Ending the Year

I will not be sad to put 2021 behind me. It was a challenging year being so isolated and having to deal with Skip's surgery and aftermath. I am so grateful that I was able to keep in regular touch with most of my regular groups. Zoom chats gave my weeks some structure and gave me something to look forward to.

I am grateful I took the opportunity to visit my family at Thanksgiving when our COVID numbers were relatively low and we were double-vaxxed. I'm also grateful I attended the stitching retreat at the end of October when our numbers were very low. 

But now the Omicron virus has pushed us back into isolation in spite of three doses of the vaccine, rapid tests ($$$) which may only be 50% effective against Omicron, and KN 95 masks. I am grateful I had the resources to procure masks and tests. I'm also grateful that I don't need to go out in public to go to work.

All that aside, Skip and I are safe at home with all our stuff and things to entertain us. Our fridge and freezer are full. We are good for another period of confinement and there are 80 days 'til spring.

I had to rip back my Latvian mitten to the top of the cuff and go up a needle size to 2.5mm as it was too snug with the 2.25mm needle. I am too lazy to improvise a 'hitchhiker's thumb' so am doing the proscribed peasant thumb, and inserted contrasting yarn where it should go (yellow waste yarn). The green arrow is pointing to a mistake I made which will be easily fixed with duplicate stitch.

Once the top of the mitten is complete, I will remove the yellow waste yarn, pick up the live stitches above and below and knit the thumb in the round. I'm annoyed that I didn't pick up on the fact that the pattern doesn't centre the motif on the thumb. The markings on the pattern could easily have been moved to the left one stitch which would centered it perfectly. I'm going to centre the thumb when I go to knit it.

I also washed and re-blocked Skip's Afmaeli sweater.

First, I measured it and made note of the measurements and drew a little diagram.

Then I soaked the sweater in warm water with wool wash (Eucalan). The water was fairly murky so I did rinse it out, although Eucalan doesn't normally require rinsing. I pressed as much water out as I could then rolled it up in a bath towel to try and get more water out. 

Then I used blocking wires to shape it and pinned them in place on the interlocking playroom mats spread out on Scooter's/the guest room bed. After a day it still wasn't dry so I hauled the fan out of the closet and directed it onto the sweater. At the end of Day 2, it was finally dry.

Next I'll wash Skip's Riddari. 

He's worn one or the other of these sweaters every day since we put the furnace on and the temperature goes down during the daytime. 

I don't usually wash sweaters unless they've had something spilled on them. Wool doesn't really pick up body smells as it's not normally worn next to the skin. However, I slopped some teriyaki beef juice on my Icelandic Star* sweater (pictured before the buttons were attached) last night and that's all I can smell now when I wear it. *from Winter 2009 Interweave Knits magazine.

This has been my go-to sweater this winter. It's worsted weight but was knit on larger needles so is fairly light. It wears well, is a cardigan so heat can be regulated, and is grey and black to match my entire COVID wardrobe of stretchy pants and long-sleeved t-shirts.

I do remember having to block this out pretty firmly to fit me properly so will do the same when I get around to washing it.

We have no big plans for New Year's Eve. Some bowl games are on TV and I have two 200mL bottles of Henkel Troken on ice. If we make it to midnight, we'll watch Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen from Times Square. I love how Andy makes Anderson giggle with his outrageous antics.

Tomorrow morning, I'll get up and have some breakfast and do a challenging crossword puzzle - like I do every day. Then we'll watch the Tournament of Roses Parade from Pasadena and I'll do some knitting, stitching or maybe some painting. 

Skip would like me to knit him another Icelandic sweater so I'll have to do some thinking about what colours to pick. I may knit the Riddari pattern again.

And so a new year will be underway. It's starting to feel like that movie Groundhog Day. When I think of the sacrifices that were made to support the war effort during WWII, especially in the UK where they continued food rationing into the 1950s, staying safe at home is a fairly small sacrifice in comparison.

Happy New Year. May we have many bright and sunny times ahead.