Sunday, January 04, 2009

Quiet Sunday

It's been a nice quiet weekend. Well, other than the near heart attack watching the Canada/Russia semifinal game in the World Jr.'s yesterday. That involved a lot of yelling at the TV and jumping/cowering on the couch (reciprocal scoring throughout the game, Canada down by 1 with under a minute left in the 3rd period, Canada scoring with 5 seconds left, overtime and a shootout. It was a doozy)... Where was I? Oh yeah, a quiet weekend.

Today I took down my teeny tiny very fake Christmas tree and noticed that my Christmas Cactus had a big bloom on it that was being hidden by the tree.
Christmas Cactus bloom

After I had the tree and ornaments packed away I decided I wasn't ready to relinquish the tiny LED lights yet, so I put them in a jar. I really like how it looks and I may keep it like this for a while.
Jar of Light

The rest of the day was spent watching Wild Card football games and knitting a new pair of mittens (well, the first of the mittens).
New Mitten
New Mitten palm

This is something I've wanted to do for a long time (since 2006 according to this blog). I charted the pattern from a pair of authentic Norwegian mittens loaned to me by my "aunt" (my dad's cousin's wife) whose aunt knitted them for my aunt's father in Norway in 1949 (I posted a pic of the originals here in Dec. 2006).

The background yarn was spun by me about a year ago (and I just realized I didn't ever post it here, bad blogger)
Snow Squall
The colorway is "Snow Squall", which seems very appropriate for mittens. It's a wonderful wooly Icelandic wool from Spunky Eclectic FOTM. I navajo plied it so it has long color runs. The contrast color is SandnesGarn Tove, also very very wooly. My mom would go squirrelly just thinking about these mittens.

Of course, now that I'm getting to these new mittens the weather will start to improve... Sigh. Oh well, I'm not going to turn down a chinook at this stage in winter. It's been too cold (and snowy) for a month now. I'm ready for some Calgary warm weather.

3 comments:

  1. The lights look like fireflies in the jar. It's so pretty.

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  2. I was thinking that the jar looked kind of elvish. Very pretty. And the mitts are nice, too!

    Loved your near year post, too...especially the bits about being shy. I'm the same way - I may have to adopt some of your resolutions.

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  3. Hi Lori...just found your blog a few days ago and love seeing your projects--thanks for sharing! I feel a certain kinship with you because of some our shared experiences and traits (e.g. being creative hermits...or just absorbed in the many wonders of yarn!) Where were you in Pakistan? My parents met there (mission hospital in Sahiwal)in the 70's. I went to Bible college after high school and taught Bible in West Virginia for a few years. Now I'm in nursing school and preparing for a new career. I was really excited to see your posts about the weaving loom that you made...did you post any directions about putting it together? Thanks again for sharing your ideas and creativity! Anna-- arkephart(at)gmail(dot)com

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Hi! I'm so glad you stopped by. I'd love to hear from you.