary Jane. I enjoyed making them so much that I knit up a little cowl thingy to match.
It was lovely to work with the yarn, which I’d had in my stash for ages – Toft alpaca DK – a gift from Ysolda in, I think, 2009. Cheers, Ys!
The yarn is spun in a pleasingly nubbly and rustic way – it almost feels handspun – and the natural shades are very pleasing – so soft and muted. My Muckle mitts are ravelled here
The light was so nice today – good for taking photos. I’ve had my eye on the changes in the undergrowth during my daily walks, and it has been pleasing me in recent weeks. I have a bit of a thing for the humble rosebay willowherb – I love the shapes that it assumes in all seasons. At this time of year, last years stems and seeds are mere dried-out husks – but I find them incredibly beautiful.
Crazy, scribbled wisps . . .
. . . like a kid’s sparkler-writing on bonfire night . . .
. . . or fireworks themselves, thin forms, exploding with light.
It is so nice to feel the sun returning – – we made the most of the day after returning home, and have just now finished building our new log store – and loaded it up with gleanings from Edinburgh’s recent storms (many fallen trees about!)
Bruce has being doing his bit, of course, helping to fetch the kindling. . .
Hope you are enjoying your Sunday too!
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Are you ever tempted to knit something for Bruce? Although, having asked that, I realise that I never really understood why animals, who are so efficient at maintaining their homeostasis, should need coats outside.
You are a great inspiration to me. I am a knitter, but with only a fraction or your skill. My mother has had quite a significant left frontal stroke, which has changed her life. And my husband is a neurologist who’s speciality is stroke treatment and recovery. I feel that my family is all brought together in a certain sense, here on your web-page.
I have shown my six children how you have coped with your changes and how you have rebuilt your life in a way that uses your skills and talents. I have shown them that you have chosen to work and create and make something meaningful rather than use your losses as an excuse. Your blog is a great gift to us, and I want to thank you for sharing your triumph over challenge so that we may all benefit. You have my heartiest admiration. thank you for sharing with us all!
I love all the different colours in these pictures – looks like a gorgeous autumn day.
Well, you are an artist to see fiery sparkler-writing in that very chilly (but beautiful) willow herb husk.
Lovely pictures Kate x
The cowl and mitts look very warm! Though almost too warm for me today, as I sit here on a 29º humid day by the beach in an Australian summer. Of course, that isn’t stopping me knitting! I’m madly working on Tantallon, my first colourwork project ever. It’s quite addictive watching the pattern come out in the different colour combinations, and very satisfying learning to knit with yarn in both hands. It’s speeding along very nicely! Unfortunately I suspect it’s going to end up belonging to my husband rather than myself as originally intended, because I have a rather small head. Bother.
Enjoy your remaining winter mornings.
I agree with your comments about rosebay willowherb. It grows in Alaska too – they told us that when the last flowers on the spike are about to bloom they know it is just a couple of weeks until it snows …….and they call it fireweed, a name used in London too, where it grew all along the railway lines – and all over the bomb sites during the blitz.
Love the mittens – you inspired me to buy Jane’s book – Thank you, it’s wonderful!!
Lynne
We actually had Snow in Seattle today! The first time we’ve needed real mittens with the tops…I needed a cowl too, yours is simply scrumptious! Thanks for the walk, I’ve been staying downtown among the skyscrapers and miss mornings like yours.
xox
MJ
Your Muckle mitts and cowl look so cozy and soft! Very nice pictures too!
We had such a lovely walk, too – such a perfect day..
The pictures are beautiful! And, indeed, the knitting projects also!
I’m enjoying my Sunday when I see that life is so beautiful… Thanks for the walk and … lovely mittens and cowl of course.
It has been just the day for a walk after working hard! Mitts and hat were needed to start with but you soon warm up.
and Tom’s hat?
Really, really beautiful. (And you managed to model your mittens chicly! Props!)
Loved your images of winter foliage. Sunshine makes all the difference in winter.
It was very cold here this morning (northern NY and -16 F) so I’ve been inside knitting on the Rams and Yowes blanket and sipping tea (-: Enjoying the knitting immensely, so far using leftovers from the Sheepheid hat. My shaela looks to be quite a bit darker than yours and I’ve been adjusting the other light colors – once by accident and once on purpose because my sholmit is a lighter version too. It would be fun to lengthen this into a rectangle and make a stole of it. Perhaps a summer version with the yowes on green grass!
Lovely knits and lovely plantscape! Here in Maine we are at -20C with snow and ice. The rhododendron leaves have rolled themselves into tight needle shapes.
It is so interesting the attraction to this pattern from Mary Jane. I received her book and choose the same one -not in as many repeats and radiating out the same way to knit up a thank you hat for someone just before our winter break. Is there something in the Collective Unconscious here? I want to thank you for the yowes and rams pattern I just finished my hat and felt it a definitive piece in my knitting history. Thank you so much for being you!
A retriever must be the ideal dog for wood-gathering. My dog just wants to chew the sticks to shreds!
Must get going on a pair of Mucklemitts as I am fortunate enough to be taking a class with Mary Jane in March!
Everyone is posting lovely photos of crisp winters walk today and it’s making me very homesick… Thank you for the lovely photos, I miss the light and the undergrowth of home.
I like that you made a cowl. The yarn looks warn an toasty. I got the pattern maybe I should look through my stash. So inspiring.
Thank you Kate. Your photos, your knitting and knitting designs, and your writing are soothing and uplifting. What gifts you are sharing – I needed this this morning.
Lovely shades of color in the Muckle Mitts and cowl. And Good dog, Bruce! Wish we could get our two to fetch firewood.